Scott Pilgrim vs. Your Mind (Movie thread; spoilers)

[aeric90]

So it's officially a bomb

#5 at the box office with 10.5 million behind the Expendables, Eat Pray Love, The Other Guys, and Inception.

[epocalypse]

This is made of cult movie. It'll make all kinds of money on DVD. Theater sales for this kind of film are merely the last section of advertising. If you're a critical and cult success you will live on, if you are a critical bomb with no fan following, you'll die regardless of what you do at the box office. It cost less then $100m (probably a lot less) to make, and if it makes ~$30m domestic it will be Edgar Wright's most successful theatrical film.

I actually think that their was a vital miss-step in the film's marketing: Too little teen and preteen marketing. I consider this movie is probably perfect for kid's 10 and up unless their parents are super strict on their language, and it should have been advertised as such. Instead, all of it's marketing is 18-35. Transformers and Twilight have better marketing to youngins and they're less appropriate for them (or anyone).

Oh, and I brought you all a present!

Scott Pilgrim Vs the Animation

those are the movie folks voicing their characters....

Michael Cera's actually a pretty good voice actor.

[Vanguard]

So it's officially a bomb

#5 at the box office with 10.5 million behind the Expendables, Eat Pray Love, The Other Guys, and Inception.

Despite that it's gotten better reviews than the other movies that opened this week. When I was in Starbucks this morning I saw a copy of USA Today that gave Scott Pilgrim three stars (not what I expected from this bunch, to be honest), that Julia Roberts movie got two stars and The Expendables only one and a half.

So yeah, at least there's that.

[aeric90]

It cost less then $100m (probably a lot less) to make, and if it makes ~$30m domestic it will be Edgar Wright's most successful theatrical film.

It reportedly cost $80m to make. After tax credits it'll come down to $60m.

I'd be interested to see the split US and Canada numbers. After hearing a great many American friends complain that they could not see it since it wasn't playing around them and the packed theaters here in Toronto.

[Mister Fiend]

Every second of this movie felt like an hour of flesh rending torture.

[goat]

PS: One of the trailers that ran was for the movie Devil, a horror movie in an elevator, that seemed to have some of the audience freaked out... until M. Night Shyamalan's name appeared and EVERYONE LAUGHED. No Joke.

That exact same thing happened when I went to see it. Once his name popped up, everyone stopped taking it seriously.

Same thing happened here, but with more "WHAT!?"s and "really? .... really?"s thrown in. We're a sarcastic breed up/down here.

The sad thing is, it actually looked like it might have been an interesting concept, if fairly predictable.

Scott Pilgrim Vs the Animation

I love you forever

[aeric90]

Same thing happened here, but with more "WHAT!?"s and "really? .... really?"s thrown in. We're a sarcastic breed up/down here.

The sad thing is, it actually looked like it might have been an interesting concept, if fairly predictable.

I thought the same thing until the name poped up. Back when 'The Village' came out I remember saying to a friend something like "This guy either has to write stories and stop directing or direct and stop writing otherwise he's going to kill his career." Now they're doing just that but he may be one film too late.

[Chfan]

Every second of this movie felt like an hour of flesh rending torture.

Why?

[Blackie62]

PS: One of the trailers that ran was for the movie Devil, a horror movie in an elevator, that seemed to have some of the audience freaked out... until M. Night Shyamalan's name appeared and EVERYONE LAUGHED. No Joke.

That exact same thing happened when I went to see it. Once his name popped up, everyone stopped taking it seriously.

When I saw it a guy (intentionally I'd guess) started saying "yes" triumphantly till M Night Shymalama-ding-dong's name showed up whereby he yelled out "DAMMIT" causing everyone to laugh.

