Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

[RegularKarate]

You must've seen this in NYC, because if you had seen it in Austin and didn't invite me, I wouldn't even be talking to you right now.

Ha... I'm sorry, Matt... I didn't find out about the screening until the day of.  It was a Facebook thing that you had to RSVP to.

If it makes it any better, I had to stand in line for almost three hours and still had to sit in the front.

[matt35mm]

That makes it a little better.   

[Gamblour.]

Saw this last night with Edgar Wright, Michael Cera, and Jason Schwartzman. An amazing film and a great q&a. Will have more details later, but for now, I loved the film, top 10 of the year for sure, and I had a gripe here or there, but Edgar Wright has made something completely and uniquely different than any film that's out there. It's a treat to watch, and he's got such good taste, everything in it is enjoyable.

Jason Schwartzman is ridiculously charming and funny in person.

[Pubrick]

Jason Schwartzman is ridiculously charming and funny in person.

And he's about as tall as a goat, right?

That's what I like about him.

He should play Dustin Hoffman.

[RegularKarate]

He should play Dustin Hoffman.

Ha.
Didn't he already do this in Rushmore?

[socketlevel]

He should play Dustin Hoffman.

Ha.
Didn't he already do this in Rushmore?

Dustin Hoffman is far too genuine. Jason tries hard to get laughs. while they look similar, their demeanor is almost polar.

[RegularKarate]

you just answered that question.

[Pubrick]

anyway this movie is too long.

i watched it knowing absolutely nothing about the comics but if you've seen the trailer more than once (as i did each time i saw inception) then you've pretty much seen the whole movie. there is nothing to this film besides the premise, and there is barely any internal logic guiding that. everything seems arbitrary to the point that after every "battle" you're kinda dreading the next one in the sense that you just KNOW it's gonna go on for another hour if you count how many more people he has to fight. and then they add even MORE fights!

the visuals are amazing. and i hate categorizing things into departments so let me explain what i mean by visuals. i mean the visual momentum of the film is incredible. not just pretty pictures but really entertaining and engaging cinematic touches. apart from some gimmicks that repeat themselves too often (they are hardly as annoying and boring as the STORY itself), every scene is kept fresh and really a pleasure to experience.

michael cera looks way too old now. his chin is disappearing at an alarming rate and being replaced by a george lucas-like turkey waddle. it was hard to look at him sometimes especially in profile. Mary Elizabeath Winstead (whoever she is) did nothing except keep a stone face and open her big beautiful eyes. lady pubrick has hair like her so i could see the attraction but the film does nothing to really justify why this turkey-man is putting himself through all this bullshit.

and it is bullshit in the end. the two biggest problems of the film are the lack of internal logic to any of the characters decisions both in the love story and in the action story. of course it uses a lot of literal comic book and video game integration to the PHYSICS of the film so i am not expecting 100% realism but there MUST be something guiding what happens.. at no point is it clear what this is. for example why does he need to fight someone she went out with in 7th grade? there is just no way to believe on ANY level that this should be a problem.. when have you ever known someone older than 12 who gives a shit about whatever "relationships" they had at such a young age? it's ridiculous in principle.

the only defence i can think of relates to what is revealed towards the end with the main bad guy (all of which is completely predictable by the way), but even that makes no sense either. and in the end i don't think we're supposed to care. it's funny in the first half hour and if it had kept that up i wouldn't mind that a bunch of stuff just happened for no reason at all.

[RegularKarate]

I agree with almost everything P said except that I think I must have liked it more than him.
I guess that a lot of the issue he brings up just don't matter that much.  It's a different kind of movie.  It flows just like a comic book / video game (I haven't read this comic and don't need to in order to get that this movie is like a comic book).  The battling of exes represents a struggle you have with comparing yourself to a girl's exes... it's cheap, simple, and all I really needed to push this movie.

It is too long though (QUICK MILD SPOILER: why does the girl ex show up and then leave and then show up again?  why did we need that scene at all?) and I did keep asking myself how many more evil exes he's going to have to fight and how long that would take.

