Topic: Scott Pilgrim

...people are probably not going to be very happy with us this week.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

Really? Uh oh.

BTW, it's not loading on iTunes.

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

holden

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

I kind of dread this one. I loved this movie so much, can't imagine anyone else not.

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

Thank god I'm not the only person going "this movie is stupid". I agree with every syllable on the podcast, really. There was potential to do something cool here, but I literally DO NOT CARE ONE IOTA about ANY PERSON IN THIS MOVIE.

/Z

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

The only character I cared about was Knives. I liked Wallace but he was just comic relief and had no arc for you to give a shit about. I couldn't care less about Scott or Ramona. In fact, I really disliked them both. Horrible shallow characters that they are.

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

Here's the scale I rate movies on:
1 - I will watch this and give it my full attention.
2 - I will watch this but I need something else to do also.
3 - I wont purposely set out to watch this, but if it's on and I have nothing better to be doing, I'll give it some attention.
4 - I wont leave to room because it's on, but I'm not going to watch it.
5 - Fuck this movie.

I'm a gamer and I get all the references and everything, but this movie is only a 2.5 for me. The characters in this movie are not gamers, they're hipster who live in a game world, and, on top of that, I don't really like them. hmm

"ShadowDuelist is a god."
        -Teague Chrystie

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

I see this film basically as a musical with fighting smile It's just supposed to be fun.

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I think this movie, and the comics are great. So there.

Extended Edition - 146 - The Rise Of Skywalker
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Re: Scott Pilgrim

I'm not sure I fully understand your problems with the magic bean. He lives in a video game. This is the story. I agree to some extent about the characters, but the jokes hit for me enough that I ended up liking it.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

A bad story is a bad story, regardless of whether the audience overlooks it because of all the explosions and/or boobs.

But I was liking the movie for a while for a couple of reasons, I think. 1) I've only seen Michael Cera in Arrested Development, so I'm not tired of him. 2) I got that Scott was a jerk because that's the thing he's going to overcome by the end of the film while he's overcoming all the evil exes. "These guys are a lot like me in some ways. I need to change." They should literally be using some of the same lame lines and excuses he used earlier in the film.

The problem is that the film presents a huge analogy (overcoming a girl's memories of her exes is like fighting bad guys in a video game) that it then tries to subvert (the girl for me was right beside me all along [see My Chauffeur; The Sure Thing]). But Knives was annoying, and no video game ends with the player going, "You know, I guess I don't really want to save the princess after all." That's why the test audience didn't like the Scott-Knives ending and wanted the original conflict resolved using the original rules: fight the exes; get the girl. Result: Scott doesn't learn early enough not to be a douchebag, and Knives's arc is clumsily resolved. Worse, the whole Knives character becomes a distraction that makes her a secondary antagonist.

Cars made a similar mistake setting up and subverting an analogy. "A cool but self-absorbed guy is like a race car, speeding thru life and ignoring other people. He needs to slow down and learn that winning isn't everything." What? That's not what race cars are for! Race cars win races! Weirdly, that movie also had this whole other competing theme of "the talented rookie needs to learn to listen to the old veteran to get the tips he needs to succeed" which gets thrown away at the end when Lightning decides not to win.

Last edited by Zarban (2011-05-04 17:54:18)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Scott Pilgrim

thewalkindude00 wrote:

But if you go so far as to listen to the mix of the dialogue, soundtrack and sound effects throughout the movie, you will notice that at times some dialogue is sacrificed and hard to hear simply for the benefit of the rest of the mix.

Haven't watched the movie yet (it should show up in todays mail), but you've reminded me of when I use to watch anime like Akira in Japanese untranslated because, well, there was no translation smile The dialog became just a part of the musical score and sound effects, and it was perfectly enjoyable that way. I can still recite dialog from some shows as if it was a song.

