Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

(Movie Review)

I can be a bit out of it. I didn’t really know anything about this movie except that when it first came out it generated a lot of buzz at some of the geek websites I follow. (I spend more time than I care to admit checking websites that report on geek culture.)

I can be skeptical about mainstream culture, but I usually like geek chic. I am a geek, after all. So even though I knew nothing about this movie, the glowing testimony of internet geeks sold me on it. And the fact that it got generally positive reviews at mainstream sites like rotten tomatoes was a bonus.

So I walked into the theater being sure I was going to love.

And was therefore unpleasantly surprised to discover I hated it.

Much of the movie is a one note gag. The gag is that it’s a guy’s love life played out as if it were a video game. Once you get that joke in the first 10 minutes, then the last 80 minutes or so of the movie doesn’t really have a lot to offer.

It’s also a movie that’s trying way way way too hard to be cool. The quick cuts, the ironic subtitles, the dry sarcastic conversations—the whole thing just reeks of effort. And the thing about being cool is, once the effort starts to show, it’s no longer cool.
And all the characters are really overdoing the hipster dry sarcasm thing. Throughout the whole movie. Which didn’t work for me.
It’s funny in a movie when one character is dry and sarcastic, especially when they can play off other less subtle characters. (The old vaudeville rule about only having one straightman.) But when all the characters are doing it all the time, I just got sick of it fast.

And plus I just didn’t think it was all that funny. I can pick remember about 2 or 3 lines which made me chuckle, but the rest of the jokes just seemed stupid and forced.

And perhaps worst of all, I wasn’t given a reason to care about any of these characters. And I wasn’t given any reason to understand any of their motivations.

I mean, I know it’s just a silly movie and I’m not supposed to take it too seriously. But you’ve got to make me care a little bit.
Why did Scott Pilgrim fall in love with Ramona? I didn’t particularly think she was all that great, and aside from the fact he had a mysterious dream about her I was never given any reason why he would suddenly get so obsessed with her.
Throughout the movie, I couldn’t see any reason why he should pick Ramona over Knives Chau, or vice-versa. One was just as good as the other it seemed to me.
Why were all the ex-boyfriends fighting Scott? Why did Knives Chau spend the whole movie being obsessed with him, and then suddenly have a change of heart and let him go in the end? Why was she obsessed with him in the first place?
Why did Scott’s roommate want to evict him?
Why did that one girl with the glasses really hate him?

I could go on all day listing things. None of the characters were given any reasons to do any of the things they did. And therefore I was bored watching it because I couldn’t care less about what happened to anyone.

Also: Did they have to name the one Chinese character in the movie Knives Chau? And did they have to portray those Japanese twins in such a stereo-typical way with the Asian dragons? And who thought it would be a good idea to have the one Indian character doing the Bollywood song?

Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky on U.S. Foreign Policy
Also: Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Movie Review (Scripted)