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Hey,
When I was a SDCC last month, I missed the opportunity to get a preview of Scott Pilgrim. I was too busy grabbing swag on the show floor, and by the time I figured it out, all the movie showings were done. At the time I was disappointed, and now that I've seen the film I can't help but wonder what my reaction would have been had I seen it with the Klingons and Slave Leias. Scott Pilgrim is a strange mix between nerdy comedy, homage to video games, and a goofy action movie that fires on all cylinders from the 8-Bit Universal Logo to the last scene of the camera panning into the door to the subspace highway. It has terrific performances from Aubrey Plaza (the might as well be a goth chick from Parks and Recreation), Chris Evens, and especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the rainbow haired Ramona Flowers. Every five minutes there is another reference to video games that only something with my sensibilities would get. And yet, as the movie progressed from evil ex to evil ex, I moved uncomfortably in my chair waiting to be sucked in and enjoy it like so many of my friends on Twitter had. And it never happened.
One reason I found was that the movie was too episodic. It makes sense considering that there are seven boss fights that have to be gone through in the film, and despite their best efforts all of these events don't mesh together into a cohesive two hour experience. It seemed like the fight scenes always ended anticlimactically, with an explosion of coins (another game reference) and then the story continues and we never see these characters again. The movie would have done well to stray away from the graphic novel friendly concept of 7 separate definitive fights and instead have the 7 evil exes all fight together in the club scene at the end of the movie, with the characters being introduced and getting the better of Pilgrim throughout the film. This allows his triumph at the end of the film to be that much more powerful. Investing time to set up all these villains only for them to be gotten out of the way so quickly is just counterproductive. But of course, if they did that they wouldn't be having "boss fights" and they'd lose another game reference.
While we're on the subject, one of the big things everyone likes out of this film was the "clever" use of 8 bit and old game sound effects in the movie. At the beginning of the movie they were cute, I squeed at the kitchen table scene with Zelda sound effects going off at appropriate times. By the halfway part of the movie I was just sick of it, and when I got home I figured out what it reminded me of. All the game references and sound effects reminded me of the ENTER GENRE HERE Movie franchise. Only instead of "Hey everybody it's Captain Jack from Pirates" as the joke, it's "Hey everybody it's sound effects from Sonic the Hedgehog". It's a trick to get gamers and people who love the old games to buy into the movie while still throwing a million characters at you and having Michael Cera as the guy you're supposed to relate to, a man whose career is getting to Rob Schneider levels of annoyance. Make no mistake, I'm as big a fan of video games in all their forms, but I also know when I'm being marketed to.
Really though, who wanted a Scott Pilgrim movie in the first place? I admit I'm not a HUGE comic book guy, especially indies, but was there a real outcry to see this series become a big budget film? I mean, the final chapter of the graphic novel came out last month. Are we really that starved for ideas? We probably are, but the point remains. It feels like the only persons that initially wanted this movie to be made were marketing executives trying to get some of their money back from hardcore gamers. It's a stupid reason for me to be bothered, as all Hollywood movies are made for reasons like this, but in this case it just seems so obvious as to take me further away from being sucked into the film.
I could go on about what I did like about the movie, how the gay roommate got a bunch of funny things to do, how most of the fight scenes were well choreographed, how much I enjoy looking at girls with blue colored hair, but I don't really have to get into it. There are a thousand reviews telling you to go see this movie, and by now you probably have anyway. I just can't recommend it. In this day and age where ticket prices are in the double digits, it's not worth the few funny bits and good character parts. I certainly didn't hate the film, but I can't bring myself to like it nearly as much as the rest of the internet.
Now I know why it was in 5th
-Pudge
