Heading into Scott Pilgrim on DVD two years after its release, I cautiously had no idea what to expect. I was as unfamiliar with the source material as anyone, but knew that the movie was a surreal fast-paced blend of martial arts, teen romance, and gamer pop culture. The potential ceiling was pretty high, but I couldn't ignore the possibility that such a quirky combination of elements could wear thin fast and really irritate me. Fortunately, although it took me two nights to get through, Scott Pilgrim definitely left me pleased with my decision to purchase and watch it. The film never gets anywhere close to a point where it tries to acknowledge how cute or hip or crazy its being, and I think that, more than anything else, is what allowed me to just kind of enjoy how cute and hip and crazy it was being. Some critics didn't like Michael Cera's somewhat apathetic performance as the lead but I think he was a perfect choice for the hopeless hero, providing the right balance of unassuming modesty and youthful immaturity to a character that would have been easy to screw up had he been portrayed with either too much bravado or too much melancholy. The rest of the cast was fleshed out pretty nicely too, with a myriad of recognizable faces showing up from time to time in minor roles. The story was about as vanilla as they come, but in a way that at least felt inspired by the simplicity of most video game plots. Of course, the movie's bread and butter is its rapid fire style, loaded with jump cuts and tiny flourishes that you'll miss if you blink. All in all, I enjoyed this a great deal and I hope that after tanking in theaters it can find an audience on DVD.
As being someone who was familiar with the source material before the movie, I watched it in a much different way. I judged it like a comic fan judges comic movies, which is harshly if they stray from the story one bit at all. But what was interesting about the development of the movie, game and comic was that all three were finished separately. When the movie script was started, the six book series was only on it's second book. So by the time they started filming, the two stories only matched up to the four book. (The Ex named Egg) The game too has a largely different ending, but that's all depends on how you play the game, but was based on the developers not knowing how the book ended anyways.
ReplyDeleteBut the movie made choices that should of gotten me furious as a fan of the comic, but instead, made me love it more. The game too, which should be played and backlogged as a team maybe (online co-op DLC will be released soon for PSN) was wonderfully different and Turtles in Time fantastic. I also was in the 'Michael Cera is not Scott Pilgrim' camp until I saw the film. A little too sheepish at some parts, but over all he really started to fit the character. I pictured Sheridan as Scott more in the comics.
Over all, I loved the who universe that O'Malley created, and in the process of buying all six books again, this time in hardcover and colored.
Last thing, Aubrey Plaza's hungover commentary with Kieran Culkin is what makes commentary's wonderful.