August 30, 2010

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Holy cow two posts in one day. After 20 days of no posts even. It's almost like I'm avoiding something I don't like doing... but I can't imagine what that would be, in the middle of a rainy Monday morning.

Movie review time! I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Saturday. I wanted to see this movie two weeks ago, but a return appearance of Tubes! (Jill's arch-nemesis) foiled those plans. SPOILERS AHEAD. BE YE WARNED.

The best part of this movie was Michael Cera's whiny pouting. And I even thought I was starting to get sick of him. I was wrong! He has emo-whiny pouting down to an art. I am trying to perfect his delivery of "but...it's haaaard," slouching halfway down a chair, wallowing in my own abject despair, complaining about my non-problems. I wallow in abject despair at my own non-problems ALL THE TIME, so it's very useful to learn how to do it properly. Today I've already used this new skill to whine about the following things: you can't seem to find long straight skirts at stores anymore, I'm not wearing a giant sombrero, people can see my face, Harry Potter isn't real and I'm not magic, I have a headache, people keep talking to me, it's not raining, it's raining, and the expectation from society that I take a shower every single day. These are very serious non-problems and I'm glad this movie has shown me how to effectively complain about them.

The worst part of this movie was the choice at the end. Scott has to choose between Knives and Ramona, and I don't know enough about why he liked either girl to really care much about which one he chose. But I still felt like he was picking the wrong girl, at least according to the movie. The most recent fight scene seemed to be saying that Scott and Knives were the best team, but then he goes off with Ramona? Like I said, I don't know enough about why Scott even liked Knives (other than the fact that she looked like an anime character... and I guess anime characters are hawt?) to care that he didn't chose her, but it did feel like the movie itself was pulling the Knives to prevail. And I didn't buy that she suddenly didn't care if Scott left her for Ramona.

Overall, good movie. It was really fun to watch, and very funny throughout. But there was something missing with character development. I enjoyed watching the characters, but didn't care much about what happened to them.

Aw man. It's raining again, but not raining enough. *pout* Why can't I just get exactly what I want every moment of every day? Is that too much to ask? Why is life so hard?

6 comments:

Jill said...

Yes, anime characters ARE hawt.

Brokenbyclouds said...

There was a typo I was going to comment about but then I was like "that is getting kinda old" so I'm pretending instead that by not pointing it out I am doing you a huge favor. Also since I'm typing on an iPod the chances of including a typo in my critique of your typos is very high which simply will not do.

Val has been watching all the Harry Potter movies over again and now I've seen nearly all of them. Surprisingly I don't get the appeal. The magic stuff and basic story elements are fine enough but the bad guy is terribly boring. He's like a villain from Captain Planet or something. "Blast, foiled again because I do not understand basic concepts of love, friendship and turning the water off while brushing my teeth!"

It's basically an extension of the lack of characterization you brought up with Cera's movie. It was the same problem that made Inception a lot of drivel for me. Kids today don't put enough effort into making believable, multi-faceted characters with any kind of depth.

Snape I guess is the closest thing to being an exception in that regard but I can't say for certain because I just don't know enough about his character.

Was disappointed he didn't kill Dumbledore by cutting his heart out with a spoon too. He didn't even use a sword or an axe.

Jamie said...

You cannot judge the Harry Potter universe by the movies. The books are ALL characterization; that's what's makes them so amazingly appealing. You should read the "Mark Reads Harry Potter" blog on buzznet. Mark is creeped out by Twilight, loved his sociology classes, loved House of Leaves, and was very resistant to Harry Potter for a long time. Basically, I think you and him have very similar tastes and attitudes. He's blogging his reaction to the books chapter by chapter and really really loves them. Seriously, you should read them (and read Mark's blog at the same time...it's awesome). But even more seriously, you cannot judge the appeal of Harry Potter by the movies. 100% of the book fans will agree that the movies are a pale shadow compared to the books. (If you can find one person who has read and enjoyed all of the books and still prefers the movies, I will be extremely shocked.) The movies are fun ways to relive the awesomeness of the books, and interesting springboards to further book discussions (what was left out? how was x portrayed?), but NO ONE who loves Harry Potter feels that way from the movies alone. It's not possible.

Jamie said...

Gosh what an annoying comment. Learn to use line breaks, idiot!

(Jill taught me self-affirmation today and I've been practicing it. I'm not sure I have the hang of it yet.)

Jill said...

Omg you fail at self affirmation.

I mean, you are a beautiful, confident woman.

Brokenbyclouds said...

I dunno, that sounds exactly like a Jill-brand of self-affirmation.

I tried reading that blog after you linked it on facebook but there wasn't an easy way to read the posts starting from the beginning and it takes too long to do that myself on an iPod.