It’s not you, it’s me.
I wanted to love Scott Pilgrim in the same vein that I wanted to like the 3rd season of Gossip Girl, in the same way I hyped up Ninja Assassin, bought the DVD, cheered with unnecessary enthusiasm during fight scenes and gushed whenever Rain took off his shirt (all the time.) I wanted to like it hard.
I get you Scott Pilgrim. Or maybe I don’t. I’m not sure anymore in this vast sea of irony. I agree with the other reviewer who said, “Scott Pilgrim is Twilight for boys.” Much like Twilight, SP is a … fireball of hyper-stylized fan service. And there’s nothing wrong with that, you don’t see me rolling my eyes every time Taylor Lautner takes his shirt off. Dirty. But still.
I guess I expected….a watchable movie?
I mean, visually, it was cute. It was a cute “experience”. Much like me gushing at a well made youtube video with someone’s incredible movie maker skills. Michael Cera was cute. The nostalgic callbacks were cute. Knives was cute. Ramona was cute. The cutest, in fact, coming from a diehard MW fan (catch the pun? No? ok). I mean, wasn’t she just darling in Deathproof?
And speaking of? Is it unfair to bring up Tarantino? SP was like a lovechild between (500) Days of Summer and Kill Bill but not as entertaining, not as charming, not as fun. I love Tarantino. I love Kill Bill, I love Grindhouse. I love campy fan service, and over the top indulgences. Unfortunately SP draws a lot of parallels with KB but not in a good way.
Sidenote: The dialogue was worse than watching Juno on repeat. Quirky, intelligent, witty you’re not. And Jason Schwartzman. You will never be funny.
So I tactfully told my friend this morning who LOVED the movie.
Me: It just dragged….It got so repetitive.
Jia: …………….she had 7 exes.
Touche.
But come on, The Bride had a laundry list of enemies. I didn’t get bored watch her slice of Lucy Liu’s head and ninja knifing Vivica A Fox. I didn’t get bored because it was brilliant. A perfect mix between wit, visuals and entertainment.
So yea. Back to Scott Pilgrim vs The World (yes, I’m done busting nuts over Tarantino), I think this movie could have been great if it didn’t try… so hard? Personally, I felt that I was watching a cheap sitcom waiting for the next 80s callback so we can all smile fondly and get a nostalgic tingle in our loins. Scott Pilgrim sacrificed a genuine shot at being a good movie by piecing pseudo witty dialogue between fun comical effects instead of doing the opposite I suppose.
I feel like I’ll get more satisfaction and enjoyment reading the comic books.