[Gordon Fearman]

The main reason I like the movie's version better, even losing some characters and scenes I like from the comic almost entirely, is because it's tighter, more consistent, and removes one huge plot hole in the comic. That plot hole comes in book 6, and it's the point that Scott's youth was almost entirely normal (by our world standards) and that he only remembered the fighting for Kim flashback as being similar to the current situation because of Gideon screwing with his mind. What I don't like about this version is that it makes it seem as though Scott and the rest of the Canadian's for the most part lived in a world where things like battling and the super natural cartoonish physics laws of the world didn't normally exist. It's the one thing that's really been nagging at me about the last book, because it presents the potential point of view that all of the weirdness of the world is actually in Scott's head, and that he's been seeing it through an almost schizophrenic lens. In general, I'm glad that they kept the story more in the now, because the flashbacks to Scott's youth in general created problems like this for me, because they seemed to meteor between reinforcing the world and making it ring false

I uh, what? That makes no sense. The weirdness of the world is definitely not just in Scott's head. The entire comic would make no sense. I mean, Gideon screwed with Scott's memories by using a subspace highway in his brain. Yes, that one fight between Scott and that other dude didn't happen that way. But everything else that happens since the comic's start did happen. If the world was completely normal, there would be no evil exes and stuff. Characters reference Scott's fighting abilities several times and there's a dude who summons demon hipster chicks.

[AlexanderDitto]

The main reason I like the movie's version better, even losing some characters and scenes I like from the comic almost entirely, is because it's tighter, more consistent, and removes one huge plot hole in the comic. That plot hole comes in book 6, and it's the point that Scott's youth was almost entirely normal (by our world standards) and that he only remembered the fighting for Kim flashback as being similar to the current situation because of Gideon screwing with his mind. What I don't like about this version is that it makes it seem as though Scott and the rest of the Canadian's for the most part lived in a world where things like battling and the super natural cartoonish physics laws of the world didn't normally exist. It's the one thing that's really been nagging at me about the last book, because it presents the potential point of view that all of the weirdness of the world is actually in Scott's head, and that he's been seeing it through an almost schizophrenic lens. In general, I'm glad that they kept the story more in the now, because the flashbacks to Scott's youth in general created problems like this for me, because they seemed to meteor between reinforcing the world and making it ring false

I uh, what? That makes no sense. The weirdness of the world is definitely not just in Scott's head. The entire comic would make no sense. I mean, Gideon screwed with Scott's memories by using a subspace highway in his brain. Yes, that one fight between Scott and that other dude didn't happen that way. But everything else that happens since the comic's start did happen. If the world was completely normal, there would be no evil exes and stuff. Characters reference Scott's fighting abilities several times and there's a dude who summons demon hipster chicks.

While that is true, I think one could coherently argue that the entire thing is being filtered through Scott's perception. As such, he sees the world in a certain way, and we see it that way too.

Scott's not exactly the most reliable of narrators. I guess he's technically not the narrator! But you know what I mean. He's the focus of the story.

GOG DAMN everyone talking about the movie makes me more and more excited to see it. But I can't! Stupid theater.

[Gordon Fearman]

The main reason I like the movie's version better, even losing some characters and scenes I like from the comic almost entirely, is because it's tighter, more consistent, and removes one huge plot hole in the comic. That plot hole comes in book 6, and it's the point that Scott's youth was almost entirely normal (by our world standards) and that he only remembered the fighting for Kim flashback as being similar to the current situation because of Gideon screwing with his mind. What I don't like about this version is that it makes it seem as though Scott and the rest of the Canadian's for the most part lived in a world where things like battling and the super natural cartoonish physics laws of the world didn't normally exist. It's the one thing that's really been nagging at me about the last book, because it presents the potential point of view that all of the weirdness of the world is actually in Scott's head, and that he's been seeing it through an almost schizophrenic lens. In general, I'm glad that they kept the story more in the now, because the flashbacks to Scott's youth in general created problems like this for me, because they seemed to meteor between reinforcing the world and making it ring false

I uh, what? That makes no sense. The weirdness of the world is definitely not just in Scott's head. The entire comic would make no sense. I mean, Gideon screwed with Scott's memories by using a subspace highway in his brain. Yes, that one fight between Scott and that other dude didn't happen that way. But everything else that happens since the comic's start did happen. If the world was completely normal, there would be no evil exes and stuff. Characters reference Scott's fighting abilities several times and there's a dude who summons demon hipster chicks.

