Movie Thursday: #5

Mr O vs. Jeanette vs. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

This week marked the DVD/Blu-Ray release (yes, I'm a hi-def junkie) of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I'm pretty excited as this was one of the few movies in history that I saw more than once in theaters. And as soon as I get some money aside, it will be viewed in my household more than once as well so I can fall in lesbian with it all over again.

So in celebration, this week's Movie Thursday is all about the epicness of Scott Pilgrim vs The World. To help me out, I enlisted the help of my good friend jeanette. We never publicized it, but we were once going to start a movie blog but, well, our lives got in the way. So consider this post a preview of what may have been.

(editor's note: Before we get started, there is a sidenote of cool Toronto/Canada stuff from the movie that we vaguely touched on. For more in depth details, check out Allison's Scott Pilgrim post.)

Mr O:

so jeanette. I, like many people, had not heard of the graphic novels (is that the official term?) before I saw the trailer for Scott Pilgrim. But you were, correct?

jeanette:
Oh for sure... I've never been a huge comic book nerd before. Nerd, yes, but comic book nerd, no. But a few years back I stumbled upon the graphic novels and then waited patiently for the last few to come out. HOWEVER, reading them has only made me mildly more interested in other graphic novels. I think with Scott Pilgrim it's more the story than the format.

Mr O:
Interesting. Because as someone who only became aware the entire concept only when the movie was announced, I was impressed with the format, in reference to the movie. The story was good, don't get me wrong. But it was all the effects and what not that left an impact on me. Do you think the movie lived up to the comic?

jeanette:

Yes and no. No because it strayed A LOT from the movies. Up to ex number two I was like this is AWESOME it was just like the book but then they kind of went crazy taking liberties and that ending was really different. That being said, the movie was still AMAZING so I was really happy that they kept with the "spirit" of the novel and that it hopefully created a few more fans who can now go back and read the novels (nudge nudge)

Mr O:
Nudge noted. With the comic talk out of the way, let's focus on the movie. What did you think of the cast? I actually could see this as Micheal Cera showing he doesn't have to be a total shy geek to carry the movie (he was actually trying to get with the girl instead of the "aw shucks" we usually see). Thoughts?

jeanette:

Yeah, I'm a huge Michael Cera fan, ever since Arrested Development so I'm oblivious to him playing the same character. To me, if a person plays the same role every time it's probably because they're good at it (i.e. Zack Galifinakis playing the semi-crazy guy in every movie). That being said, having read the comics I was a little worried about the cast after it was announced. The one that threw me off the most was Kieran Culkin being cast as Wallace Wells. This was a shocker because if you have read the comics Wallace appears to be asian (as asian as a crudely drawn comic can look) but I was pleasantly surprised by his role. I also wasn't 100% sold on Mary Elizabeth Winstead having only seen her for a few minutes in the last Die Hard movie, but again I think she did an extraordinary job. The whole cast was amazing to me, espeically Cera, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, and Alison Pill as Kim Pine. I think a lot of this had to do with Edgar Wright's concept of comic timing being amazing

Mr O:
Yea, for an unknown actress (to me), I actually kinda dug Winstead's Ramona Flowers. I usually like Cera in that role as well, but it was nice to see him get his mean-face on. But speaking of Arrested Development, I geeked out at having him share screen time with the former Ann Veal from that show (a nice thanks to you for getting me into AD). I actually never really cared for Jason Schwartzman but I liked his "villian" here. I also enjoyed seeing someone who was once Superman play the role of a Vegan (who loses his powers)

jeanette:
Yeah Winstead definitely earned my respect. haha YES! Good 'ol Egg... I mean Ann (and you're welcome). SO GLAD that someone else never really cared for Schwartzman, I never got that fascination some others did, but I was only mildly impressed with him in this movie (again, I think this stems from having read the comics). Yeah, Brandon Roth was awesome. I also forgot to mention that Brie Larson kicked ass as Envy Adams, there's this interview that Bryan Lee O'Malley (the author) posted of her doing the whole interview as Envy Adams and it cracked me up.

Mr O:
thank you for the perfect segway... before we wrap this up, we HAVE to talk about the music. For as much as it was a video game/comic book movie, it was also a music movie as well, with the battle of the bands and such (and even a battle with a band versus DJ's that was pretty basstacular). I had heard "Black Sheep" on the alternative station I listen to and rocked out when I heard it on screen. And then thought it was really cool that though Metric did it, they had Envy singing it like it was hers. Plus, that song is just pretty kick-ass itself.

Click here to check out the "Black Sheep" - Scott Pilgrim video

jeanette:
Yeah the music was definitely INSANE in the movie. I was really glad that with the movie (and novel) being set in Canada they opted to get the word out on a bunch of awesome canadian bands (except my favs, Tegan and Sara). Between Broken Social Scene writing the songs for Crash and the Boys and Metric being the influence for Clash at Demonhead it was an all out Canada-fest. I also think it's awesome that the clothes Envy Adams wore were designed by Emily Haines of Metric. But the music definitely kicked up the movie a notch or two. I just felt so pumped the entire time, the soundtrack is one of the better soundtracks to come out in a while

Mr O:

There were some tidbits in what you said that I was not aware of. I had heard of the Canada stuff, but not the fashion things and what not. That's the great thing about these convos.

So let us recap: pretty good cast, awesome visuals, cool "little things" and a kick-ass soundtrack. Is there anything that needs to be said?

jeanette:
It was definitely the funniest movie I've seen in a really long time, and I think the video game theme of the comics translated really well to the movie. Which I think might have been the downfall of the movie in the long run... people not of our generation really didn't "Get it" which sucks because more movies of that caliber need to be made. I'm really hoping it becomes a cult classic.

Also I kind of want to rollerblade everywhere and work for Amazon in Canada

Mr O:
Definitely an "our generation" movie. I would also like to defeat my enemies and have them turn into coins. That would be cool.

jeanette:

haha unless you only got two coins for beating them, that'd be a bummer.

Mr O:
True bummer. It wouldn't even be enough for the bus ride home.

jeanette:

And walking in Canada can be cold... I don't think you'd be able to handle it being from the south ;)