Anybody else dislike Scott Pilgrim?

[pita]

First off, I apologize if there's going to be a flame war. I will be civil, aided by the fact that my posting power is mostly limited.
But...
I don't like Scott Pilgrim. The movie, that is. I haven't read the comic. I didn't hate it, I just felt awkward watching it, and didn't enjoy myself.
Now, I'm not saying it doesn't have any good parts. Pretty much everything involving Brandon Routh was brilliant, and some of the Michael Cera bits were also very clever ("I'm getting a life", and the callback later, were both funny, and the passwords required to get to Gideon's party), but the movie felt like it was trying too hard to be witty. Contrasted with Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, which actually were witty, it's pretty much a failure.
The main character is an unlikable ****, which I don't actually mind. Most movie protagonists are, and it's not a big deal. The problem is that everyone is unlikable. Ramona and Knives particularly so, each because of their own extreme.
But the thing that really bugged me was the fact that the movie made me feel bad for watching it. The "video game" bits were stupid, and would make more sense in a bad Mortal Kombat parody than anywhere else. The insistence that everything had a comic book effect was pure gimmick. Adding "ding dong" to a bell ringing adds absolutely nothing to the movie, especially when combined with Edgar Wright's natural camera tricks, which draw enough attention to themselves without help. Wright's film technique in general feels like someone is in love with editing technology, too much so to make an actual film, but it works in his other movies. The perfect example of feeling stupid to watch the movie was the lesbian's battle. "Bi-Furious" would work if you're lampooning something, but the joke appeared to be meant taken at face value. That, as well as the mock-Bollywood sequence, both just made me feel awkward in my seat.
I can't describe the movie much better than "A series of gimmicks masquerading as a movie". I'd blame the comic on this, and in fact it probably does deserve a lot of blame, but this is one of the most indulgent, overly tricked out movies I've ever seen, and I'm a Tarantino fan. I frickin loved Kill Bill. I can put up with a lot of "look at what an editing genius I am and LOOK AT MY MOVIE IT IS SEXIER THAN YOURS", but I have my limits. And Scott Pilgrim bulldozed through them while telling people to look at it.
The Brandon Routh bits, while suffering from all of the things I mentioned, have some excellent lines, so they're mostly forgiven the flaws, not to mention that by that point of the movie I was getting used to seeing sound effects for sounds.
Why, tell me, does everyone think it's a great movie?

[ThePhantasm]

I can't describe the movie much better than "A series of gimmicks masquerading as a movie".

I pretty much agree with this. I also think the movie tries so desperately hard to be clever at points that it just comes off as pretentious.

[Quirinus_Obsidian]

I do agree with some of what you said. Most of the main characters are unlikable. The drummer girl annoyed me to no end. I understand being snarky and using dark humor, but she took it too far. Knives was a neat character - very underused in the movie. As was Brandon Rouths character.

It is not a "great" movie, but it is fun action. It's not something that I would call deep.

[Dr.Epic]

I've yet to seen the film so I can't really way in. It is though a movie that's on my list of stuff I want to see. Maybe I'll netflix it in the next few days or actually go out and rent a DVD of it.

[AtlanteanTroll]

The comics bored me and the art wasn't all that good. I didn't even bother with the movie. So no. You are not the only one.

[Science Officer]

I know how you feel. I rather liked it, but all my friends thought it was the best thing ever. It's okay for other people to like things that you dislike or dislike things that you like, but sometimes it does get annoying hearing their opinions.

I also found Scott somewhat unlikeable, but that didn't bother me. And while some of a lot of the jokes fell flat for me, there were a lot more that worked.

The comic-book-y, video-game-y, and weird editing gave the whole thing a kind of unreal atmosphere. Tvtropes described it as "video games realism" (after the "magical realism" style) which I thought was particularly apt.
I liked how it sometimes managed to be ridiculous and deadpan at the same time. Like the scene where Scott is trying to escape from his apartment, or at the first battle of the bands, when Ramona explains her relationship with the first Ex. The fight stops, the spotlight focuses on her and the entire building seems to pay attention, and she comes forward and tells the story. It's ridiculous, but rather earnest.