While that is true, I think one could coherently argue that the entire thing is being filtered through Scott's perception. As such, he sees the world in a certain way, and we see it that way too.

Scott's not exactly the most reliable of narrators. I guess he's technically not the narrator! But you know what I mean. He's the focus of the story.

GOG DAMN everyone talking about the movie makes me more and more excited to see it. But I can't! Stupid theater.

Well, if you assume your entire life is a lie, thing's will seem weirder, I guess.

Anyway, if you assume everything's being filtered, how come after Scott beats up the NegaScott, things are still video game?

How come he didn't delude himself into just ignoring what Kim said?

How come things are still video game in scenes that Scott's not in, like when Ramona and Kim discuss Scott beating up them robots?

All this and more.

[wilson_x1999]

I'm from Mexico, but I was in Texas last Friday and I had the chance to watch it and I LOVED it and now I'm sad that it's not gonna be showing here in Mexico until October at the very least and quite probably, they're gonna dub it in spanish, because since it looks sort of cartoony, it must be obviously for kids!, sometimes, I fucking hate my country.

Also, I watched The Expendables and it's nothing but dumb manly fun, but there's no way in hell it should have gotten so much more money than Scott Pilgrim.

...I actually think that their was a vital miss-step in the film's marketing: Too little teen and preteen marketing. I consider this movie is probably perfect for kid's 10 and up unless their parents are super strict on their language, and it should have been advertised as such. Instead, all of it's marketing is 18-35. Transformers and Twilight have better marketing to youngins and they're less appropriate for them (or anyone).

I don't think the very young crowd would have understood the movie at all and not only because half the movie are old geek references,

[epocalypse]

The main reason I like the movie's version better, even losing some characters and scenes I like from the comic almost entirely, is because it's tighter, more consistent, and removes one huge plot hole in the comic. That plot hole comes in book 6, and it's the point that Scott's youth was almost entirely normal (by our world standards) and that he only remembered the fighting for Kim flashback as being similar to the current situation because of Gideon screwing with his mind. What I don't like about this version is that it makes it seem as though Scott and the rest of the Canadian's for the most part lived in a world where things like battling and the super natural cartoonish physics laws of the world didn't normally exist. It's the one thing that's really been nagging at me about the last book, because it presents the potential point of view that all of the weirdness of the world is actually in Scott's head, and that he's been seeing it through an almost schizophrenic lens. In general, I'm glad that they kept the story more in the now, because the flashbacks to Scott's youth in general created problems like this for me, because they seemed to meteor between reinforcing the world and making it ring false

I uh, what? That makes no sense. The weirdness of the world is definitely not just in Scott's head. The entire comic would make no sense. I mean, Gideon screwed with Scott's memories by using a subspace highway in his brain. Yes, that one fight between Scott and that other dude didn't happen that way. But everything else that happens since the comic's start did happen. If the world was completely normal, there would be no evil exes and stuff. Characters reference Scott's fighting abilities several times and there's a dude who summons demon hipster chicks.

That's kind of exactly my point, though, Gordon. There are more plotholes (and inconsistencies, not big enough to be plotholes but slightly odd) in the comic because of certain things that happen in the later volumes. Gideon's back story and the twins were the least compatible in my mind, but the point that there seems to be nothing of videogame or comic bookish note in Scott's past, given the memory messing thing, it is easy to instead start making arguements that some or all of it's in his head, or that all the wierd stuff started to happen only when Ramona arrived, but none of that makes as much sense. We hear that Scott is known as the best fighter in the Province in volume one, and no one reacts very strangely to his battle, or guys exploding into coins, or the sword and item gets. This, I feel, was initially made much stronger by seeing in Scott's past that there is a long history for him and his friends of video game like drama. However, by stating that high school was pretty much normal for Scott by adding in the memory tampering, we have a situation where there is pretty much no basis for Scott's pre-Ramona history operating on video game and comic logic outside of dialogue, much of which is directly from Scott. The movie presents it (especially assuming that Scott Pilgrim Vs the Animation is canon) that the video game logic is absolutely established in Scott's past and thus shows a world more stable in it's rules. This is also why I don't like the elaborate Envy flashback in the comic, it's the only other time we get to see Scott's past and it's completely normal. Too normal to completely sit right in the Scott Pilgrim world. The movie is stable in presenting the world as one with a certain set of fantastic laws and rules, and the comic is for the most part as well, but, do to it's length and long work period, has certain sections which are less completely matched to that logic.

