{"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":"
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
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 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