Why Scott Pilgrim is important (voting with your dollars).

[seanan_mcguire]

A movie called Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was released recently. It's a classic "boy meets girl, boy fights girl's seven evil exes to keep girl, boy learns important life lessons through kicking ass" story, told with all the manic intensity of a Nintendo game on Red Bull and speed. Is it perfect? No. There are probably things that could have

Comments

[spectralbovine]

I really wanted it to do so much better. It deserved it.

[seanan_mcguire]

It did.

[seanan_mcguire]

I absolutely don't think you should see something you don't like twice; I'm too busy supporting my own shows to support yours at the same time, unless they overlap. This is more "look, if you wanted this to exist, if you wanted to see this, you needed to see it. You needed to support it."

Titan A.E. got hit by the same thing.

[lysystratae]

Titan A.E. definitely deserved better. I'm still trying to design a tat around the space stingrays...

[seanan_mcguire]

Totally understandable. The economy sucks.

[seanan_mcguire]

Isn't that always the way?

[ryuutchi]

The reason I'm okay the movie didn't do well is this. I recognize that because it didn't do well, I might miss out on something interestingly avant garde and fun. But that's not really a reason to support something I know is going to also support a lot of attitudes I dislike.

(Not to say people shouldn't enjoy it, just that I, personally, am deeply bothered by some of the attitudes in both the comic and the movie and thus chose not to watch for most of the reasons eloquently stated in the linked post.)

[seanan_mcguire]

These are all totally reasonable reasons not to see a thing, and we all have our hot buttons in different places. (As a horror fan, I argue a lot about whether a movie that has a male monster and mostly consists of screaming and running can pass the Bechdel. Although Resident Evil managed it.)

Scott Pilgrim, in this case, is less of a "OMG YOU GUYS WHY DIDN'T YOU RUN OUT AND SAVE IT OMG," and more, "here is an example, look, everyone who complains about this sort of thing, this is why." I'm honestly a lot more upset about Slither (and Freakylinks, but that show broke my heart forever).

[artbeco]

I agree, and the review really says my feelings about the movie pretty spot-on. So thank you.

I should add that I went with my husband and he loved the whole thing, while I was wishing I was somewhere else, or at least had brought my knitting! Two hours of my life I won't get back.

I think the quirky technology approach was interesting, but the attitudes and storyline really ruined it for me. And the fact that they pushed the in-your-face 'we're cool, look at our look' aspect really put me off. If you don't have a decent story, the best visual tricks still aren't going to cut it.

What I find sad is that this stupid story used up a chance for a well-written, good cutting edge movie to have done well in the box office. Its flopping will affect the chances of other quirky films getting made. Too bad it blew the chance.

[seanan_mcguire]

I don't know. I think everything that fails is "blowing the chance" of something somebody would have liked better. In this case, I'm talking as much about the theory as I am this specific example-a lot of the people I've seen going "oh, woe," about the bad box office are fans who saw it for free and didn't see it for money/put off going to the theater/don't do movies in the theater but want the DVD. (At least one person? Brags about never paying for movies.)

It makes me sad, because that is why the median always wins.

[hooton]

Scott Pilgrim gets released in the UK tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I'm kind of hoping that notwithstanding the failure to hit the top 2 places in its opening weekend, the word of mouth ensures it stays in the top 10 for a long time because studios do seem to be paying more attention to longevity and second-viewing movies (there was a lot of buzz about people going back to see Inception a number of times).

It's such a shame because there's a dearth of smart films out there at the best of times, so when you get something that sounds so smart and fun, you'd think people would be gagging to check it out.

[seanan_mcguire]

I think Inception ate everybody's "smart" quotient for the summer.

[hooton]

Oh. That's kinda disappointing. And it means that Christopher Nolan is just greedy.

[muddlewait]

Am I the only person who thinks Christopher Nolan films, while weird, often compelling, and occasionally thought-provoking, aren't actually very smart?