[epocalypse]

I'm from Mexico, but I was in Texas last Friday and I had the chance to watch it and I LOVED it and now I'm sad that it's not gonna be showing here in Mexico until October at the very least and quite probably, they're gonna dub it in spanish, because since it looks sort of cartoony, it must be obviously for kids!, sometimes, I fucking hate my country.

Also, I watched The Expendables and it's nothing but dumb manly fun, but there's no way in hell it should have gotten so much more money than Scott Pilgrim.

...I actually think that their was a vital miss-step in the film's marketing: Too little teen and preteen marketing. I consider this movie is probably perfect for kid's 10 and up unless their parents are super strict on their language, and it should have been advertised as such. Instead, all of it's marketing is 18-35. Transformers and Twilight have better marketing to youngins and they're less appropriate for them (or anyone).

I don't think the very young crowd would have understood the movie at all and not only because half the movie are old geek references,

Wrong, absolute (anecdotal) confirmation from my 7 and 11 year old cousins, kids dig this film. They loved it, and my aunt thought it was refreshing and deep for tween fair (which she fought was it's primary audience) I had to convince her that it had been primarily marketed at the geek 18-35 market. Sure, they don't get everything conciously, but that's true of all Pixar films as well. Also, just so were clear: YOUNG KIDS LOVE PUNK ROCK!

I'm planning on taking a 9 year old family friend to see it, She's been biting at the bit for it for a while. Don't underestimate children.

I swear it's like people think kids don't play old games, what do you thing the wii virtual console and the xbla and the sony marketplace are for, knitting?

[sdhonda]

Oh hey I'll probably be seeing it tommorow.

[Gordon Fearman]

The main reason I like the movie's version better, even losing some characters and scenes I like from the comic almost entirely, is because it's tighter, more consistent, and removes one huge plot hole in the comic. That plot hole comes in book 6, and it's the point that Scott's youth was almost entirely normal (by our world standards) and that he only remembered the fighting for Kim flashback as being similar to the current situation because of Gideon screwing with his mind. What I don't like about this version is that it makes it seem as though Scott and the rest of the Canadian's for the most part lived in a world where things like battling and the super natural cartoonish physics laws of the world didn't normally exist. It's the one thing that's really been nagging at me about the last book, because it presents the potential point of view that all of the weirdness of the world is actually in Scott's head, and that he's been seeing it through an almost schizophrenic lens. In general, I'm glad that they kept the story more in the now, because the flashbacks to Scott's youth in general created problems like this for me, because they seemed to meteor between reinforcing the world and making it ring false

I uh, what? That makes no sense. The weirdness of the world is definitely not just in Scott's head. The entire comic would make no sense. I mean, Gideon screwed with Scott's memories by using a subspace highway in his brain. Yes, that one fight between Scott and that other dude didn't happen that way. But everything else that happens since the comic's start did happen. If the world was completely normal, there would be no evil exes and stuff. Characters reference Scott's fighting abilities several times and there's a dude who summons demon hipster chicks.

