Hey all. I was thinking on how to do an article such as this. I for one am not the kind to attack ones article for being stupid or a jumble of words basically praising a work. I for one look at an article and break it down and find that fault points it may have. So before I begin heres the link to the article in which I'm gonna do a counter to, keep in mind, I respect the authors intentions and respect both his and CBR's opinion. So heres the link to it
http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2010/08/14/why-scott-pilgrim-is-the-movie-comic-book-movies-should-model-themselves-after/
Give yourselves a few minutes to read it, then begin to read my points.........................................................alright, lets begin
So the basic and overall point of the article above, is that the way Scott Pilgrim was filmed and edited, should be the new "NORM" for the next set of Comic book movie adaptations. So seeing sound FX in real life, and the split cuts like a comic book panel should be part of it. We have seen that in Ang Lee's THE HULK, which we all know how that worked out don't we.....yeah....Still I think the problem is that he mentions "ALL" comic book films should model after its new style. Think that for a second....Imagine Nolan bringing those biffs and pows to the dark, gritty, and realistic world he has established in his Batman movies. The one problem is that NOT ALL comic book movies can follow this same idea and style, because it would eventually become stale and no longer "original". Now I give Scott Pilgrim a lot of credit for being a new type of ballsy for it making itself totally original in terms of comic book adaptations in a long time, yet perhaps its style and concepts were too much for the mainstream....I mean who were the studio aiming this for? The fans? Newcomers?...
Now as I'm typing this, it was just revealed on IMDB that it only made 10.5 million dollars on its opening weekend, which makes it a somewhat flop, yet considering this super crowded summer, its no surprise, add to the fact that it was going up action ACTION HEROES: THE MOVIE....people want to see mindless violence, and thats what they got. I think this film might have done a tad bit better if it was released during the fall or early winter, and maybe if it had a better marketing side then it might have gotten more people in the seats. Whatever the reason for it; Bad marketing, No big names, or story it's a film that will earn its place in the cult classic vault, right next to fight club and heavy metal.
Okay, so I gave that a glancing but now to the main aspect. The idea of it being the model for comic book movies. When it comes to creating a comic book movie's Universe, but theres this one aspect the studios do actually think about when it comes to these kinds of investments....the thing where it determines a films success or failure. I'm talking about the Balance between Fantasy and Believability . Imagine if you will scale, one side is Fantasy and the other side is Reality, now how much do you put on which aspect....do you go all out with the fantasy aspects of the source material like Sin City.....or do you go for a believable approach much like TDK or Iron Man. In Scott Pilgrims case the fantasy outweighs the believability far greatly than most comic films usually do...it outweighs it so much that the scale has tipped over. One major thing that most comic book films do is they establish the world the characters live in and how their rules apply when it comes to their powers or abilities, much like Iron Man established that this was a on the edge of technological advances with the drones and tech Stark uses. Same can be said with Incredible Hulk, we know that the idea is that his transformation is the combination of a Super Solider like formula mixed with a blast of radiation. Also with Spider-man with the genetically altered spiders, they all establish the films world and rules in the films, so we never have to question how and why things are happening.
Scott Pilgrims universe and characters live in a world where nothing is questioned. They have these epic battles and hyperspace, yet they are never properly explained, even simple minded audience members like somethings explained. Seeing a character pull a sword out of nowhere, must be explained even if its a tiny one, not just for the sake of the characters "Ability". Now you might argue that well Inception never explained the machine that allows linked dreaming, that may be true, but they at least give a tiny explanation that it was used by the military for training purposes....thats good enough in my book.
So for me and I'm sure some of you too, each and every Comic Book Movies should have their own looks and style, not every character should be interpreted as the same, we like variety in our comic book films. I like seeing how each director brings to the table. What Wright did with this, he did keep it true to the source, which I respect him for doing, its rare a director can keep that kind of image nowadays. So with Scott Pilgrim done, lets hope we see an awesome and well done version of Ant-man. Let me hear what you all got to say. Post comments like crazy. Catch you all later, Aki87 out!!!