Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh, Allison Pill, Jason Schwartzman...
Synopsis: Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Boy must defeat her seven evil exes in order to win her heart. Shit gets real. Real awesome!
Brought to you by: Hooded sweatshirts, original console Nintendo fetishism, and true love. Also, giant hammers and flaming swords. But yeah, true love.Expected release date: August 13th, 2010
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JA: I've had that trailer on my iPod since it came out and have watched it way, way too many times. I could probably recite it shot by shot - "We open on Michael Cera's face, bird-like and trepidatious, slowly moving towards us..." - as if it were a story unto itself. I'm so far into the stratosphere of geeking out over this movie that it's moved past spazzy and obnoxious unto a place where a new word is needed. I hereby deem my anticipation for this movie "spaznoxious."
It didn't start out this way. I hadn't even read Bryan Lee O'Malley's comics until after the pieces started falling into place with the film and got me interested. Well, make that piece-the-singular fell into place: Edgar Wright was there, and wham bam, I was interested. Shaun of the Dead is my happy place.
But from there, more pieces. If there wasn't a Michael Cera in the world then we'd have had to forge one from the mountain of the geek-gods to play Scott. We'll see if his on-the-nose casting pays off in unexpected ways or if it's too on-the-nose, but I still have faith in the myriad pleasures of his stammering behoodied goodness.
And the rest of the cast seems like a blast. And then the test screenings where everybody's eyeballs exploded. And then the trailer showed up and it was just all too much, that we have to wait until August. Too much! I need to find a magic whistle or the secret code (Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right Select Start?) to warp myself into the future where I'm seeing the movie already!
Dave: I suppose it's helpful for this countdown that I come at this movie from a rather different direction - I've never read the comics, I've watched the trailer a mere three times, and, well, that probably makes it clear that I'm less spaznoxious than calm and intrigued - two things that probably don't really need combining into a new word. So, really, I should let you spaznoxiously ramble about this because I'm bound to come across as disengaged in comparison.
But fact is, despite my much less... immersive experience of everything Scott Pilgrim already is, I AM excited. The cast basically seems like a hipster cinephile's wet dream - and Michael Cera is yet to knock himself out of my favour, sorry everyone - and, as you said, Edgar Wright is the creator of the happy place of several thousand people. It should certainly be interesting to see how his lunatic Britishness rubs up against the geek chic Americanness of the comic (well, that's the impression I get, anyway). Although it's certainly my experience that British youth culture has become so Americanized anyway that they're practically melding into one; but nevertheless, this is younger than Wright has skewed before (we'll miss you, Mr. Pegg) so I'm intrigued to know how he handles that.
And I think the part of the trailer - which I've watched ten times, by the way - despite all the "WHIP"ing and "KPOK"ing and the deliciously hammy one-liners from the cast is the way Cera delivers the line "Seven" with such despondency, and then it's undercut by the lovely Anna Kendrick - this isn't man-flu, Anna! That chick had a chain-whip!
JA: Knowing the books, I can tell you that the trailer's def. playing up the big comic-booky aspects - gotta sell them tickets - but you're in for a treat if the interaction between Cera and Kendrick is what's hitting your buttons because these books are really funny, and the characters are all so rich. I wished they would've given some screen-time to Keiran Culkin who has the plum role of Scott's gay roommate Wallace, or to Ellen Wong as Knives, the too-young girl in love with Scott, but I guess we've still got months for that. (Ugh, months!)
Dave: Now, this information about even more characters both excites and worries me. Excites because, well, to be all youthfully enthusiastic about it, they sound awesome! And in addition to those we've already got a preview of that's one load of epic characters.
But there's the worry. Are there too many to handle? The tagline is "An epic of epic epicness" but I don't see anyone letting Wright get away with a three-hour cut. So those evil exes will have to be ousted a cut-throat rate. But that, the unfolding of it in hopefully outlandish directions, is part of the thrill, I suppose, for me and anyone else who doesn't know the story inside-out. The attitude of self-aware geekery it exudes are the key points of interest for me. But you, JA, do you not have any worries about how it might be altered for the movies? I can't remember the last comic-book adaptation that wasn't some kind of vibrantly violent thing, or a superhero. And Scott, well, I sense he's more of a super-geek.
JA: If I didn't have such an epic amount of epic faith in Mr. Wright I'd probably be more worried. Oh sure, we're gonna lose a lot of the little moments in between the battles and the multiple side-stories with multiple side-characters, but that's what I have the books for, and will always have the books for. I have no trouble seeing this as its own two-hour-ish mash-up of O'Malley's world constructed and given life by the hands of Edgar Wright, and that in itself translates to enough awesome all on its own. More than enough!
It didn't start out this way. I hadn't even read Bryan Lee O'Malley's comics until after the pieces started falling into place with the film and got me interested. Well, make that piece-the-singular fell into place: Edgar Wright was there, and wham bam, I was interested. Shaun of the Dead is my happy place.
