Sony has released the first Pixels trailer for director Chris Columbus' upcoming adventure film. The comedy stars Adam Sandler and revolves around a group of 80s arcade game champions who are called upon to help defend Earth from alien invaders who have misinterpreted our classic arcade games as a declaration of war. While some may be immediately put-off by Sandler's involvement here, the good news is that he's not working with his inner circle of filmmakers. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone director Chris Columbus takes the helm, and based on this first look trailer, the results appear to be rather amusing.

I do like that they seem to be having fun with the inclusion of popular 80s video game characters rather than simply saying, "Hey look, there's Pac-Man. Neat." And the visualization of the arcade mainstays is excellent. Ultimately, the overall success of the film will come down to the chemistry between the human actors and how fleshed out they are as characters. The ensemble is solid, and while it's understandable for this first trailer to focus on the effects and such (this is a big summer movie after all), I'm interested in seeing who these "heroes" are.

Watch the Pixels trailer below, via Sony Pictures. The film also stars Michelle Monaghan, Josh Gad, Kevin James, and Brian CoxPixels opens July 24th.

Here's the official synopsis for Pixels:

When intergalactic aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (James) has to call on his childhood best friend, ’80s video game champion Sam Brenner (Sandler), now a home theater installer, to lead a team of old-school arcaders (Dinklage and Gad) to defeat the aliens and save the planet.

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Image via Sony