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Scott Pilgrim vs The World

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    Scott Pilgrim vs The World

    Well I loved that.

    Utterly ace in a kind of a manic tequila-fuelled sugar-rush short attention span strobe lighty kind of way. Loud and brightly coloured and pretty much entirely style over substance, but in an absolutely joyful and unashamed way. The most fun I've had in the cinema in a while.

    (I keep getting Michael Cera confused with Jesse Eisenberg [are we sure they're separate people?] but he was inoffensively amusing, Kieran Culkin got all the best lines as the pithy gay roommate, the villains were fun - particularly Brandon Routh's veganism-powered super-bassist. The only letdown was the love interest; Mary Elizabeth Winstead started out spiky and interesting but was definitely second fiddle to Scott's schoolgirl girlfriend.)

    #2
    Scott Pilgrim vs The World

    This is being advertised relentlessly on the "televisions" embedded in the elevators in our office building.

    It appears to be one of the few "filmed in Toronto" movies that is actually honest about its location.

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      #3
      Scott Pilgrim vs The World

      It's very much a love/hate film. At the cinema I reckon there was an 80/20 love/hate split (biased to the former because clearly those who didn't think they'd like it weren't there in the first place), and the reviews seem similarly mixed (for example, Bradshaw and French, the Guardian/Observer reviewers, seem fairly evenly split). Utterly hyperactive but not without (admittedly blink-and-you'll-miss-it) moments of charm.

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        #4
        Scott Pilgrim vs The World

        Edgar Wright, innit. Finally emerging from the protective wing of the Spaced collective. Presumably there are oblique and not-so-oblique movie references a-plenty.

        I see from his IMDB page that he's directing Them in 2011 and Ant-Man in 2012. All he'll need to add to his CV after that is a Stuart Goddard biopic.

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          #5
          Scott Pilgrim vs The World

          99% videogame references, not many movie. Although there are points you think it's a Stephen (Shaolin Soccer) Chow remake of a Gondry film (esp. Eternal Sunshine; not for the plot, for the visuals).

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            #6
            Scott Pilgrim vs The World

            Does anyone have a handy link to a stream?

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              #7
              Scott Pilgrim vs The World

              I adore this film and the comic it's based on and feel sorry for people who don't.I also dig the soundtrack. Sex Bob-omb has a fantastic sound.

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                #8
                Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                Can't stand the prick in the lead role. He's everywhere and I just have an aversion to the fucker.

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                  #9
                  Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                  Lots of people don't like Michael Cera, but I cannot really understand why.

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                    #10
                    Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                    Max: given that the main character of the comic/film is basically a prick, your aversion might work in the film's favour.

                    The only letdown was the love interest; Mary Elizabeth Winstead started out spiky and interesting but was definitely second fiddle to Scott's schoolgirl girlfriend.)
                    Yeah, that was the bit of the adaptation I think the film handled worst. The first half was great, but the compression of the narrative, including almost all of Ramona's story (and Kim Pine's, for that matter), left the second half feeling a bit hollow.

                    Anyway, despite its flaws, I loved the film. But I'm baffled by why the studio thought this was going to be a blockbuster, beyond the "comic films sell these days" attitude (and look how that worked out for Kick Ass). It's a niche comic with an unlikeable lead character packed with references to videogames that your average teenager has never even heard of. What on earth made them think this was going to earn back a $90m budget?

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                      #11
                      Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                      I think it will earn back it's budget as it lives on as a cult favorite on DVD and cable.

                      I rather liked the girl playing Ramona because she was kind of sarcastic, dark and mysterious - noticeably moreso than the character in the books.

                      The film does compress the narrative a lot and some of the characters aren't as well developed, but in some cases they seemed to use the comic as the storyboard for the film.

                      It's a niche comic with an unlikeable lead character packed with references to videogames that your average teenager has never even heard of. What on earth made them think this was going to earn back a $90m budget?
                      That occurred to me too. Does anybody under 30 remember the 16-bit games it was referencing?

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                        #12
                        Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                        Well, I'm only just 30 and I remember a lot of them. But not all. And even then some are only because they've been rereleased in recent years (eg Final Fantasy II).

