- Kieran Culkin as Wallace steals every scene that he's in.
- The recurring bed gag is great. (I'm not sure whether the bed actually increases in size every time Scott wakes up and there's another guy in it, but it certainly seemed like it did.)
- I'm not sure that Scott himself is more likable, but he's certainly less unlikable. In Wright's effort to streamline the story, he's dropped most of what made Scott seem like a directionless jerk (his personal life outside Ramona is effectively reduced to him being in a band, but in the movie a) the band is good, and b) so is Scott!) and compressed the timeline significantly, which makes him seem like less of a loser for never learning or growing - it's only been a few weeks! But this Scott clearly does learn and grow, even if the proof in the final battle scene is a bit precious and too explicit. I think Wright is also cashing-in on Cera's own in-built nice-guy type. But anyway... he's still a bit bland, but I actually want this Scott to win.
- The major goof, I think, is that Envy is built up to be this major nemesis, but she appears, she plays, she and Scott have a moment, and then she's gone for the second-half of the film. Weird. Would it have been too much if she was also under Gideon's control at the end, and was also part of the fight with Ramona and Knives? Maybe.
- Wright's version of the Nega-Scott battle - its foreshadowing, its placement, its hilarious and wholly appropriate resolution - is faaaaaar better than O'Malley's.
- I had trouble with the film's grammar in places, which wasn't like a comic nor was it much like a movie. There are spots where the scene and time change rapidly from shot to shot, to show that Scott is in a daze, but it left me completely disoriented and confused. Which was maybe the point, but I found it aggravating rather than appropriate.
- And it was nice to see my hometown in a movie without it being passed off as some other city.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
The Scott Pilgrim movie
Thankfully, I liked the Scott Pilgrim movie more than I have the books. Some quick thoughts:
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3 comments:
Hey! I'm glad you liked it. I agree it does a lot of things better - the hyper-compression does help Scott's character (albeit at the plot's expense, especially in the last act).
I spotted a number of dialogue tweaks that suggested the writers were aware of and wanted to tone down the books' nasty/cynical tendencies, which worked for me.
Hey Neil, I'm glad that you agreed with just about everything I mentioned about the film when we were at Fan Expo... before you saw it. Do I get a co-writing credit for this one? ;-)
James: Yeah, the cynicism has almost been completely excised. Except for when Scott and Ramona are pissed at each other around the time he fights Roxy, but at that point it comes off as decently believable and not more-of-the-same.
Nathan: You were right about Kieran Culkin. But I don't remember you saying anything else that I wrote here. You said that you liked the ending better, I remember, but you kept it vague so that it wouldn't be spoiled. So... writing credit denied!
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