I also liked the little Canadian touches, Pizza Pizza, Sealtest milk, the enemies bursting into loonies and toonies, and "They make movies in Toronto?"

But yeah, I can see what you mean, if you were expecting it to be like Sean of the Dead or Hot Fuzz it would be a real let down.

[Mauve Shirt]

Nowhere near as clever and witty as Sean of the Dead or Hot Fuzz (I don't know why you chose to compare it to those two), and Michael Cera plays Michael Cera being Michael Cera, but I enjoyed the movie anyway.

[Jaros]

Nowhere near as clever and witty as Sean of the Dead or Hot Fuzz (I don't know why you chose to compare it to those two)

All three directed by Edgar Wright.

I liked it, but not as much as many of my friends, and I can understand people not liking it.

[pita]

Nowhere near as clever and witty as Sean of the Dead or Hot Fuzz (I don't know why you chose to compare it to those two), and Michael Cera plays Michael Cera being Michael Cera, but I enjoyed the movie anyway.

I saw it before seeing either of those. I'm comparing because it's the same director, and it's very much in the same style of "let's be as clever as possible". It's just that those two movies work very well, and Scott Pilgrim fails. They both maintain an unreal atmosphere using nothing but ridiculously fast paced editing. Pilgrim has that, but it also has the video game atmosphere, the comic book atmosphere, and the ludicrous plot in addition. It's overkill.

[Lothston]

I liked the movie. Immensely funny, dynamic, and doesn't take itself seriously.

It feels more like an anime than a movie anyway (the flashy kind of anime, not the serious kind). The "gimmicks" are actually where its heart's at.

If you start taking it too seriously though, e.g. by comparing it to big films by big directors (like Tarantino), then it's probably not for you.

Shaun of the Dead was on par; Hot Fuzz I enjoyed less than S.P.

It boils down to a person's background and tastes in the end.

[Manga Shoggoth]

My old English teacher spake thusly: "It is all right to hate Shakespeare, provided you can tell me why you hate Shakespeare". I disagree with you about the film, but your reasons are well stated.

I rather liked it. It isn't high art, deep adventure or anything else. It is just a film based on a comic.

It helped that I had read (and liked) the comic. Amusingly, I was originally put off the comic simply because if the artisitc style, but once I was past that the comic itself was quite good.

The film is a good adaptation of the comic. A lot of the style came through, and lets face it, neither are particularly serious. I thought the film played to the strengths of the medium very well. Of course, there were things that the film did better than the comic (The Amazon package, Julie, the fight with the Twins and the musical numbers), and some things that were better in the comic (largely the detail in the relationships, NegaScott and The Boys and Crash).

(..And as for adaptation, someone on the board posted a wonderful explanation as to why comic!Scott ended up with the Power of Understanding, and film!Scott ended up with the Power of Self-Respect.)

Yes, Scott (and the others) are a bit immature - but then most of the story is about them (scot especially) growing up. This comes over somewhat better in the comic.

[Emmerask]

I friend of mine recommended me that movie (because it has all those amazing game references and is totally awesome and funny...) laughed not once, didn´t like the gaming references, hated every character in that movie...

I HATED every single second of that movie (the 40 min I watched it until skipping through the fight scenes).
And even with skipping through it the shaky 1000 million cut new camera angle etc really annoyed me, and the fight scenes where merely avg tbh.

so no I do not dislike the movie, I hate it with a passion ^^

/edit though for the fight scenes, I watched Kung Fu Hustle before which had amazing!!! over the top fights so maybe I was a bit biased towards the fighting sequences ^^

[Gnomish Wanderer]

Anybody else dislike Scott Pilgrim?

Nope. Saw it twice in theaters, devoured the books. Also I disagree with whoever said the drawing was bad in the comics. I put it above Hot Fuzz but under Shaun of the Dead in my list of favorite movies ever.

[JustSomeGuy]

I'd heard from several sources that it was a uniquely funny and heartwarming tale, a future classic, etc. So i got it on dvd and my wife and i settled into the sofa to watch it.