                        I'm sure the film will do better on DVD than at box office, but I doubt it will be enough. That's an enormous budget to recoup. Apparently they gave away huge amounts of free tickets to pre-release screenings (that's how I saw it), which seems like a really bad idea. Presumably they wanted to build word of mouth, but a) relying on word of mouth for an $85m film seems a tad risky, and b) lots of the people who really wanted to see it would have seen it for free, and for this sort of film you either really want to see it or you don't want to see it at all.

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                          #13
                          Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                          linus wrote:
                          Does anyone have a handy link to a stream?
                          here

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                            You're becoming increasingly sardonic the more time you spend in New York.

                            It's like a Tama Janowitz novel come to life.

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                              #15
                              Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                              Reed John wrote:
                              Lots of people don't like Michael Cera, but I cannot really understand why.
                              The Awl:

                              The rise and fall of Michael Cera and the rise and fall of his backlash has been going on for the last two years—and, too be fair, some of the credit for that goes to big blogs that can make up narratives out of very little.

                              But all of this should be looked at before going over to a recent NPR article addressing the negative criticism Cera's newest movie Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is receiving. The movie was pretty well-liked by the people who saw it, standing at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes currently. Thing is, in two weeks, it's being called a bomb, because it made $20 million—and it cost $60 million to make. (It'll make it's money back eventually.)

                              Linda Holmes' NPR article about Scott Pilgrim… might be the first of its kind—that is to say, it's a well-written, respectful and thoughtful piece from a journalistic institution—putting it out there that maybe the youth of America are on the other side of a culture change that most older people simply aren't going to get.

                              "Hating Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is perfectly fine. It's got a style; you sort of embrace it and dig it or you don't. But when there's too much effort given to tut-tutting the people you imagine to be enjoying it, or declaring and promising that only narrow categories of losers and non-life-havers and other stupid annoying hipsters could possibly be having a good time when you're not, it sounds pinched and ungenerous. And, not to put too fine a point on it, a little bit jealous and fearful of obsolescence."

                              The article goes on to address the strange apprehension and hatred Scott Pilgrim… in particular is causing because of how clearly niche it is. (For those uninitiated Scott Pilgrim… is based on a series of graphic novels. What the story boils down to is a meditation on 8-bit video games integrated into a comic book romance story, featuring what may be the quintessential Canadian superhero, a slacker living on his parents' money, whose name is Scott Pilgrim.)

                              And yes, it's as niche as it gets. It's essentially the film equivalent of a magical comic book shop in Williamsburg. It's clearly not for everyone. And the reason this comes back to Michael Cera, is that just by the way it's worked out, he's the same cup of tea. You either get him or you don't.
                              As for the movie/comic itself, I'm one of the people Reed feels sorry for. I never heard of this before the movie. I thought all of the commercials made this look pretty lame. Then I saw what the comics looked like. Hoo boy. No desire to see this or read the comics at all. The incessant fanboy discussion about how great it is, and how it's already a misunderstood classic and how unfair it is that it's being judged on the box office (the last point no doubt true, but always true with tons of movies), and the campaigns on Twitter to get people to see it just made me instinctively dislike it even further. But I did like this, posted on Vanity Fair:

                              What’s with the pushiness, you ask? Why is this so important? Well, one could argue, if you’ve ever complained at all about the woeful state of cinematic storytelling—how you get more engaging narratives in email forwards than you do at the movies these days—a healthy aversion to hypocrisy pretty much compels you to get your butt in that seat. See, as much as we like to complain about cynical studios and throwaway films, the fact is they make money—or just enough money to justify the bad habits. And if you must know, that’s what studios are trying to do (make money). Further, they don’t make junk out of some callous desire to inflict bland pain on our eyeballs. If anything, they inflict bland pain on our eyeballs out of fear: fear that they’ll take a tentative, baby-step stab at something different, something that presents semi-realistic issues, imperfect characters, and complex resolutions in a novel way—and no one will come. And they’ll lose money. And all the nay-sayers will take the box-office numbers as the final word on a movie’s worth. Worse, the studios won’t make those movies because when you’ve bet $100 million on “something new” and come up short, it doesn’t matter if in your heart of hearts you can tell yourself you made a good movie: you’re not going to bet your next $100 million the same way. If you still have a $100 million to bet. Or a job.

