His friends and
partners in crime Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and
Jessica Hynes are all folks who have an unabashed
love for pop culture. "Spaced" the UK sitcom that is
a beloved treasure among cult fans is without a
doubt a pop culture orgy. Every single minute and
line behind every episode has some kind of reference
to a movie or video game. "Shaun of the Dead" was a
horror comedy founded on the premise of famous
zombie and demon films, and "Hot Fuzz" was a
celebration of the action genre referencing cult
action films like "Bad Boys 2," and "Point Break,"
so audiences will be quick to imagine that Edgar
Wright is paying tribute to American pop culture.
But I can still remember sitting down to watch
"Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and after an hour
watching it with my attention undivided I leaned
back with a furrowed brow and thought "Wait a
minute, he's actually mocking the culture he's
spotlighting." And while a lot of movie buffs have
insisted the film is a testament to the power of
love, I insist this film is a clear cut mockery of
the modern culture of apathetic hipster video gaming
pop culture obsessed nostalgia orgy youths whose
every sense of individualism is just a pastiche of
eighties culture that they pretend is their own
personal stamp until called on it. "Scott Pilgrim"
by Edgar Wright makes it pretty clear in its own
subtle ways that this movie is actually one big
"fuck you, loser" to the viewing audience.
| The
entire film is set up to feel like a
romance comedy about the underdog
winning the hot girl, but really Edgar
Wright uses this entire platform as a
way of pointing at the audience and
laughing at them and questioning their
ultimate goals in life. And whether or
not people will love or hate it for that
depends on the final reaction from movie
goers now that the movie is available
for purchasing. Every aspect of the film
is a flip of the bird to the movie
watching audience, and Wright even
manages to slip in some middle fingers
to us who will laugh unaware he's giving
us the bird. The movie mocks literally
everything from Gamers, hipsters, anime,
anime fans, vegans, rockers, rich kids,
movie buffs, rock stars, apathy,
celebrities, fan boys, fan girls,
skaters, the internet, censorship
(character Julie Powers drops the F bomb
repeatedly, being bleeped, and the
characters call attention to that),
Bollywood, smug fan boys (character
Comeau is heard in the background
complaining how something wasn't as good
as the comic book and or movie, and or
chucks a dumb one-line joke) and even
homosexuality to a certain degree. |
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His statement on the
latter is not homophobic but is more an explanation
on how we're so out of touch with our own identity
something as very life changing as sleeping with the
same sex is just a minor little quibble to us. What
is a fate changing revelation that could make or
break some people's relationships with their family
and friends is turned in to a minor impulse by
Ramona Flowers who scoffs off the very notion of
sleeping with Roxy Richter. In the same tangent of
Wright's evident mockery, I'm still trying to decide
if there is at least one single sympathetic
character in the entire show that is "Scott Pilgrim
vs. The World." Ramona Flowers can probably be the
only true to herself character in the group of
Canadian youths she hangs around but this is a
character so disingenuous that she just loathes
herself to a point where she runs away from home,
and changes her hair color in every scene she
re-appears in.
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One
could offer the possibility that Knives
Chau is really the only genuine
character due to her inability to bend
to conformity until Scott Pilgrim gets
entangled with Ramona and is not shy
about her feelings concerning music and
video games, but even then this is a
character who has to literally conform
to realize that being herself is much
better, in the end. And you definitely
can not tell me Scott Pilgrim is
sympathetic. The man is so unlikable
even his own sister completely avoids
him, dismisses him when it's clear he's
quite in love with Ramona, and there is
no actual parental presence in the
story. And by the end of the film even
Knives Chau, who obsesses over Scott
throughout the story, completely
declares that she's too good for him.
Pilgrim is a man filled with
insecurities and quirks and psychosis
that turns him in to someone a normal
person would completely hate. |
He freaks out over
every suspicion of revealing flaw, lies to himself
and others about past relationships, and is quick to
cover his head whenever anyone notices his shaggy
hair. Most of his dialogue at the beginning of the
movie consists of this series of Scott manipulating
and undermining Knives as she endures it and sticks
to her dreamy view of Scott during conversations
that are comprised of:
Knives: Here's
my opinion.
Scott: That's dumb.
Knives: I think this.
Scott: That's dumb, think this.
Knives: I like this.
Scott: Like this instead.
| Stephen
Stills is a very underrated character if
only because while he is one of the many
characters who lacks any real
sympathetic qualities, he is very honest
about his insecurities and seems to
embrace his nervousness and anxiety
which in a sense helps him on stage when
performing with Sex Bob-omb. Stills
holds the group together and is a great
singer and guitarist, he's just too
inept to be taken at all seriously. And
as for Kim Pines, she doesn't even want
to be there half of the time. The entire
time Wright holds these characters under
a microscope and every so gently asks
the audience "Do these people have
actual problems?" I mean wouldn't anyone
kill to have these "problems" where your
troubles boil down to "Oh my god, my
hair is getting long!" or "Bread makes
you fat?!" Sadly enough there are people
out there whose entire day revolves
around these "problems" while the rest
of the world is relatively non-existent.
The only really interesting character
you can say is truly human is Ramona
Flowers. |
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Many of the critiques
I read online was that she was barely interesting to
be a dream girl, but that's basically the point.
This is a woman who has led a life filled with exes,
and has admitted to being about as cruel as a human
being can be. But when Scott Pilgrim meets eyes with
her he is in love for the simple fact that she's not
impressed by him, and she actually has to learn to
like him and see through his inanity. He can't woo
her with video game knowledge, all of his jokes fail
to make her laugh, and she can barely stand to be
around him when she delivers his mystery package to
him the fateful Monday morning, but she is the best
thing to happen to him because she is able to cut
through his flaws and turn Scott in to something
resembling a human being, while she is able to
confront the misdeeds of her past that she ran away
from and own up to them, while also presenting
something of a backbone by atoning for her sins.
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