Phil Florian
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2001
- Messages
- 1,188
I was hoping to see if anyone had any early reviews of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD from last night's preview. I am in Cleveland and was lucky enough to catch this film a couple weeks before it opens. I don't do many reviews for HTF so here goes.
The hall was a smaller theater and not very full for what I hoped would be a packed audience but you get what you can on a Wednesday night in summer during a huge thunderstorm. As a huge fan of Egdar Wright since his amazing SPACED show from Britain and a huge comic book and video game fan I was looking forward to this as a target audience member. Turns out, the movie was clearly made for me. Just for me. This will make a hell of a Blu-Ray purchase for me down the road but I worry that its audience specific appeal may hurt it.
I will avoid spoilers of course but one wee bit at the beginning will let you know the movie you are in for with this movie. The typical Universal Logo was done up in 8-bit graphics and music. As characters are introduced, you get little pop up windows ala video games with the character name, age, and role (plays bass, lead singer, whatever). Things that make noise do so with accompanying comic book labels of "Riiiing" or "click" or whatever. Musical instruments give off sound waves and bolts of electricity as they play. It is from this moment on you will figure out if you will like the movie or not, I would guess.
I liked this aspect of the movie. It was present but never more than background (as noticable as the noise itself). This style movie really plays to Wright's typical directing style with fast cuts, stylized transitions and so on. If you were put off by Wright's style in other movies, it is on full on mode in this movie. That said,he does take some different ideas. Split screens that happen have a comic book panel layout. They use original artwork and frames from the original comics to tell backstories often, too. It is literally a comic book movie, more so than most out (only Ang Lee's THE HULK or the awesome AMERICAN SPLENDOR really made you feel you were watching a comic in action).
The story is as people have seen in trailers. It is boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy fights seven evil exes to try to win her over. It is also love letter to garage music, video games and manga. Michael Cera was losing my interest having done basically the same role since being in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT but I have to say he won me back with this great self-deprecating and surprisingly ass-kicking role. Mary Elizabeth Windstead was wonderful as Ramona but mostly played straight man to all the weirdness around her. Even better were the supporting characters (5 of the 7 evil folks were great...two didn't get as much to do so it isn't their fault). Kieran Culkin stole the movie when he was on as the cool gay roommate Wallace. His first girlfriend Knives Chau also stole her scenes playing a fun and believe it or not sympathetic character for such a potentially one-note role.
The video-game-like world they lived in was an accepted norm for the characters. They never looked twice when someone breaks out into Bollywood song and dance while trying to kill Scott. Characters were only mildly surprised at the fact that Scott was very ninja like when he needed to be. Comic/video game physics were in play the entire movie and it made for a wonderful setting. For those that hated INCEPTION (not me, btw) and its coldly calculated dream world they get the opposite here...a wildly vivid waking world. And it works. The effects work well in this movie on the level of a video game they were going to emulate. It was great. There was a lot of kung fu fighting too and what was wonderful for me (a fan of the genre) was that this wasn't the usual Wright fast cuts. The fights played out at times in long, uninterrupted cuts that showed the over the top choreography to full effect and only mixed in some of the typical fast cutting needed for these scenes. It was a good change of pace.
I can't wait to see what people say about it. My wife went with me and gives me hope. She just likes good movies with interesting characters. For this movie, she hated the music (which I loved...garage punk mixed with indie pop and techno and...yes, Bollywood) and has no interest in video games. She only touches comics to move them off the bed when I leave them there. That said, she really enjoyed the movie. All the characters were fun and well developed as much as needed (another Wright staple....he always gives good play to the supporting characters and this film is no exception). The writing was smart and sassy. It wasn't gut-busting laughs but more fun and quirky. Wright (who co-wrote as well as directed) mixes genres like no other. I hope people give this movie a chance to weave its romantic-action-comedy charms over them.
The hall was a smaller theater and not very full for what I hoped would be a packed audience but you get what you can on a Wednesday night in summer during a huge thunderstorm. As a huge fan of Egdar Wright since his amazing SPACED show from Britain and a huge comic book and video game fan I was looking forward to this as a target audience member. Turns out, the movie was clearly made for me. Just for me. This will make a hell of a Blu-Ray purchase for me down the road but I worry that its audience specific appeal may hurt it.
I will avoid spoilers of course but one wee bit at the beginning will let you know the movie you are in for with this movie. The typical Universal Logo was done up in 8-bit graphics and music. As characters are introduced, you get little pop up windows ala video games with the character name, age, and role (plays bass, lead singer, whatever). Things that make noise do so with accompanying comic book labels of "Riiiing" or "click" or whatever. Musical instruments give off sound waves and bolts of electricity as they play. It is from this moment on you will figure out if you will like the movie or not, I would guess.
I liked this aspect of the movie. It was present but never more than background (as noticable as the noise itself). This style movie really plays to Wright's typical directing style with fast cuts, stylized transitions and so on. If you were put off by Wright's style in other movies, it is on full on mode in this movie. That said,he does take some different ideas. Split screens that happen have a comic book panel layout. They use original artwork and frames from the original comics to tell backstories often, too. It is literally a comic book movie, more so than most out (only Ang Lee's THE HULK or the awesome AMERICAN SPLENDOR really made you feel you were watching a comic in action).
The story is as people have seen in trailers. It is boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy fights seven evil exes to try to win her over. It is also love letter to garage music, video games and manga. Michael Cera was losing my interest having done basically the same role since being in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT but I have to say he won me back with this great self-deprecating and surprisingly ass-kicking role. Mary Elizabeth Windstead was wonderful as Ramona but mostly played straight man to all the weirdness around her. Even better were the supporting characters (5 of the 7 evil folks were great...two didn't get as much to do so it isn't their fault). Kieran Culkin stole the movie when he was on as the cool gay roommate Wallace. His first girlfriend Knives Chau also stole her scenes playing a fun and believe it or not sympathetic character for such a potentially one-note role.
The video-game-like world they lived in was an accepted norm for the characters. They never looked twice when someone breaks out into Bollywood song and dance while trying to kill Scott. Characters were only mildly surprised at the fact that Scott was very ninja like when he needed to be. Comic/video game physics were in play the entire movie and it made for a wonderful setting. For those that hated INCEPTION (not me, btw) and its coldly calculated dream world they get the opposite here...a wildly vivid waking world. And it works. The effects work well in this movie on the level of a video game they were going to emulate. It was great. There was a lot of kung fu fighting too and what was wonderful for me (a fan of the genre) was that this wasn't the usual Wright fast cuts. The fights played out at times in long, uninterrupted cuts that showed the over the top choreography to full effect and only mixed in some of the typical fast cutting needed for these scenes. It was a good change of pace.
I can't wait to see what people say about it. My wife went with me and gives me hope. She just likes good movies with interesting characters. For this movie, she hated the music (which I loved...garage punk mixed with indie pop and techno and...yes, Bollywood) and has no interest in video games. She only touches comics to move them off the bed when I leave them there. That said, she really enjoyed the movie. All the characters were fun and well developed as much as needed (another Wright staple....he always gives good play to the supporting characters and this film is no exception). The writing was smart and sassy. It wasn't gut-busting laughs but more fun and quirky. Wright (who co-wrote as well as directed) mixes genres like no other. I hope people give this movie a chance to weave its romantic-action-comedy charms over them.