                              But I saw Toy Story 3 and Inception, you say. I’m doing my part as homo economicus, driving the market to provide the product I want. Good for you, but at this point, Chris Nolan and Pixar are going to be O.K. They are what you might call a “known quantity,” and Hollywood loves those, because they make for safer bets. But Scott Pilgrim was a risk, a gamble, a leap of faith. The sad-but-true fact is that studios and their corporate parents just don’t know how to do that, and when they do, you need to smack them upside the head with box-office success for them to understand the lesson. There was a different time, a desperate time: when the world was in crisis, the old studio system had collapsed, television was offering great storytelling, and gas was $3 a gallon. The studios had nothing to lose then, so they threw everything against the wall, took risks on new talent and crazy ideas, and we got films like Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, Apocalypse Now, Alien, Rocky, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars, Jaws, Taxi Driver, Grease, Annie Hall, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and, oh yeah, The Godfather.

                              So, it can happen. But only if we, the not-so-faithful moviegoers, make it happen. Because studios, executives, actors, producers, writers, directors, agents, would love nothing more than to make the movies we actually want to see—that is, if we go see them. However, we have to demand better films with our wallets and our eyeballs. If we, as the audience, complain that studios don’t love us enough to give us something really worth our time, then we need to have the self-respect necessary to slay the sell-out stooges who tell us we can’t ask for anything better than Vampires Suck. (If you’d seen Scott Pilgrim, you’d get that reference.)

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                                #16
                                Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                dglhand of god wrote:
                                linus wrote:
                                Does anyone have a handy link to a stream?
                                here
                                This looks like it's from a local server, cheers.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                  That article from Vanity Fair, Incandeza, was that written by the screenwriter's agent or something? Seriously the whole "watch something risky and different and you might get better films in the future" thing might come off better on a small budget, no-exposure film like Animal Kingdom or something. This one's had plenty of spruiking.

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                                    #18
                                    Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                    I was really looking forward to this but found it a bit disappointing. it was visually amazing and brimming with exciting ideas but even so I got a little bored as he worked his way through the seven evil exes.
                                    The problem was similar to Inception in that the characters were under-developed. So I didn't really care about them. I liked the drummer but the other characters were deeply unloveable.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                      Yeah, that's my biggest problem with the film and one of the reasons I was surprised it was adapted at all.In the book, most of the characters are supposed to be unloveable, but because there's room to flesh them out, it's OK. In the film, because there isn't time to fit in character development and seven fight sequences, they become two-dimensional and it's hard to care about them either way.

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                                        #20
                                        Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                        Well I really enjoyed it. Certainly up there with Kick-Ass as being the most fun film i've seen this year. I've not read the graphic novel/comic/book so can't comment on how well it was adapted but I do love Edgar Wright. Excellent cast too, though I do get confused between Michael Gira and Michael Cera though.

                                        Loved the little nod to Seinfeld.

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                                          #21
                                          Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                          In the film, because there isn't time to fit in character development and seven fight sequences, they become two-dimensional and it's hard to care about them either way.
                                          I always find this an odd idea. I never care about any characters in films ever. They're characters in a film. Why would I care?
                                          Personally I loved the film (saw it Wednesday.) it's funny, silly irreverent, has great fight scenes and and excellent all over feel. It's not a classic, but it's 2 hours of my life I'm glad I spent.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                            Having watched it this evening, I was distraught that the baddie played by the excellent Jason Schwartzman goes by the moniker G-Man -- and loses!

                                            I got none of the gamer references, but really enjoyed it. Some great gags, interesting characters... and I like Michael Cera. The guy was in Arrested Development; of course I'll be loyal to him.

                                            And Reed is right, the Sex Bo-bombs sound really good.

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                                              #23
                                              Scott Pilgrim vs The World

                                              Bought this on Blu-Ray because the trailer looked good. Other than that, I knew nothing about it...

                                              I loved it.

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                                                #24
                                                I'm really enjoying Scott Pilgrim Takes Off the animated series on Netflix.

                                                O'Malley has a writing credit, executive produced by Edgar Wright, and all the cast from the film have returned for voices. Which shows something, I can't imagine it would have been easy if people didn't like the original.

                                                The animation is excellent as well, really charming. I think it takes on board some of the criticisms of the original comic book and the film adaptation. I'm halfway through and I'm interested to see where it's going.

                                                The music isn't quite as much to my taste, there is a Japanese rock band providing original music and it's good, but it's also probably exactly what you'd imagine it to be.

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                                                  #25
                                                  It’s fantastic.

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