New ‘Pixels’ Trailer Pits Adam Sandler Against Video Game Aliens

It’s no secret that Pixels began its life as a short film, a special effects demo that showed off some inventive and amusing imagery that wasn’t required to have things like, you know, a plot or characters. So the feature version of Pixels had to find an excuse for classic arcade characters to invade Earth and that excuse was aliens. Who look like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for some reason. And whose greatest opponent is Adam Sandler. Okay. The new trailer isn’t going to change your mind if that premise still sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

There is undeniably something charming about old school video gamers being the last line of defense in an alien invasion, but it’s hard to get too excited when one of those guys is played by Sandler, an actor whose lack of onscreen effort has become his calling card (not even the casting of the great Peter Dinklage can reverse this). Kevin James (playing the President of the United States!) and Josh Gad don’t exactly instill a lot of faith either.

As cringeworthy as you may find this trailer, these 150 seconds remind us of why this movie got greenlit in the first place. Watching soldiers blast a pixelated Centipede out of the sky with miniguns is an indelible image. We hope to be surprised, but this looks like a loud, crass mess.

Pixels opens on July 24.