But from there, more pieces. If there wasn't a Michael Cera in the world then we'd have had to forge one from the mountain of the geek-gods to play Scott. We'll see if his on-the-nose casting pays off in unexpected ways or if it's too on-the-nose, but I still have faith in the myriad pleasures of his stammering behoodied goodness.And the rest of the cast seems like a blast. And then the test screenings where everybody's eyeballs exploded. And then the trailer showed up and it was just all too much, that we have to wait until August. Too much! I need to find a magic whistle or the secret code (Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right Select Start?) to warp myself into the future where I'm seeing the movie already!
Dave: I suppose it's helpful for this countdown that I come at this movie from a rather different direction - I've never read the comics, I've watched the trailer a mere three times, and, well, that probably makes it clear that I'm less spaznoxious than calm and intrigued - two things that probably don't really need combining into a new word. So, really, I should let you spaznoxiously ramble about this because I'm bound to come across as disengaged in comparison.
But fact is, despite my much less... immersive experience of everything Scott Pilgrim already is, I AM excited. The cast basically seems like a hipster cinephile's wet dream - and Michael Cera is yet to knock himself out of my favour, sorry everyone - and, as you said, Edgar Wright is the creator of the happy place of several thousand people. It should certainly be interesting to see how his lunatic Britishness rubs up against the geek chic Americanness of the comic (well, that's the impression I get, anyway). Although it's certainly my experience that British youth culture has become so Americanized anyway that they're practically melding into one; but nevertheless, this is younger than Wright has skewed before (we'll miss you, Mr. Pegg) so I'm intrigued to know how he handles that.
And I think the part of the trailer - which I've watched ten times, by the way - despite all the "WHIP"ing and "KPOK"ing and the deliciously hammy one-liners from the cast is the way Cera delivers the line "Seven" with such despondency, and then it's undercut by the lovely Anna Kendrick - this isn't man-flu, Anna! That chick had a chain-whip!JA: Knowing the books, I can tell you that the trailer's def. playing up the big comic-booky aspects - gotta sell them tickets - but you're in for a treat if the interaction between Cera and Kendrick is what's hitting your buttons because these books are really funny, and the characters are all so rich. I wished they would've given some screen-time to Keiran Culkin who has the plum role of Scott's gay roommate Wallace, or to Ellen Wong as Knives, the too-young girl in love with Scott, but I guess we've still got months for that. (Ugh, months!)
Dave: Now, this information about even more characters both excites and worries me. Excites because, well, to be all youthfully enthusiastic about it, they sound awesome! And in addition to those we've already got a preview of that's one load of epic characters.
But there's the worry. Are there too many to handle? The tagline is "An epic of epic epicness" but I don't see anyone letting Wright get away with a three-hour cut. So those evil exes will have to be ousted a cut-throat rate. But that, the unfolding of it in hopefully outlandish directions, is part of the thrill, I suppose, for me and anyone else who doesn't know the story inside-out. The attitude of self-aware geekery it exudes are the key points of interest for me. But you, JA, do you not have any worries about how it might be altered for the movies? I can't remember the last comic-book adaptation that wasn't some kind of vibrantly violent thing, or a superhero. And Scott, well, I sense he's more of a super-geek.
JA: If I didn't have such an epic amount of epic faith in Mr. Wright I'd probably be more worried. Oh sure, we're gonna lose a lot of the little moments in between the battles and the multiple side-stories with multiple side-characters, but that's what I have the books for, and will always have the books for. I have no trouble seeing this as its own two-hour-ish mash-up of O'Malley's world constructed and given life by the hands of Edgar Wright, and that in itself translates to enough awesome all on its own. More than enough!
What about you, dear readers? Is that a joystick
in your pocket, or are you just excited for this movie?
.
in your pocket, or are you just excited for this movie?
.
"We Can't Wait: Summer and Beyond"
The "orphan" picks Nathaniel (Burlesque), JA (Love and Other Drugs), Jose (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Craig (What's Wrong With Virginia?), Robert (True Grit) and Dave (Brighton Rock); Team Film Experience Countdown #12 It's Kind of a Funny Story, #11 Sex & the City 2, #10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World, #9 Somewhere, #8 The Kids Are All Right, #7 The Illusionist, #6 Toy Story 3, #5 Inception, #4 Rabbit Hole, #3 Never Let Me Go, #2 Black Swan and #1 The Tree of Life.
The "orphan" picks Nathaniel (Burlesque), JA (Love and Other Drugs), Jose (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Craig (What's Wrong With Virginia?), Robert (True Grit) and Dave (Brighton Rock); Team Film Experience Countdown #12 It's Kind of a Funny Story, #11 Sex & the City 2, #10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World, #9 Somewhere, #8 The Kids Are All Right, #7 The Illusionist, #6 Toy Story 3, #5 Inception, #4 Rabbit Hole, #3 Never Let Me Go, #2 Black Swan and #1 The Tree of Life.
