Kevin's Watch

Nice one Syl. Written much better than I could ever have done.

As much as I like this movie, I really only watched it for Gideon Graves.

Loremaster wrote:As much as I like this movie, I really only watched it for Gideon Graves.

Gideon rocked. And there were 1000 quotable lines.

I've read the comics too, the movie was actually better.

"Bread makes you fat?!"

I watched this a few nights ago. Seriously, it was one of the most fun movies I've seen in a long time - I laughed my head off

Sure, he was a jerk, and he didn't deserve either of the girls - but he showed promise by the end of the movie. Honestly, condemning him for his past would be pointless, as we've all been jerks at one time or another. Maybe not to the extent that Scott was, but the point is still valid.

With such polarised opinions I'm quite curious to see this. I don't expect to like it though.

Saw this a few nights ago and had high expectations as I've heard many good things about it. I thought it was average. I didn't hate it but it didn't resonate either. Guess I just didn't get it.

CovenantJr wrote:With such polarised opinions I'm quite curious to see this. I don't expect to like it though.

Ha ha no one expects to like it...if you expect to like it you will probably not.

It's a paradox!

I didn't expect to like it at all. In fact, I went to the movies intending to see something else, but that one was sold out. So I saw Pilgrim, and loved it. I mean, I didn't think it was a masterpiece, or anything, but it was just a cool, clever movie that could be enjoyed for what it was. I watch action movies for the same reasons, although I have to say it's harder to find an action movie that succeeds as well as Pilgrim.

Just watched this.

I actually went out of my way to read all the comics before seeing the film. (I'm more of a book person, and I'd rather have the comics influence my view of the film than vice versa.) I'm not sure what I'd have thought of the film if I hadn't read the books first, but comparing the two gives some interesting thorughts on the way they work.

First, I have to say, Michael Cera just doesn't pull it off that well. He only seems to be able to act in one way, and it didn't really do justice to Scott Pilgrim ("Rating: Awesome"). I'm not sure I would have really "got" the character from his performance.

The "Seinfeld" scene was terrible and didn't work.

That said, they captured the feel of the comic pretty well, and the parts that followed scenes from the comic closely were among the best moments in the film. It fell prey to some common missteps in places, though, where it deviated.

There were a lot of lines written for the film that seemed to try to ape Brian Lee O'Malley's style of writing in the comic, but came out like a poor imitation. Most of the bad puns in the later fight scenes were new.

There was a moment near the end, when Scott stops Knives and Ramona from fighting (the second time) and admits that he hurt both of them, when a slow, sappy kind of music comes up softly in the background - the kind you always get in movies in these kind of scenes. The music kills the moment. It's entirely out of place.

The way they only used subspace in one or two scenes felt like they borrowed just enough of it to fit the image of the film, but dumped it as an actual plot point in order to do something a little more mundane.

I understand why they made the film focus more on the progress of the band - it's what helps them compress six books into a single volume - but the other way they stremlined the plot, by making Gideon more prominent and having him actually steal Ramona away, didn't work for me - seeing so much of Gideon in the way the film wrote him just lessened the threat posed by the character.


The biggest issue, however, is the compression of time in the film compared to the comic. The original, 6-volume story of Scott Pilgrim takes place over an entire year. Ramona, Knives, Scott, Kim - they all show real growth in the comic, and end more emotionally mature. In the film I got none of that feeling - Ramona didn't seem any different at the end than at the beginning. Knives ended the same, but the route she took to reach that was too easy and didn't ring true. By putting everything in such a short timescale, none of the characters had a chance to grow.


Overall, it's not a bad film. But I'd say the earlier parts of it are stronger than the ending, and while a couple of the ideas new to the movie version were good (I like the way they used the 1up, though not the writing in the second play) a lot of it just didn't work as well as the source material. I know, they needed to make the changes to fit it in a film's run time, but it could have been done better.

I disagree. In no way could the 6 book series been made into a 2 -hour-or-less movie better than it was.

It's actually a miracle it was good.

This is on cable now. I've tried watching it several times based on what you all have written but I just can't get into it. after 10 or 15 minutes I change the channel.
Maybe another shot.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:This is on cable now. I've tried watching it several times based on what you all have written but I just can't get into it. after 10 or 15 minutes I change the channel.
Maybe another shot.

I wouldn't bother. While I loved it, there's no reason for you to watch a movie you don't enjoy.

Rigel wrote:

High Lord Tolkien wrote:This is on cable now. I've tried watching it several times based on what you all have written but I just can't get into it. after 10 or 15 minutes I change the channel.
Maybe another shot.

I wouldn't bother. While I loved it, there's no reason for you to watch a movie you don't enjoy.

Yeah, good point. That's actually the reason I don't debate (much) with people who don't like SRD...or who have different politics than me...or different religious beliefs, or whatever.

I'm interested in discussing these things with people who are at least "in the ballpark" of my own views, but I'm not interested at all in trying to change others' minds about things. What a Sisyphusian task....