Scott Pilgrim Is "The First All Encompassing Film Of The Joystick Generation"
Edgar Wright's (Spaced, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead) upcoming comic book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs The World just finished filming about a month ago. The movie stars Michael Cera as the titular Scott Pilgrim (named after the song 'Scott Pilgrim' by Plumtree) a slacker mooching off his gay roommate in Toronto who must defeat his new girl's seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to claim her heart. The movie is based on the comic book series, Scott Pilgrim, which is simultaneously grounded in reality and swaying in and out of video game-inspired fantasy. The story hinges on power ups, roommates, warp pipes, public transit, girlfriends and super powers.
The first rough cut of the movie was recently put together and privately screened. Among those in the audience was Juno director Jason Reitman who gave his first impressions via Twitter:
It is a game changer for Edgar and the genre. It moves the speed of light and carries more unadulterated joy than I've seen in recent cinema. Scott Pilgrim does what everyone our age has been dreaming about: Achieves the first all encompassing film of the joystick generation. I'm in awe of the sheer control in the filmmaking. It feels like a "Matrix" for love and how willing we are to fight for it.
That sounds pretty awesome! The movie is set to come out in summer of 2010, along with a video game adaptation to be made by Ubisoft, which makes so much sense it hurts my brain. The movie and video game adaptations encompass all 6 books in the series. The books are definitely worth checking out for yourself, volumes 1 through 5 are already out, with volume 6 to be released next year.
Scott Pilgrim Hailed as First Film for 'Joystick Generation' [Wired]
Bradamantium
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 30 October 2009
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: Michael Cera, Scott Pilgrim, Spaced, Ubisoft
I read the books and didn't really care for them.
This kid is going around murdering people to date some chick he doesn't even really know.
This is No More Heroes, except we're supposed to like Travis Touchdown and not question his warped morality.
What the fuck?! Am I missing something here, because at this point, I think someone better kill Scott to stop the carnage. And what's more disturbing is how nobody seems to care. "Oh Scott, you so silly for hitting people so hard they explode into pocket change." Maybe it's just my viewpoint from coming off No More Heroes, but this world doesn't seem to have any cohesion and the rules are a hodgepodge of non-sense designed to cover up a murdering spree . . .
I can't really take a narrative seriously that is trying to be emotional and angsty about hipster interpersonal relationships one second and is using bizarre, nonsensical, and inconsistent world-building rules based on random videogame nostalgia kitsch the next. The dissonance between the two is way too much for me and more often comes off as lazy or just plain twisted to me. I'm big on world building, so if you build a world with alternate rules, those rules HAVE to be consistent to me and have those characters living within those rules have to react to the consequences of those rules with the same gravity you'd expect from us reacting to physics or chemistry in real life. And Scott Pilgrim doesn't do that, even a little. On a narrative/character note, beating the shit out of or killing your girlfriend's exes shouldn't solve their emotional problems with said exes. If anything, it should make them WORSE. It seems like the videogame parody aspect waters down the emotional narrative and vice versa, keeping either from reaching the full potential they could have.
Oh wow, that's an intense take that I've never really considered but I guess it is plausible in context of the narrative. That said, it't all been self-defense moreso than outright hunting and murdering.
That said, I do sort of admire the whimsical take that even with a world with actual save points (hypothetically) people are still going to have the same difficult lives they can't go back and reset. Plus even the most overlooked of characters seems to have a genuine sort of story arc and I've still got the reading that Pilgrim's just going through the motions for the sake of it, being a slightly stupid and aimless 20-something year old.
Oooh, all this aside, I'm still very hopeful for the quasi 8 or 16 bit video game, and even if I still think Michael Cera could have at least straightened his hair for the role, everyone else in the cast seems picture perfect. Even if I thought Wallace Wells/the gay roommate could have been a bit more sultry and looked a few years older than Kieran Culkin (who is still a bit attractive).