The trailer for Paul: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Seth Rogen outrun the specter of Mac And Me

Here’s your first look at Paul, the Greg Mottola-directed comedy reuniting Britcom buddies Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two sci-fi-loving comic-book geeks who stumble upon a sassy, cigarette-smoking alien voiced by Seth Rogen. Admittedly, that sounds like a pretty terrible premise, and no, this trailer probably won’t do much to quell those preemptive notions that Paul will be overwhelmed by its high-concept casting, that other “little alien buddy” stories trying to replicate the success of E.T. haven’t fared all that well, or the fact that its blend of live-action and CGI is still likely to be regarded decades from now as one of the worst trends in the history of filmmaking. Still, Pegg and Frost are always good together, it’s got a great supporting cast—Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Jane Lynch, and Sigourney Weaver all factor in there somewhere—and Mottola’s work to date (Superbad, Adventureland) has been slightly more nuanced than those films’ trailers would suggest. So, cautious optimism and all that, with the hope for no impromptu McDonald's dance-offs.