I acknowledge and agree with most, if not all of the flaws mentioned in your review, and it just hurt too much how rushed the third act of the film felt. Scott Pilgrim is definitely my favorite film of 2010 right next to Inception (I’m totally crushed to see that neither of them are up for academy awards) even if it’s not perfect. The one thing I will say is, that I really wished they would’ve taken their time to make a series of films out of this. With the amount of precious story there is in the book series, this could’ve easily been a remarkable trilogy.

excelent post, keep it coming…

When reading the book and watching the movie, I was totally okay with how certain events transpired and how ceratin characters were translated from one medium to the other. When I learned that it was through Scott’s Eyes, I became accepting.

Ramona is a cardboard cut out of her book counter-part. That’s because Scott is completely self-absorbed. He doesn’t really like to get to know people outside of how it will benefit him. An example would be when he kicks out Wallace of their apartment (really Wallace’s apartment ) so they can have an intimate night. The scenes that transpire, most of the time, it’s just Scott asking shallow questions and Ramona question Scott to the point where he gets embarrased (hair-cuts, song written for her….).

If you think about why her character was cut super short and the time limit Wright was given, you can only imagine where he would put more of her story (deleted scenes maybe). 7 Evil Exs under 2 hours is quite a feat (I feel bad for the twins. Should of definately got more screen time but apparently they spoke little to NO English whatsoever). Out of all the characters, Knives it the one that really had no excuse (aside from said perspective issue). She had the most screen time and had a somewhat developed backstory that ended short because of reasons I’m unaware of. Her giving Scott away to Ramona did feel a bit force, but that’s because the whole ending felt contrived and a bit rushed. Granted, the book’s ending hadn’t been written til after completion of the film.

I felt that the movie did it’s best to portray a certain aspect of the books to the best of it’s ability. Short of having a multi-movie Scott Pilgrim, Wright’s adaptation was probably the best we would have gotten. I didn’t feel taken aback from the “racism” or “sexism” because like the books, I wasn’t looking for it, nor did it pop up in my face as if I were watching an episode of Glee. The whole thing was, as you said, non-chalant about the whole ordeal (both the book and the movie). Hopefully the audience takes it as such (which wouldn’t be hard since only a handful of people watched it in theaters)

Ramona’s decisions are treated as her own, but they are called into question by Gideon’s mind-inhabiting ability (in the movie, via neck chip; in the book, via star portal through conscious sub-space). Going back through the books, Gideon actually has even more of a presence than the film, for the characters and the audience.

Envy Adams was an ass in the books too.

Knives Chau feels better to me in the film than the books. She does more sterotypical Asian-y and Scott-obsessive things in the source material, so it hits harder there than the film. At the same time, simply because a charcter can be seen as sterotypical, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be depicted. I knew someone in college that acted really similarly to Knives. Coming from the indie-music background, it’s not hard to find a “Knives” at a show or store. That’s just my experience. Also, this isn’t just tied to one gender or culture, this goes for everyone. My friends and I knew people who were like the “unbelievable” characters in Napoleon Dynamite. People said the same thing about Precious. I’ve seen it all.

The Matt Patel fight is designed as a song in the book, or at least rhyming dialogue. Making it a Bollywood number and more of a monologue makes the scene a bit more sensible. Then again, when the character is a mystically-enhanced Indian fellow that fights like Dhalsim from Street Fighter or a Dragonball character, Bollywood shouldn’t be a negative.

I don’t feel too bad about the Katayanagi twins since they basically got Daft Punk’d in the film. Awesome.

Scott Pilgrim, the character, kinda gave me a Banky Edwards (Chasing Amy) vibe. Just as relatable and ignorant, but less venomous. This is based on the film and books. That said, there is nothing in the film that illustrates that “lesbians just need a good man”. The knee thing is in the books, but Scott does it to Envy to stop her from attacking Knives and Ramona. Both sources sexualize the videogame concept of weak-points. It’s fine if both are found disturbing, just put it in context.

Glad you liked the books and the film. Too bad so few saw this in theaters.