Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Rewrite
Ramona busts out of her chains to kick some ass.
So when nearly half of the BadRep team took a trip to Tottenham Court Road to see Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, I agreed to write about it. Markgraf wrote a review earlier, but here’s a look at both the movie and the comics.
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.
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 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.
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…
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.
The franchise has been criticised 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 outside of this age range who appeared in the movie?
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:
Scott IS this shallow, this is his world as Scott Pilgrim sees it. 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.
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.
It is much more painful to watch a real-live actor say clueless lines such as “Like, Chinese food?”, dismiss lesbianism, constantly 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Ramona and Scott deliver the final blow to Gideon.
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, 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.
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.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World 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.
I loved this movie sooo much! It was fantastic and i’m really interested by the extra information about how the movie was changed, cos I also felt that the climax didn’t quite seem emotionally satisfying. Might have to go read the novels now.
One thing that I felt there could have been more of, from a purely personal level, is an acknowledgement that sometimes exes can just get on as friends. I guess Scott and Knives kinda reach this point and Scott and Drummer Girl do a bit too (but she doesn’t seem hugely happy about it) but it just would have been nice to see a positive example of how exes can interact, though it didn’t really spoil my enjoyment at all.
Finally, Wallace was clearly awesome, but did it kinda upset anyone else how Macauly Culkins *little* brother is now playing the older, wiser friend in a movie? Way to make me feel old.
“Way to make me feel old.”
Make *you* feel old?
Dude, he’s about 3 years younger than me…
The one thing that utterly pissed me off about this film was the way Scott defeated Roxy – I mean, straight guy defeats gay woman by giving her an orgasm? Are you serious?
I think on an even broader level the script kind of “feminises” all of Roxy’s fight, and her defeat, which occurs on a sexual rather than purely violent premise.
I wonder if this had anything to do with some discomfort on Wright’s part about showing a woman being knocked out by a man more straightforwardly? I believe the orgasm is in the comics(?) but even before that Ramona enables Scott to start hitting Roxy in a sort of puppeteering sequence, too, presumably because her involvement makes it look less “Scott beats up a girl”? This part had me torn between “oh good, Ramona gets involved with her baggage, and works together with Scott, FINALLY” and “Gnngh, it would be the LADYFIGHT, wouldn’t it…”
As Jen points out, in the books they work together in the comic to take on Gideon, and we don’t get that on film. I think it’s good they get a chance in the script to fight together at SOME point, as it’s the fastest way to diffuse Ramona’s Damsel Tendency, and I like that it doesn’t get left to the end, but at the same time it’s nowhere near as cool as it would have been if Wright had known that’s how the comics were going to end. I think violence and action sequences continue to give Hollywood headaches when women are involved, unless it all runs on certain rails…
I’ve only read the first two comic books myself, so I could be wrong, but if Wikipedia can be trusted (!) then the ‘back of the knee’ trick was actually something Scott pulled on Envy – and it was a distraction tactic, it didn’t mean he automatically won the fight. Still not wonderful, but slightly less dodgy subtextually speaking than what happened in the film.
Yeah, the whole “I can’t fight you, you’re a girl!” thing really rubbed me the wrong way. Sigh.
Oh god yes. I was already over the wordcount with this piece, but yeah, this needs interrogating, really.
I wonder if it can be ascribed to the ‘scott is a dick’ theory? (And the world is how Scott sees it, so…)
They also left out the whole bit of Stills coming out. Which fair enough, it’s a side character subplot and you can’t cram all of those into a movie, but I still would have liked to see it in there.
Yeah! When you told me he was originally a gay character, I remember saying I had no idea!
Does he end up with anyone?
Yes, he ends up with Joseph who records Sex Bob-ombs first album and then forms a band with Stills.
In the video game, you can choose to play as Ramona. While the plot itself doesn’t change at all, the perspective changes completely. Instead of it being about Scott beating up Ramona’s evil exes so he can be with her, it’s about Ramona taking on her OWN past so that SHE can be with HIM.
Also, in Kim’s ending she ends up with Knives.
Now THAT is interesting.
That, to me, hints at the good intentions of the directorial decisions, even if they weren’t obvious to all of us….
… as I said to a friend or two when I saw the film, though: I’d love to see a Ramona movie! I’d love to see the whole thing from her perspective, with her inner monologues, and so on.
It’d be like a kickass, better version of that time Stephenie Meyer (not that I particularly endorse her work in any way!) released a version of Twilight as a downloadable PDF… all rewritten from the stone-cold freaking murderous POV of Edward!
Wait. You can play the game so that Kim Pine ends up with Knives, was that? Or is it that Ramona does?!
Either is a pretty good call, I reckon. I like what I’m hearing about the game’s openness to other outcomes, with lots of bisexual possibilities.
Kim does. They kiss in the comics, too!
The more I read this thread, the more I wish they’d serialised the films, like the comics! Squishing it all into a film meant that Wallace became the Flagship Gay Male Character, Roxy the Flagship Gay Female Character, bisexuality was an off-screen, alluded-to-as-a-phase event, and so on.
There’s so much stuff going on that just isn’t in the films! Which leaves the films feeling much more like they rely on the Big Damsel Winning framing device rather than it being only part of what’s going on.
The more I hear about this franchise, the more I see why so many of my feminist friends like it. Because, as you know, I spent MONTHS going “Have you guys all gone mad? This sounds like Super Mario with an emo haircut! The rotten PREMISE of this UNCONVINCES ME, claims of wry irony notwithstanding! The PREMMMMISE! D:”.
And so on.
I adored the movie, but now I really want to read the comics because in the Big Fight I kept desperately wanting Ramona to defeat Gideon. Nice to know how much more depth is in the original.
Nice pair of reviews. Er, so to speak.
Interesting to see how your different approaches to it gel with my own.
Markgraf highlighted what to me was the big deal of the film, which was that fighting the evil exes was allegorical for fighting the ghosts of the past – the experience, in the real world, of wading through your partner’s emotional baggage, and being compared to memories you can never hope to live up to.
But Jenni picked up what for me was the second biggest deal of the film, which was how subjective the story is. It’s like those cut-scenes from old John Cusack films where the hero’s emotional state is conveyed in a hyperreal “daydream” retelling of the current scene, before snapping back to the waking world. Except Scott never comes out of his daydream.
Many thanks. Both cool reviews.
I just assumed that the film was really about how Scott Pilgrim goes mad and kills himself.
First he starts hallucinating this imaginary girlfriend, and then he beats up random people on the premise that they are her evil exes. Eventually he shoots his best chance of success in the foot by beating up the battle of the bands dude due to his paranoid delusions, then finally he is abandoned by his long-suffering high-schooler girlfriend and steps through the door out of the world (probably in front of a truck or something) with his delusion.
But maybe that’s just me.