Pixels

Pixels has enough of an idea for a lively family adventure and too little good comedy to make one. Chris Columbus sets arcade-game enthusiasts against an alien invasion, giving skills learnt in the 1980s a sudden practical use. There is an obvious pleasure in seeing people dismissed as overgrown children become useful during an emergency. The film expects that pleasure to carry an awful lot of slack dialogue and waiting about. At 106 minutes, it feels longer than its supply of jokes permits.

Brenner, played by Adam Sandler, is the main difficulty. A reluctant hero still needs to make us interested in what happens to him, and this performance offers weariness where curiosity or panic might have helped. Kevin James plays Cooper, the president, without making that unlikely appointment much fun in itself. Peter Dinklage gives Eddie some welcome comic energy, and Josh Gad at least makes Ludlow seem excited to be involved. Their effort makes the lead’s lack of it harder to overlook.

Then the effects briefly improve matters. We perked up when solid objects broke into digital blocks, because the destruction finally had something playful about it. Amir Mokri’s cinematography makes the action readable, although the shots seldom hold much interest beyond the animated threat. Peter Wenham’s production design supplies surroundings that feel underused: we notice what can be demolished more readily than anything worth exploring. The computer-generated creatures get most of the attention, and for once that seems a sensible choice.

Timothy Dowling and Tim Herlihy’s screenplay keeps treating the appearance of an old game as though it were a joke. The memory might earn a smile, but it cannot keep a whole scene going. The banter relies on the assumption that these men are funny together, without giving them much that is funny to say. Michelle Monaghan’s Violet has little room in a fantasy so busy congratulating its male players. The childish sexual politics make the intended warmth harder to find, particularly when the film already asks so much indulgence for its hero.

Hughes Winborne’s editing leaves too many gaps around that banter, while Henry Jackman’s score works harder at excitement than at helping the comedy along. The action fares better, with Chris Columbus keeping the encounters reasonably clear, but the relief is temporary. Once the film returns to conversation, it begins waiting for laughs that do not arrive. We were bored by those pauses, especially after the effects had shown how much more briskly the film could move.

An adventure comedy needs people worth following, a threat worth watching and jokes that do not stop the story dead. There is no need for sophistication here; some enthusiasm from the central performance would have been a useful start. The supporting actors suggest how easily this might have become an agreeable evening, and their willingness to look ridiculous deserves a better response from the script. If old arcade games are the attraction, be prepared to spend much of the running time waiting for the people to get out of their way.