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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It doesn't surprise me that people don't like some characters in this film. What DOES surprise me is that the character that most of those people DO like is Knives? Really? I liked the movie, but I found her shrill and annoying. If there was one character I truly hated in the movie, it was her. It just baffles me that people liked her for any other reason than pity.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Your movie idea for a film set in the world of the logo, with people running in terror as the logo drops down on them, has already been done smile There's an anime anthology movie (which never made it to DVD in the US) called Robot Carnival. A bunch of directors were given money and told to do whatever they wanted so long as it had a robot in it. The opening and closings were done by the creator of Akira, and involved a huge mechanical clockwork Robot Carnival title rolling into a small village, firing off fireworks and rockets which destroy the town and kill most of the people. The end sequence shows it continuing on its journey as the few survivors look at their destroyed homes and wonder what the fuck just happened.

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

DoctorSubmarine wrote:

What DOES surprise me is that the character that most of those people DO like is Knives? Really? I liked the movie, but I found her shrill and annoying. If there was one character I truly hated in the movie, it was her. It just baffles me that people liked her for any other reason than pity.

QFT

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: Scott Pilgrim

OK, this sucks. I'm use to studios making a version of a DVD just for Netflix, usually making a double sided disk two DVDs or some such. For Scott Pilgrim however they went the extra step of removing EVERY extra, including the commentaries! Oh, they left them in the menu, but you're told to buy the damned thing if you want to listen to them. I can fully understand removing extra scenes and such,but this makes renting DVDs no different then streaming. Sigh...

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

Meh, they've been doing that for a while. I usually just rip the movie and send it back right away. I figure if it's good enough for me to care about commentaries or BTS after that, it earned my purchase. Netflix is just my viewing portal for the films themselves.

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It's not uncommon for me to rent movies just for the commentary smile

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

DoctorSubmarine wrote:

It doesn't surprise me that people don't like some characters in this film. What DOES surprise me is that the character that most of those people DO like is Knives? Really? I liked the movie, but I found her shrill and annoying. If there was one character I truly hated in the movie, it was her. It just baffles me that people liked her for any other reason than pity.

As one of the folks who liked Knives, I will say I agree that she's annoying and immature at first.  But then she gets over it.  As opposed to Scott, who supposedly "learns the power of something or other" even though I never saw how or why it happened, I actually understood what Knives wanted, and what she was doing to get it.   Maybe I wouldn't want to hang out with her in real life, but I was interested enough to watch her from a distance.

And unlike Scott and BlueHair, Knives earned her victory.  She had a goal, she tried different things to get it, and in the end was a different person for it.  Which makes her the only major character with anything resembling a character arc.

Oddly enough the changed ending gave Knives an even stronger arc than the "real" ending did - when Scott ended up with the other chick, Knives was okay with it, and I was happy for her.  Good for you, now ditch those posers and find a real boyfriend!

Last edited by Trey (2011-05-04 22:54:49)

Re: Scott Pilgrim

For the record, I've never read the comics either. But I thought the dialogue was funny and sometimes clever. Maybe I am being nostalgic, a bit, but I've nver even  een a huge gamer either.

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My thoughts the instant this commentary was over:

"Wait, did they just get me to not like a movie that was on my list of the best of 2010? DAMN YOU DIF."

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

*high fives all around*

It's weird how our "process," such as it is, sometimes conflicts with how a film review would go.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

Loved Dorkman's rant.

That which is said of geeks can also be said of goths. The scene grows around the individuals, not the other way around. You can be an 80s action geek or a gamer geek or a Star Wars geek or a Star Trek geek. The geekdom is in the level of dedication and enjoyment of the particular subject, whether comics, movies, or games. The same is true of goths. There are goths that dig zombies, goths you like Victorian clothing, goths that are into cyberpunk. It's a big tent.

The stereotypical geek or goth is an amalgam of what appears to be the most common trends. I say appear as many geeks and goths are less overt in their appearance and attitude and therefore overlooked. Not all goths are mopey. Not all geeks are nitpicky.

You can not like Scott Pilgrim and still be a geek just as you can not like The Cure and still be a goth. As the russians say, in taste and color there are no equals. That is, Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Folks.

Where Geek Meets Goth

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Re: Scott Pilgrim

For those who have not yet seen it:

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Wow. They put a lot of time into that.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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