BEFORE: Still reeling from the outcome of the Super Bowl - I'm a Patriots fan living in enemy territory, though the team's glory years didn't begin until after I moved to New York. So I'm not really in the best frame of mind to watch a film, but the countdown rolls on regardless. This one should be right up my alley, since it's based on an indie comic (which I've never read, though) and was heavily promoted at Comic-Con 2 years ago.
The TCM Roadtrip is moving on without me today - hitting Eastern Europe with 6 films I've never heard of, plus "To Be or Not To Be", which I've seen. Then it's on to the Netherlands for "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Lust for Life", and finishing up in the Atlantic Ocean with "Captains Courageous". I'm taking a mulligan on this, but I'm picking up the film "Venus" on another channel, so the count remains unchanged. Hoping to make some small progress later in the week.
THE PLOT: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil exes in order to win her heart.
AFTER: Watching this film was kind of like watching a film where everyone has a thick foreign accent - sometimes it takes a half-hour or so for your ear to adjust. But in this case it was my mind that needed to make an adjustment - since the film doesn't much respect the language of film as I'm familiar with it, and by that I mean the film contains time jumps, space jumps and possibly even reality jumps, it took a while for me to understand what angle it was coming at me from.
If "Youth in Revolt" was like "Superbad" mixed with "Fight Club", this film is more like "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" mixed with "Mortal Kombat". Using video-game stylish graphics, on-screen text, and fantasy-based fight sequences, it's wildly unconventional. (I forgot to mention the animated sequences in last night's film, but it's a nice tie-in anyway) But it almost feels forced, like an adult's version of what teens might find cool - video-games, skateboarding, playing in bands, and making out. Did they hold some kind of focus group to see what teens like, and then just throw those things together?
What am I supposed to make of impossible fights and stunts, and a character who appears to be in a video-game? Sure, I understand it's all a metaphor for dealing with your partner's dating history - but am I supposed to take it all seriously like's it's really happening? If everything is a metaphor, what, if anything, am I supposed to take literally? Is any of this actually happening, or is it all a dream? And, by asking these questions, am I proving that I'm too old to understand it all?
For a film that tried so hard to be unconventional, it did fall back on two standard Hollywood-style conventions. One is the part of the traditional six-act structure that declares that "things must always be darkest before the dawn" - there must be a point in the plot where the situation seems completely hopeless, like there's no way for the hero to succeed. Then, of course, in the final turning point there comes, improbably, a way to triumph. The second is the moment of realization in the hero's journey, a teachable moment that perhaps gives the hero insight and helps him succeed. Here both take place in very obvious ways, but at least they do take place.
Here's my take-away - as a friend once told me, it sucks to be dumped, and it sucks to be the dumper. Which is why most people try to avoid those situations. But you have to treat people, even your exes and impending exes, with respect, or their spectres will continue to haunt you. In my case I asked my first wife to move out, which was incredibly painful, but she had already moved on emotionally, so continuing to live with her had become painful, as well as pointless. I did so with a heavy heart, knowing the only way my situation could improve was to go through the pain.
It's sometimes tough to say what attracts you to one person over another - but I understand that when someone regards you as their "safe" relationship, someday they may feel like you're the thing holding them back from new experiences. I was someone's safety zone, and then got regarded as a lead weight to her balloon, which wanted to soar. But in the context of this film, they didn't do a great job of explaining what qualities Ramona had that made her more appealing than Scott's other potential relationship. She was kind of a blank, plus she had all that emotional baggage - so what was it? The purple hair? That seems kind of arbitrary.
Love is a battlefield, I get that - but here's what relationships have in common with warfare (video-game or otherwise), and for that matter, big sporting events. If one person is happy, it often means that somewhere, someone else is upset, or at least disappointed.
God, it would have been great to watch this directly before "Tron: Legacy", or even "Captain America" - I could have used this to connect to another topic so easily! Damn, what a wasted opportunity.
Also starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead (last seen in "Live Free or Die Hard"), Anna Kendrick (last seen in "Up in the Air"), Kieran Culkin (last seen in "The Cider House Rules"), Ellen Wong, Chris Evans (last seen in "Push"), Brandon Routh (last seen in "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"), Mae Whitman (last heard in "The Wild Thornberrys Movie"), Jason Schwartzman (last heard in "Fantastic Mr. Fox"), Aubrey Plaza, and the voice of Bill Hader.
RATING: 6 out of 10 record stores
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