Also, I would fall in love with that girl without really knowing her.

[matt35mm]

So I went to see this at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar) at midnight, and before the movie, a guy came out and told some lousy jokes, drank a guy's milkshake, and yelled, "I drink your milkshake."  Then, he mumbled, "I've got a guest for you, I think?" and IN WALKS EDGAR WRIGHT.  He said some nice things about loving us for coming to see his movie, and then proceeded to give every single audience member a high five.  He ran down each row like a fucking champion.  I geeked the fuck out.  It was an awesome moment.

It's too late and too soon for me to say very much about the movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and thought it was a lot of fun.  I laughed, I cheered, I applauded, and I gave Edgar Wright a high five.  All in all, a damned good night.

[Stefen]

Hah. That's awesome. Did you have even the slightest idea he would show up?



Also,

[matt35mm]

I had no idea.  We weren't even at the largest Alamo Drafthouse (maybe some of the cast members were at the larger one?).  When he came out, I recognized him immediately, but my brain still took a couple of extra seconds to understand that he was actually there.  I didn't know he was in Austin.

I'm new enough to Austin that I'm still not just expecting this stuff to happen, but with the frequency that awesome stuff like this happens here, I might become jaded pretty soon.

[RegularKarate]

I had no idea.  We weren't even at the largest Alamo Drafthouse (maybe some of the cast members were at the larger one?).  When he came out, I recognized him immediately, but my brain still took a couple of extra seconds to understand that he was actually there.  I didn't know he was in Austin.

I'm new enough to Austin that I'm still not just expecting this stuff to happen, but with the frequency that awesome stuff like this happens here, I might become jaded pretty soon.

Yeah, he was there for the big Fantastic Fest/AICN premiere which I think was at the Lamar location (Technically speaking, the Lamar IS the biggest of the drafthouses... the downtown one is just considered the original, it only has two theaters though).

From what I hear, Jason Schwartzman was at the big screening and possibly Michael Cera. 
I almost went to go see Freebie and the Bean at the Weird Wednesday the other night because I knew Wright was in town and I know he loves that movie (He did a similar thing for Hott Fuzz when that came out and he showed Freebie there).

[Stefen]

This was just good, not great.

Visually, it's amazing. There is so much going on in this that it always keeps your interest and as long as you're not colorblind, it will keep you slack-jawed. It's just really really pretty and fun to watch. Sometimes the constant references and things happening on screen get a bit too much, but that's okay.

I never read the graphic novels so I don't really know what worked and what didn't, but overall, I had a good time all things considered.

The biggest problem is Mike Cera. He's in pretty much every scene and 100 minutes of Mike Cera is just too much. It's way too much, man. He is not a good actor.

Also you don't really give a shit about any of the characters. Whatever happens, happens and it doesn't really matter.

The best parts are everything involving the exes. Chris Evans was the best one. It's too bad his part is so small. He was a lot of fun. Brandon Routh too. He was great.

Basically Edgar Wright is the man and Mike Cera is a terrible actor.

[picolas]

spoils

i loved this so much that i saw it twice within 24 hours. i don't think it's the best possible version of the comics and i wish wright had developed the characters and relationships more as they are in the books, and cera's version of scott is definitely trimmed down, but judged as its own entity, this is incredibly special. bleeding edge. i don't think i've ever seen a movie where every last thing was so fluidly integrated. hot fuzz and shaun come close, but this is the next level. i picked up a lot of circular references the second time as well.. so many details.. i read it as a steady ascent into very abstract art. the first half hour is the closest to reality we ever get, and then everything snowballs into dream and nightmare until nega scott walks off the screen, after which the next period of quasi-reality could presumably kick in. playing with the borders of the screen was so apt. i felt so many things leap off/though. i need to replay a lot of that stuff frame by frame to get some sense of how they actually blocked it.. perhaps more later.

i'm glad kieran culkin has taken up the mantle of his brother too, who stopped being good after growing up. so wonderfully cheeky.