#at least Michael Cera was the Scott all these nerds deserved

[spacevixenmusic]

Disagree. The comics are inherently a better read (the source material is almost always better), but the movie still absolutely does what is intended. Scott is very much still portrayed as a douchebag, and everyone still spends the entire movie riding Scott's ass about him dating a high schooler, having no shame in cheating on her or stringing her along, and making up false narratives to absolve himself of blame. None of that is missing from the movie. But because comics and movies are completely different art forms, it's easy to miss that due to the way the movie frames things.

The big issue is that Scott Pilgrim as a story is supposed to be a harsh satire of the shitty college indie nerd geek guy culture, and the framing of the movie (plus Michael Cera's endearing performance) didn't EXPLICITLY make Scott a douchebag, so the audience he was supposed to be a satire of ended up connecting to him and thinking he was a Good Guy and a Hero. It's not the movie itself that did the story dirty, it's the people who watched it and didn't get that it was roasting them.

And the funny thing is, that framing is still a very good way to portray Scott's character. Like yeah, he's an ass, a two-timer, a wreck of a person, but the movie concretely establishes that he's 22, has no job or social life, thinks he can coast his way to success, and doesn't deserve to have all these good people in his life trying to clean up after him. And, true to life, a lot of people end up like this at that stage in their life. In that way, he's portrayed as very Relatable and Human. A college-aged fuck-up who's not owning up to his mistakes? Shit, I was that way at 22 too. And the core issue is that we as the audience are supposed to identify with the supporting cast and recognize these faults in Scott (and/or ourselves), and the movie allows for a fun and visually entertaining way to explore this. And again, the issue is that the people he was supposed to satirize ended up adopting him as an icon, because like Scott, most of them don't yet possess that level of critical thinking or self-awareness. The joke really is on them.

And yeah, it doesn't help that Scott Gets The Girl At The End, but look at who he got. He ends up dating the Manic Pixie Dream Girl who is 2 years older than him and already been in 7+ relationships that Scott has to somehow prove himself better than in order to "win" her as the prize. And for what? If she left 7 other relationships in such a short span of time, there's no guarantee she'll stick with Scott for long either. The way I see it, she sort of represents the supposedly unattainable Perfect GF, and chasing after her will likely wreck your entire life and all your relationships, but at least it will get you to stop dating that high schooler and get you started on the path to getting your shit together. It's not supposed to be a happy ending, even though it's framed as such (intentionally, as it's a reflection of Scott thinking he got the Good Ending). The implication is that this was all just one chapter in Scott's life, and represents a turning point of sorts. But it's easy to see why people didn't walk away with that notion due to the way everything is framed. Media literacy matters, people.

This turned into a longer rant than I wanted it to, but as someone who was also kind of a shitty indie person in their early 20s, looking back on this movie now in my late 30s - 13 years after the movie hit the screen - it actually does hit the mark for me. Yes, the comics are still the better option if you're looking for a clearer way of telling this story, but like I said, movies and comics are two different art forms. You don't watch a movie to have it just explain its entire narrative to you through speech bubbles. You have a whole different set of tools you use to frame the issue, and some people don't click with that. AND THAT'S OKAY, you don't need to like every movie, but I don't think it's fair to just write it off if you didn't like it. I think the movie still gets the core of the story right, it's just that the culture the movie is parodying and the people who accept Scott as a hero didn't quite get what the story was trying to do, and THAT has overtaken what the actual experience of watching the movie should leave you with.

never not angry about how the scott pilgrim comics were like funny and well written and had scott’s character arc revolve around him realizing that he couldn’t keep going through life making up false narratives to absolve himself of blame and that he has to step up and take responsibility for his actions and how the movie completely erased all of that and made the message “scott gets a girlfriend due to being awesome and liking video games and being in a band” and now scott pilgrim is like a patron saint of the exact kind of shitty indie dude his character was a criticism of

[algernoninwonderland]

The only good thing about Scott Pilgrim (not the comics, which are brilliant, the film) is The Clash at Demonhead cover of “Black Sheep” because Brie Larson (please marry me) absolutely kills it. That and the entire soundtrack and Aubrey Plaza as Julie. Other than that... Yeah. I mean, nice try, but the comics did it all better, and didn’t age as poorly as the film did. It’s obvious that a lot of work went into making it, which is a shame, because that craft is used to serve a superficial story, with a superficial understanding of its source material.

Outside of the music aspect, there was nothing to add by adapting the comics into an easy-to-digest 2hrs movie that barely focuses on its characters, what Brian Lee O’Malley did best. Instead, the film decided to focus on the videogame-y aspect of the comics without the analysis of that presentation that goes with it in the comics, to appeal to a certain demographic that understood (and that’s partly because the film didn’t do a good job) that if you were a “nice” nerdy guy, you could get the girl, (never mind the whole “dating a high schooler” thing) also, kapow, and did you notice the Great Fairy Fountain music? Haha!

Except that’s superficial. It doesn’t tell us much about how shitty Scott Pilgrim is, as a person, to view things that way. It’s easy to just think, heh all these characters were kind of mean but look, that battle against the Katayanagi twins is just like in the video games! In the comics, these fights matter and are a vehicle for plot and character development, not just a pretext for whacky stylish action scenes, at least not only. The Katayanagi twins serve a narrative purpose other than just “they fight”, and their fighting at all is something the comics try to question

Style and presentation, which are central thematics in the comics, are left mostly unquestioned in the movie, which is a shame because Edgar Wright is far from stupid. Then again, how can you do that over two hours? So yeah, it’s not very good, especially in regards to the graphic novels.

The comics are great, and for the most part, they are still a good read today

The film is an awkward watch at best