The characters were almost all a***holes, but not in a funny 'hey watch this' kinda way, just mopey, whiney sadsacks. Also, the story didn't make much sense - guy is embarrased about his girlfriend, twotimes her for another girl but has to fight a bunch of guys for the most stretched of reasons, absurdity abounds and ambiguous morality wins the day.

I blame film critics, who have to sit through hundreds of films and yearn for outside-the-box ridiculousness to break their monotony; whereas regular folks get to watch maybe one or two films a week and just want to be entertained with exactly the stuff that critics tire off - popular entertainment.

[KillianHawkeye]

It's weird how one person can love something for all the same reasons y'all hate it, huh?

[Kindablue]

I saw it once on DVD and was pretty disappointed by it, but found myself starting it over and watching it again, maybe out of blind hope, maybe to try to wring another ounce of entertainment from it so I could feel a bit better about my purchase,I don't know. On about the forth time through I laughed at every single thing that happened. I think it's one of the most brilliantly edited together films I've ever seen--its pace making up for the not so great humor at some points. I can get why people don't like it, and why it tanked, but for me it's right on par with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

[pita]

In my haste to disparage the movie, I forgot to mention some things that I really liked: Namely, some of the side characters.
I don't remember the names, but I remember the actors.
Aubrey Plaza, wotsisface Culkin, and the cute chick from Up In The Air (Okay, I don't really remember the actors either) were all pitch perfect in every moment of theirs. Especially Culkin.
Some of the cleverness was also pretty good in its own right as well, I suppose. Young Neil took me a while to notice, but I definitely approved once I did. Nega Scott was a pretty good anticlimax, and I love those.

[Xondoure]

It's weird how one person can love something for all the same reasons y'all hate it, huh?

This. The comic book video gamey aspects are exactly what makes this movie stand out. If you can't get excited about that, than the film just isn't for you.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I for one would have found those aspects interesting if they were done ... differently.

Also I disagree with whoever said the drawing was bad in the comics.

Hi. The only person you could've meant was me. And I would like to say, I didn't say that. I said that the art, "wasn't all that good." There's a pretty big middle ground between good and bad.

[Gnomish Wanderer]

Hi. The only person you could've meant was me. And I would like to say, I didn't say that. I said that the art, "wasn't all that good." There's a pretty big middle ground between good and bad.

Hello! I only really read through the thread once quickly and then posted, sorry about the vagueness. I had read 'not all that good' to mean bad and my brain must have filed it as such. I personally found the style of drawing of the characters to be very interesting and his backgrounds, when he chose to include them, well-done. Which is why I disagreed, I didn't see anything inherently bad to the art and I still don't see anything 'not all that good' about it.

Edit: Though I would agree when he started changing the art direction the quality of the book as a whole suffered. I was much happier with the movie ending than the 6th book in the series.

[Lord Seth]

I was much happier with the movie ending than the 6th book in the series.

I completely agree with this. I saw the movie ending first and it wasn't perfect, but I thought it was decent. The 6th book's ending, though, while being very similar, just felt really hollow in its execution. I mean, it's pretty much the same ending in both, but the way it was done felt much better in the film.

I have conflicting feelings overall in the film versus the books. I feel the books did a better job in terms of there being character development and having the characters be more likable as people, which the film rushed through a lot of. On the other hand, I thought the movie's faster pace was much better...I really don't think the book series needed to be as long as it did, it really dragged at points. I think the fights were better also, especially the first one...it really benefits from seeing it in live action and actually hearing the music rather than it just being on the page. I think I liked the movie more overall.

The movie had its problems, but I think as long as you don't take it seriously it manages to be a fun and goofy film. I've also for whatever reason generally enjoyed series where the protagonist(s) have, whether for the whole series or part of it, a certain number of enemies to go through that they have to take on one by one (sometimes with there being multiples). This was part of the reason I liked the portion of Magiranger where they fight the ten members of the Infershia Pantheon one by one.

[junglesteve]

...

