The curse of the fickle

Sorry if your pants are wet. You likely didn't have a nighttime oopsie; it's probably just from wading through the tears of the entire online film community, who have been sobbing relentlessly since the flopitude of Scott Pilgrim was revealed. So much ink has been spilled on the subject, you'd think BP was involved. I've read articles that blamed the fickle nerd audience, the fickle hipster audience, the marketing, the release date, the prerelease strategy, the subject matter...everything. They probably all contributed in some way, but to me the largest problem is that in order to transcend genre restrictions, the movie has to appeal to everybody...and it has to be incredible. It can't be good, it has to be beyond that. I thought it was very good, but not transcendent. Most of that has nothing to do with Edgar Wright, who wrote and directed Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. Not only were the visuals in Pilgrim beautiful, not only was the film paced absolutely brilliantly, but almost all the performances were spot on, with the only real problem being, you know, the lead. Cera has the diversity of a Toby Keith concert; he's so one-note that he's the only thing worse than Nickleback. You get the idea. What I'm trying to say is that when Vanity Fair talked to Wright about Ant-Man, the smaller (teehee) staked Marvel superhero film he's been attached to for an eternity, I still get hopeful.
He describes it as a "super spy movie" with someone who just happens to have a "very particular power," namely shrinking, which would honestly come in quite handy if you were a spy I would imagine. What I liked most about his comments were that he referenced how every "shrinking man" movie (and every comic book movie really) is now all about what is happening to that particular character and not a bigger issue. I'd love to see them cover Ant-Man's deep, deep origins (he's a scientist who created something that lets him shrink, the end) over the credits and have us explore an adventure from the character right away. I will say that part of me got really hopeful when Marvel was bought by Disney (which hasn't brought about the apocalypse others predicted just yet) was the idea that someone like Pixar could capture one of these (ahem) tiny characters and make a movie out of them. I still think this is the best choice for that, but if they want to give it to Wright, so be it. So, to wrap up, Scott Pilgrim was good but not great, hipsters are fickle, I like ant people, and your pants are wet. That should cover it.

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Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Honestly, I liked it a lot. I know the review may sound somewhat suspect, but bear in mind I've been reading a month's worth of sloppy-kiss reviews from critics who I swear on my life called it incredibly important. Nothing like overselling the shit out of something you love. I don't blame them, I just don't all the way agree. It's a great movie, it is. I'll probably see it again on video, maybe even own it. I just don't, you know, want to take it back behind the school and get it pregnant, to borrow a Tracy Jordan expression. Here's the review.

It’s Hipster to Care
Scott Pilgrim vs the World loves fights and fights for love


If an 8-bit video game got an indie romantic comedy pregnant, Scott Pilgrim vs the World would be their offspring: whiney but infinitely lovable. Spastically working the modern zeitgeist like a stripper’s pole, SPVTW alternates between slapping hipsters in the face and giving them a sexytime lap dance. Nowhere near as groundbreaking as declaimed by internet-based critics, who just-so-happen to fall into the target demographic, it is an inarguable visual romp, a giddy seizure that’s almost as endearing as it thinks it is.

Working from the graphic novels by Brian Lee O’Malley, screenwriter Michael Bacall and writer/director Edgar Wright just assume we’ll like Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), presumably because he has poofy hair and familiar neuroses, despite giving us no real reason to do so. Although 22, Scott is dating a 17-year-old named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), a chaste union lamented by his sardonic gay roommate, Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), and Scott’s sister, Stacey (Anna Kendrick). When he falls for Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the dreamiest, most manically pixied of all manic pixie dream girls, she somehow indulges the whelp, a decision made befuddling by Cera’s resplendent asexuality.

The insanity dial on the reality amp is turned to 11 when Scott must fight Ramona’s seven evil exes, “Street Fighter” style. These include guyliner-enthusiast Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), skateboarder-turned-movie-star Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), bicurious-enabler Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman), vegan-rock-god Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), electronica-dispensing twins Kyle (Keita Saitou) and Ken Katayanagi (Shota Saito) and the love kingpin Gideon (Jason Schwartzman). With nearly every scene evolving into a split-screen brawl, complete with animated “smacks” and “KOs” flying every which way, it’s easier to develop epilepsy than boredom.

Wright’s “screw it, let’s put it in there” direction is so hyper as to obscure issues like Cera’s increasingly grating self-imitation and Wallace’s stereotypical gay partner switching. Winstead does the best acting work here, somehow making her droll, insane-baggage-toting, anime-eyed love interest captivating. If only we could believe she’d be curious about Cera’s boy parts.

What holds it all together is delightful fight choreography performed by hipsters combined with a wink-and-nod awareness, like Todd being granted superpowers due to his vegan lifestyle, which makes him “better than you.” Perhaps it’s that SPVTW too accurately channels modern youth, with all its arrogance, that soils it a bit. Nonetheless, you can’t resist a film that sports a bitchin’ soundtrack, young love and bad guys who turn into a pile of coins when you punch their heads off.

Grade = B+

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Michael Cera will kick your ass

I'm about to be shunned by two groups: (1) people who don't really like or read comics at all, although those people probably don't read this blog with frequency, and (2) people who really love and read comics all the time. I've never read the "Scott Pilgrim" graphic novels. I always meant to, but I'm a lazy bastard with limited financial resources, so it never happened. That said, I have been looking forward to the film adaptation with great enthusiasm, most notably because director Edgar Wright has yet to make a bad movie. Hell, he has yet to make an average movie. The buzz surrounding the film has been somewhat legendary, with well-known directors making it known that they'd totally make sexytime with the movie if it were a person. The biggest thing I heard was that it was "groundbreaking" in its use of playful violence. Well, part of the wait is over...here is the trailer.



Things I loved:

The fake-out "this is another Michael Cera indie-romance-love-movie where hipsters you kind of hate make out."
The smokin' hot Mary Elizabeth Winstead with her inexplicably hot multicolored hair.
The use of comic book words like WHAP that haven't been displayed like this since the original "Batman" television series.
The music, which I believe is new Beck.

Things I'm not so in love with:

Michael Cera. I'm still pissed about Year One. Asshole.
The tone of the acting isn't quite clear yet, but they need to be quite serious and not self-aware. The film will collapse if it's all wink-and-noddy.

I'm excited, I really am. I think it looks like a total blast, but it does not look "revolutionary." This looks like a fun version of Sin City. I don't want it to sound like I'm bagging on it, I'm not. I'll be there opening weekend if only because I love me some Edgar Wright...but as we learned from Avatar, let's not be saying "game changer" when we mean "good movie." It looks good. The teaser teased me appropriately.