That's kind of exactly my point, though, Gordon. There are more plotholes (and inconsistencies, not big enough to be plotholes but slightly odd) in the comic because of certain things that happen in the later volumes. Gideon's back story and the twins were the least compatible in my mind, but the point that there seems to be nothing of videogame or comic bookish note in Scott's past, given the memory messing thing, it is easy to instead start making arguements that some or all of it's in his head, or that all the wierd stuff started to happen only when Ramona arrived, but none of that makes as much sense. We hear that Scott is known as the best fighter in the Province in volume one, and no one reacts very strangely to his battle, or guys exploding into coins, or the sword and item gets. This, I feel, was initially made much stronger by seeing in Scott's past that there is a long history for him and his friends of video game like drama. However, by stating that high school was pretty much normal for Scott by adding in the memory tampering, we have a situation where there is pretty much no basis for Scott's pre-Ramona history operating on video game and comic logic outside of dialogue, much of which is directly from Scott. The movie presents it (especially assuming that Scott Pilgrim Vs the Animation is canon) that the video game logic is absolutely established in Scott's past and thus shows a world more stable in it's rules. This is also why I don't like the elaborate Envy flashback in the comic, it's the only other time we get to see Scott's past and it's completely normal. Too normal to completely sit right in the Scott Pilgrim world. The movie is stable in presenting the world as one with a certain set of fantastic laws and rules, and the comic is for the most part as well, but, do to it's length and long work period, has certain sections which are less completely matched to that logic.

You're problem is that you for some reason trust that flashback over the rest of the comic. The comic was established to be all video game and crap. It's not a plot hole that that ONE battle was false. And here's the kicker. SCOTT PILGRIM RETURNS FROM THE DEAD DUE TO AN EXTRA LIFE. FROM THE DEAD. If you want to believe that because one thing in Scott's past didn't happen right that everything else in the comic is a huge lie, then nothing makes sense. Because that's all it is. One flashback. It's not a plot hole at all, you're just reading too much into it. Literally, the movie presents the rules of the Universe in exactly the same way the comic did.

Also, the Envy flashback is important because it establishes why the Infinite Sadness is infinite. Or sad. It humanises Envy which is something that was missing from the film. The most humanness we see from Envy is some pictures that are not on the wall behind Scott.

[tanatoes]

Finally got to see the movie today. I really liked it, but find it odd that nobody here has pointed out that it steals its climactic "battle" from http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/91/Mental-Battle

Yeay LRR!!!

[AlexanderDitto]

FINALLY got to see this. Theater was nearly empty, had to ride out into the boonies to see it.

HOLY SHIT you guys. I had a ridiculous grin on my face the whole time. THE WHOLE time. It was so good. The pacing was perfect: ridiculously fast, like the comics were, bits of time shoving themselves into scenes to move things along.

And the changes... I have to say the movie improved and fixed a lot of what was wrong with the comics, ESPECIALLY the resolution. SO FANTASTIC.

AND WALLACE WELLS. OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE WALLACE WELLS. And when he steals Scott's sister's boyfriend (who is seriously hot by the way)... and then he ends up in bed with Wallace and his boyfriend.Holy shit I laughed so hard.

[undef]

My response? Awesome. Just...awesome.

[sdhonda]

That was, without a doubt, the most authentic movie about nerds ever commited to celluloid.

In terms of aesthetic, mood, allusions, humor, etc.

[sdhonda]

@first poster: Gotta agree with you on Gideon. As a villian, I think he is in the top tier of just, epic villians. Right next to the Joker.

But I still love the vegan more.

[sdhonda]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scPOQC_Lpgo

I nearly cried.

Nothing like this will ever be greenlit ever again.

[ExtraSensory]

Loved the movie, took my non-geek beer pong-playing girlfriend to see it, and she liked it a lot more than she wanted to. The only thing that bothers me is that the only two vocal video game namedrops in the entire film are Zelda and Tetris. Clearly these guys are super hardcore gamers since they play Zelda and Tetris.
If anything, they should have namedropped River City Ransom.

[Dubious_wolf]

just finished the graphic novels.... Which i totally bought 2 days after seeing this movie....
It was all awesome. If I may say.
Gideon in the movie was more evil and awesome (as a villian) than in the novels.
Ramona Flowers was much more amazing than the Ramona in the movie.
The movie did an excellent job of remixing lines so that the story still flowed well in a 2 hour time frame.
The movie had to much of the fights and not enough of the relationship stuff.
And Todd was still the coolest evil ex and the movie did him no justice. oh well.

Um... also High everyone! apparently I've been hiding under a rock for the past month or so...
yeah. Going to try and fix that.