{"id":86,"date":"2010-10-14T12:30:48","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T11:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=86"},"modified":"2010-10-14T12:30:48","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T11:30:48","slug":"scott-pilgrim-versus-the-rewrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2010\/10\/14\/scott-pilgrim-versus-the-rewrite\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Rewrite"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ramona busts out of her chains to kick some ass.<\/p><\/div>\n

So when nearly half of the BadRep team took a trip to Tottenham Court Road to see Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World<\/a><\/strong>, I agreed to write about it. Markgraf wrote a review earlier, but here’s a look at both the movie and the comics.<\/p>\n

Yeah. Reviewing a film where a man duels a woman’s exes so that he can date her… for a feminist website? I must be mad.<\/p>\n

But it is not that Scott believes girlfriends can be won by duelling other guys. He’s not complicit in any medieval romance-style scenario. He and Ramona are already<\/em> dating. It is more that these exes, this oddly-dressed group who DO subscribe to the idea that people can be won or lost romantically through fighting battles, must be dealt with before Scott and Ramona can get on with their lives, free of these people who keep on crashing through the ceiling and punching Scott in the face. Because that kind of thing can really ruin your first date.<\/p>\n

Now there were many good things about the movie, from Ramona’s ever-changing brightly-coloured hair (call me a fangirl, but I can see how Scott fell in love with her at first sight – I did!) to Edgar Wright’s special effects, which were gorgeous. The fight scenes were well done, just as overblown and tongue-in-cheek as they ought to have been, without looking cheap. I also loved the little touches, such as the cute “RIIIIINNG!” bubbletext that emerged occasionally from the phone in Scott’s flat, reminding us of the film’s comic book roots. The cast was well-chosen – Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s sardonic Ramona masters the spirit of the character spot on, especially when straight-faced and dealing with the fantastic, (boys shooting lasers out of their eyes, etc) whereas Kieran Culkin steals every scene he’s in as Wallace Wells. Can we have a Wallace Wells movie, please? I know Markgraf agrees…<\/p>\n

However, the movie suffers in two ways in comparison to the books: 1) Some things just don’t translate as well in a movie, and 2) the movie was written before Bryan Lee O’Malley finished the final books, and therefore there are some aspects of the plot which just don’t add up.<\/p>\n

The franchise has been criticised<\/a> for being shallow, and it kind of is. It is a ‘scene’ franchise. It presents a world where getting your band noticed or getting that girl to notice you is the biggest of your first-world problems, a world almost entirely made up of attractive, mostly white, thin teens and twenty-somethings. Was there anyone<\/em> outside of this age range who appeared in the movie?<\/p>\n

But the franchise has good reason to seem this shallow. Bryan Lee O’Malley, the author of the series, told the actors certain things about their characters that would help them act their parts. The most revealing of these is the one Michael Cera chooses to quote in an interview:<\/p>\n

The one that really stays in my head is that Scott, in his mind, is the star of his own movie. This movie is, in a way, existing in his own mind. This is his weird perception of the world around him.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scott IS this shallow, this is his world as Scott Pilgrim sees it<\/em>. The movie and comics are not flinching in their portrayal of Scott as… well… a bit of a dick, really. Where the movie is insubstantial in its scope and concerns, it is because Scott Pilgrim himself is a shallow kinda guy.<\/p>\n

So I’m not going to criticise the franchise for its essential lack of depth. What I will say is that this shallowness seems more pronounced in the movie than in the comics, and I believe this is a flaw in the medium, not in the message.<\/p>\n

It is much more painful to watch a real-live actor say clueless lines such as \u201cLike, Chinese food?\u201d, dismiss lesbianism, constantly<\/em> mention Knives’ race, or watch an Indian bad guy perform an exaggerated Bollywood dance, on screen in a room full of movie goers, than it is to read the same thing in a comic, coming from tiny, black and white cartoon people on the page. The comic, because it is unrealistic, reminds us that this is Scott’s ‘weird perception’ of the world, whereas the film, while there are unrealistic special effects, is not quite as good at this.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the movie also makes cuts which interfere with the story. A comic book in which there was room for the four non-white characters to be developed gives way to a movie where the Japanese Katayanagi twins are the only two of Ramona’s exes who do not speak a single<\/em> line. Knives’ development from an obsessed high-schooler to a kickass kid who’s moved on feels much too rushed onscreen, if she’s moved on at all.<\/p>\n

When the movie was originally written, it was given a ‘Team Knives’ ending – she was the one who ended up taking Scott home. The actresses were playing all their scenes in the knoweldge that Knives would win Scott in the end. Then when the sixth and final comic book came out with a ‘Team Ramona’ ending, just before the release of the movie, the very last scene was very quickly re-filmed to make sure that Scott ended up with Ramona.<\/a><\/p>\n

This hurts both Knives’ and Ramona’s portrayal in the movie. Movie Knives does not move on, seemingly in love with Scott even as she tells him to chase Ramona in the final scene. She supports Scott during the final battle, making some really heroic action heroine moves, and generally seems a much better choice than the flighty Movie Ramona who only stands by to watch Scott get mercilessly pummeled by Gideon. Knives never reaches the place she does in the books, where she has realised that a) Scott is a dick who cheated on her and b) while she forgives him, she’s got too much self-respect to ever go out with him again.<\/p>\n

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Ramona and Scott deliver the final blow to Gideon.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ramona is also massively short-changed by the rewrite. Comics Ramona’s very large part in the final battle is entirely glossed over, so that she is a passive observer for most of the final scenes in the movie. In the comics, she AND Scott defeat Gideon, together. She throws off Gideon’s mind-control by her own ingenuity, and she and Scott deliver the final blow to Gideon together, <\/em>with one, simultaneous sword-strike. That final blow symbolises the new equality in the relationship, the new power balance. It’s pretty essential to Ramona’s character, and it wasn’t in the movie.<\/p>\n

Movie Ramona is a poor mind-controlled girl who gets rescued by Scott. Comics Ramona rescues herself. I’ll always love the comics more, if only for that.<\/p>\n

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World <\/strong>was a very enjoyable movie, and the premise is hardly as crappy in its gender politics as many BadReppers thought it might be, but it is sad that so much of the material from the comics was lost. It also suffers from a clumsily rewritten ending which punished some brilliant secondary characters and could probably have been avoided with better communication between Bryan Lee O’Malley and his scriptwriters. All in all, it’s an exciting, colourful movie which brought a great line of comics to life for many viewers, but the final half will leave some comics fans with a slight aftertaste of missed opportunity.<\/p>\n