The trailers for Edgar Wright's newest release were certainly captivating. With the look and feel of an old SNES fighting game blended with a tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy twist, it seems that Scott Pilgrim's quest to defeat his newest love's evil ex-boyfriends would be the smash hit of the summer. But, instead, it's one of the worst films of the year.
Friday, 3 September 2010
FILM CHALLENGE: 109) Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
Added Jan 6, 2010,
109) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Director: Edgar Wright
Year: 2010
Plot Summary: In order to win the heart of Ramona Flowers, Scott Pilgrim must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends.
The visual style is certainly an interesting move with the video game and comic book onomatopoeia flashing up on the screen alongside a ringing telephone, a flicking of a light switch or a punch to the face in the fight scenes. But the gimmick wears off after the first ten minutes because, seeing as it appears with even the most meaningless sound effects, it's so overwhelming.
Moreover, it feels like Wright has forced the story around this style instead of letting it complement the narrative. There's a scene, for example, when Scott goes to the toilet and a 'Pee Bar' appears next to his head. However, this scene, along with so many others including a swearing friend and a Seinfeld influenced sequence, add nothing to the story.
After the visual style wears off, the only thing left to focus on is the story and, frankly, it's awful. You basically get given exactly what it says on the tin: It's Scott Pilgrim fighting 7 evil ex boyfriends. While I was hoping for some entertaining and involving romantic sub-plot to connect these fight scenes together, there really is nothing that maintains you emotional involvement.
The writing of the narrative, furthermore, is actually quite embarrassing. It's clear that those who penned the screenplay wanted to market Pilgrim towards the 'hipster' and 'geek' audience and, therefore, have chocked if full of modern pop culture references. From 'OMG' to skateboarding and texting, battle of the bands contests and indie music, it's so cliched that it plays out like a parody. It does, to be fair, use some of these references with a tongue-in-cheek playfulness. But, if you're going to do that, at least make it funny. Scott Pilgrim had only one or two moments that induced laughter but, for the rest of it, the comedy was cringe-worthy.
It's rare that I would call a film loathsome but there are few other ways to describe it.
1/5
3 comments:
I knew this film would be intensely love it or hate it.
I love it.
To death.
Exactly. I've read some great reviews and it stands at something like 8.2 on IMDB, but me and all my friends unanimously loathed it. So I can see it having the marmite effect. Hm.
Still love Edgar Wright though despite the fact that Scott Pilgrim let me down.
I thoroughly enjoyed the style, I took it as a somewhat serious representation and the ironic overuse of it. The lack of story structure didn't bother me, I was more interested in where it would go stylistically, and it really did top itself each step. Plus what substance it did have (being the self-respect > love, though both are valuable) really touched me. Some of the gimmicky parts did bother me, such as the bleeping, but for the most part, they were entertaining. It can't be a gimmick when that is exactly what it is - unlike Juno.
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