1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: LOWWING CHUN
STUDENT ID NO: 0323315
FILMS SELECTED: SPECTRE(2015) , PIXELS(2015)
WORD COUNT: 992
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: GOPIGHANTAN MYLVAGANAM
SUBMISSIONDATE:DECEMBER 4TH
2015
2. Every year there would be hundreds of movies being played in the cinema. Over the
decades, movies have become one of the most popular entertainments among the human race.
With the improving technologies of the world, people evolved from only being able to watch
movies in the cinema to watching movies comfortably at their own home with the television.
From watching it from a DVD to downloading torrents from the internet and watching it for free,
technology had become so advanced that we could now watch movies on what we used to call
people, the smart phones. However, movies are very much like games or music. There are a
variety of genres for different type of movies and each movies usually consist of more than one
genres such as action, comedy, thriller, romance and so on. The two movies that I have chosen to
compare are Spectre (2015) or also well-known as James Bond and Pixels (2015).
The reason why I prefer to write about these two movies is because that they both have
rather big differences in terms of genres and also the story lines. As we all know, the movie 007
was never targeted at small children so the plots, actions and scenes are usually more suitable for
adults and it has a much more darker and realistic story. As for Pixels which came out just this
year around July and it became popular among children and also the 90s as it consists of classical
video games such as Donkey King, Pacman and Space Invaders. The plot for the movie was
more comical and has more comedy than Spectre (2015) and it will obviously end with a happy
ending. Although there might be scenes not so appropriate to children, Pixels (2015) contains
lesser blood gore and adult scenes than Spectre (2015). Spectre (2015) is a crime fiction movie
about a special agent with the name James Bond saving the world with usually an Aston Martin
car and a couple of girls while maintaining class with red wines and tuxedos.In the movie
criminals can be seen being killed by James Bond, the main character. As Bond ventures toward
the heart of SPECTRE, he discovers a chilling connection between himself and the enemy
(Christoph Waltz) he seeks (IMDb, 2015). In Spectre (2015), James Bond was about to put an
end to the crime organization that were responsible for attacks around the world for years. Pixels
(2015) is more of a science fiction movie that combines aliens and classic video games which is
about a video footage of the game Space Invaders that NASA had sent to the outer space
resulting an attack from the aliens as they thought the video was a threat or challenge sent to
them from humans. In the movie, the main characters are champions of the classic video games
cup and they successfully defeated the aliens with their gaming skills and saved the world.
In character wise, Spectre (2015) only focuses on mainly one character which is James
Bond himself. He was a middle aged man from the United Kingdom which explains of his thick
accent in the movie. As mentioned above, the movie adopted and maintained the classy image
throughout the whole movie which blends well with the whole British thing. James Bond is a
quiet yet sharp character who always knows what he is doing when facing an enemy. He is a
special agent with the given serial number 007 and he is the best in what he do. As for Pixels
(2015), the main characters are Sam Brenner, Ludlow Lamonsoff and Will Cooper. Unlike James
Bond from Spectre (2015), they seem rather clumsy and foolish. They don’t have the skills as an
agent nor the characteristics. They come from a normal family background and had different jobs
as they were separated by adulthood. Even the accent used in this movie is different as it is based
in the United States and it has different cultures from the United Kingdom.
3. Pixels (2015) was mainly about the games but it was incorporated with aliens. The aliens
used the pattern of the classical video games footage to attack or in a more suitable way of
saying, to challenge the human race. When aliens intercept video feeds of classic arcade games
and misinterpret them as a declaration of war, they attack Earth, using the games as models.
Knowing that he must employ a similar strategy, President Will Cooper (Kevin James) recruits
his childhood pal, former video-game champ and home-theater installer Sam Brenner (Adam
Sandler), to lead a team of old-school arcade players and a military specialist (Michelle
Monaghan) in an all-out battle to save the planet (IMDb, 2015).
In this movie, it used sarcastic statements that targeted the government and the typical
society behavior which successfully brings out humor. Because the movie was more science
fiction and gaming elements was used, it requires more computer-generated imagery (CGI) to
achieve the full effect of the movie such as animated game characters in real life and turning real
objects into pixels. Spectre (2015) included more of the real world problems but was rather
exaggerated. It contains drug dealers, government corruptions, kidnaps and other crimes that
happened in real life. There was a very minimal usage of humor in the movie as it was more of a
serious style of movie. The difference of it from Pixels (2015) was that Spectre (2015) used
actual places and realistic actions for its movie and it definitely required a higher budget.
In a nutshell, movie had served us as an entertainment for a long time. Spectre (2015) and
Pixels (2015) are two very different movies with a contrast in terms of genres, settings and also
plots. I had picked up different lessons, moral values and also knowledge from these two movies.
But one thing that I really noticed was that different types of movies attract different types of
audiences as everyone has different interest.
4. Reference List
IMDb (2015). Pixels. Imdb.com. Retrieved November 30, 2015 from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2120120/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt
IMDb (2015). Spectre. Imdb.com. Retrieved November 30, 2015 from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2379713/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ql_6
