SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

[J.]

Thoughts about the comic or the movie go here. Personally, I think it's the best live-action adaptation of any graphic novel since Sin City (with the added bonus that most of the women present are clothed) and one of the few negative things I can bring myself to say about it is that the DVD isn't instantly available for purchase.

OK GO

[wendybird]

I saw it at midnight. ^_^

It was a lot better than I expected it to be! It really was like a comic had come to life. Even though the ending differed a bit from the books (understandably, since the last book wasn't out yet, but still...), the rest stayed remarkably close to the source material, right down to the sound effects, the sets, the costumes, everything! What made it for me was the soundtrack and the casting decisions; the characters literally looked like they had jumped right out of the book! And Michael Cera CAN play something besides cute and wimpy, so I'm happy for him! I still just want to wrap him in a bankie and read bedtime stories to him though, he's just too cute! >_<

What I didn't like though, was the pacing. It's supposed to take place in the course of a year or so, and it all seems like it happens in less than a week, or, if we're judging by Ramona's "1 and 1/2 week" hair color rule, a little over a month. Also, the lack of haircut variety irked me to a lesser degree. But I'm just nitpicky like that. X)

[J.]

Two times down with a third on the way. It seriously just keeps getting better each time I watch it -- I'm totally considering putting together a Matthew Patel cosplay for an upcoming con. Just like in the books, Wallace, Kim & Knives are my favorite secondary characters. Kieran Culkin especially gives Wallace the vibe of a gay Tony Stark, which was hilariawesome.

Haven't played the videogame yet, but I got passed the Amanaguchi soundtrack and it's just as fabulous as the movie ones and apparently much more true to the books -- there are tracks labeled with things that were glossed over in the movies.

It's weird -- though the movie and series differed, this is the only time I can completely excuse it. Both managed to drive home the fact that there are no clean breakups, and no one is entirely a hero or a villain upon leaving a relationship. Besides, there were points that were taken literally frame by frame from the books.

Now back to listening to the soundtracks. "Threshold" still gets me, as does the remix of "Bass Battle".

[wendybird]

I actually just came back from my friend's house, four of us just finished the video game, it's a great deal of fun! I can't imagine passing it on my own though, it gets really difficult at some points!
We're gonna keep playing till we unlock everything!

As for the soundtrack, I already listened to all the bands on it beforehand, and I thought it was awesome that Beck and Broken Social Scene wrote songs for it. And Metric is one of my favorite bands ever too, so it made me happy. ^_^

[admyr777]

I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World going in knowing nothing about it. After the movie, I wanted to buy all the volumes. I was amazed at what they had done in the movie, and I just want to explore the series now. I really want to see it again as well.

On a side note pertaining to the movie, when I plan to see it again I want to confirm if they were paying tribute to other comic books throughout the movie as well. They obviously had a lot of videogame references in there, but I wanted to confirm if my suspicions were valid.

What I mean by suspicions is that throughout the movie Scott Pilgrim changes to various shirts (at least I think it was him). Some of the one's I think are there include a Fantastic Four (and 1/2) emblem, and a white pixelated skull to a black background. IDK if you noticed, but evil ex-boyfriend #2 - Lucas Lee - played the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, and Thomas Jane - part of the Vegan police squad - played the 2004 Punisher. I also wanted to see if they made a reference to Superman since evil ex-boyfriend #3 - Todd Ingram - was also Clark Kent/Superman in Superman Returns.

Maybe it's just me or something IDK. It's just that they seem to pay homage to so many things that got me excited - some noticeable, and some not. Just wanted to ease my suspicions.

[J.]

Oh yeah, there's definite homage paid to comics history in Scott Pilgrim: once you read the books you'll realize it was taken straight from the series, right down to Scott's wardrobe. I took the Superman reference to be the way the Vegan Police take Todd down with green rays that made him scream and fall in slow-motion.

Other connections: Chris Evans is also due to play Cap. America and the director's allegedly going to be tackling the Ant-Man movie next (the only thing that makes me sad about that is it will probably push back his next team up with BFFs Simon Pegg & Nick Frost).

But again, favorite movie of the year so far. It's a comic book, a video game, a concert, and a weirdly personal romantic comedy all rolled into one. Edgar Wright can do no wrong.

[admyr777]

Haha!! I totally see the Superman reference now!! Good eye.

Though I share your views on being one of the best movies this year I wish my friends shared the same views. They "didn't get it" which seems to be the problem with the movie among the crowds, and also seems to be the reason it isn't doing so well. The two primary complaints that weren't "I didn't get it" was that it was either "too fast with ADD" or "too repetitive because he fights 7 exs the entire movie." I wish they could have appreciated the other aspects aside from focusing on things that annoyed them.

I say we need to viral the news of the movie to better its success. If only it were that easy.

[Chris]

Just saw it today. Definitely going to be a cult classic. I've seen a lot of unfavorable reviews, but every time I read one I can't help but think, "this movie wasn't made for you." It was most excellent.

[Adam]

I just saw it as well, and will add my two cents. I really enjoyed it, but I can totally see why it tanked at the box office. It was a movie made by people who love the comic, for people who love the comic. Unfortunately, even in the nerd community, Scott Pilgrim was pretty obscure, so it makes sense that the general public was like "What?"

On top of that, there is an assumption made from the beginning that the audience will understand that the bleed over between reality and fantasy is a part of this world, and thus doesn't start the film with voice over explaining how everything works. As a result, if I were to see this with my parents, they would be asking me questions every few minutes about what was going on.

The way I see it, if they had presented this at film festivals first, it probably would have been received really well, but not made any money. So they chose to gamble on the public, and lost. Though I think that's largely the advertisers fault. They chose the put all the scenes in the commercials that made it look like the films Michael Cera has done in the past, and thats really not what this was. But oh well, hopefully the dvd sales will be stellar, and we will see more movies like this in the future.