I love you! Scott Pilgrim is one of my biggest dislikes and usually starts a growth of hatred for whoever is touting the comics or whatever else around.

[SaintRidley]

I watched most of the movie once. Felt nothing for it. Still feel nothing. It did nothing for me.

You know. Whatever. People who like it, good for them. People who hate it, good for them.

I'm just here to register a vote in the "meh" column.

[Moff Chumley]

I loved the comics. The movie didn't really do 'em justice, but I think I would've loathed it if I hadn't read the comics.

[SDF]

The problem with the film was that it didn't develop the motivations for the characters. Knives wasn't all, "Oh hey, you should dump me. I'm totally cool with that." She really wasn't. Scott was an airhead in the comics, but there was a reason for it. Both Scott and the audience were able to like Ramona for being more than the hot alt girl in the comics because she was developed. In the film there is no reason for us to like her or want her and Scott to be together. I like how they handled the extra life thing in the film, and the bass battle was totes epic. I still enjoyed the film a lot. It was just shallower than the comic, and thats almost fitting in a generational statement way.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

In all honesty, I'm not sure why people outside of Toronto like it. I like it because it's set in my home town. I mean, when they go to Sneaky Dees, I went to school across the street from there. Gideon's club, it's set on closest major intersection to my house. Lee's Palace, I've been there. And more places that didn't make it into the movie, like Honest Ed's and the crazy deer-head there, which also exists, and yes it looks like that, for those who have read the comics.

I think literally EVERY spot in the comics is a real spot in the city. Even the random Starbucks, are actual Starbucks in the city, that he sketched the exterior of, including the signs of hte neighbouring buildings.

[SDF]

I love SLC Punk! despite loathing every minute I have to be in Salt Lake City.

[Dr.Epic]

Meh, I enjoyed it. I just finished watching it. I thought it was good, not great. I had some fun moments and some good comedy. I actually liked the romance plot of the film. It felt real and like real people, not some stupid romantic comedy. I will admit it was gimmicky which you could argue to be a strength or weakness. It does know what it wants to be and what demographic it's for, but on the other hand that does somewhat isolates the audience.

One thing I noticed about the film is all the evil X's could be members of the Ginyu Force. And if you don't know what that is, youtube it and prepare to be mentally scarred.

The comics bored me and the art wasn't all that good. I didn't even bother with the movie. So no. You are not the only one.

I'm assuming you read OotS since you're on these forums.

[Knight13]

The problem with the film was that it didn't develop the motivations for the characters. Knives wasn't all, "Oh hey, you should dump me. I'm totally cool with that." She really wasn't. Scott was an airhead in the comics, but there was a reason for it. Both Scott and the audience were able to like Ramona for being more than the hot alt girl in the comics because she was developed. In the film there is no reason for us to like her or want her and Scott to be together. I like how they handled the extra life thing in the film, and the bass battle was totes epic. I still enjoyed the film a lot. It was just shallower than the comic, and thats almost fitting in a generational statement way.

QFT. You'll likely enjoy the movie a lot more if you read the comics first, because the characters are much better developed in the comics. It makes them much more understandable and likeable in the movie because you'll know all the motivations and character depth that wasn't explored.

Personally, there were a few things I didn't like about the movie. Like how Envy and Kim's roles were reduced to almost nothing, the fact that they didn't do Last Song Kills Audience and I didn't like the new ending so much. But overall I thought it was a pretty good depiction of the comics.

[erikun]

I've read through the first comic book or so, and put it down after that. The video game references and/or things suddenly erupting into a game-off was perhaps a bit amusing at first, but got a bit old after awhile. The plot of the whole thing wasn't really stong enough or interesting enough to hold my attention.

I didn't see the movie, but I'm assuming it's like the comic and so didn't take time to watch it.

I'm assuming you read OotS since you're on these forums.

There is quite a difference between art complexity and art quality. I personally like the art for Metabots over Scott Pilgrim, despite the former obviously be less detailed. I wouldn't say that Scott Pilgrim is bad, but just that I don't like the style and aesthetics of it.