The background on this is that I saw the movie in the theater without knowing anything about it except that it had Michael Cera. I thought it was awesome, largely due to most of the stuff in the first 3-5 bullets, and some more. Then I saw most of the middle half again and noticed the exaggerated dance sequence with Patel, and the amateurish fight scenes, injected with video game kinetics. Well done, but not perfectly powerful, and trying to be overly hip at some parts. I've now seen it a third time, this time fast forwarding the parts I had already seen, and I like it more, for all the reasons below.
- The movie's core device is about that irritating notion for guys that their new girl has dated before and is not a virgin (or not a “virgin”). Guys are tempted to dismiss previous guys as jerks and want to show they were not worth the girl. Being married 10 years I forgot how powerful this emotion could be, but remembered from watching the movie. But boyfriends have to get past the ex-boyfriends (exes) somehow. Scott is forced to get past his new girl’s exes in a literal way, by defeating (the movie tells us not “killing”) the exes, but in a video-game way, to show the fantasy of such an attempt to distance yourself from previous exes. Scott succeeds, in fantasy video game style, and the movie seems to end by saying that you can get past a girl's past if you persevere and gain self-respect and love, and hit the reset button, and start over. I think every late-Gen-Xer would have hated that notion in the 90s, then agreed with it in the 2000s.
- But better yet is the take on this story as one of redemption, where the guy must clear the girl of her own past, her exes. She fell into error and wandered and is trying to escape her old self, and goes to Canada. She needs help, like a princess to be rescued, and Scott valiantly tries to help her, for mystical reasons (mystical bc he's in love with her as the girl of his dreams before he even meets her). Mystical makes sense bc that is the sense we get when we read fairy tales or play video games where we’re told the hero must rescue the princess, and that, unlike in a movie, we’re the hero. Don’t question who the princess is or why you must rescue her or why she keeps switching castles. It’s you, Player One, fight! This is the first time I identified with a “hero” in a movie (as opposed to anti-hero), which I normally find to be an irritating figure condescending to those he rescues (like in this case, a woman, the writers show sexism with the plot and characters, which usu would bother me). Scott succeeds! He confronts each past ex-boyfriend (ex), either Ramona explains or decides it was the wrong thing for her or Scott shows her it was and releases her (from Gideon's mind control, e.g.), and Ramona is free to start over as a new person. Rescued, yes, but also redeemed from the wrong path.
- A third view of the quest is that Scott is trying to dig his way out of his mourning for Envy. Knives the Mourning Period is the transition that lets him at least try to move on and enjoy a relationship. Ramona is the next serious girlfriend (unlike in the first two bullets/views, in this view Ramona is just the next girl in a young man's life, not the happily ever after).
- I like that Scott has epiphanies, unlike in uberhip hyperironic GenXer movies. Bc epiphanies do happen in life! Reminds me of Adaptation, where the main guy Cage tries to tell the seminar author that life isn't about epiphanies and the guy tells him of course it is, they happen all the time, just maybe not in your pathetic world, dude. Scott has epiphanies, and they are taken seriously, and I like that. Ok, they're not the deepest to some people, but my own personal epiphanies would prob seem silly to a lot of other people, who found my insights obvious. Hard to judge. Both primary epiphanies are brought out when Matthew Patel first jumpkicks at him, and the world slows down. Scott is a deer in the headlights, says “What did I do?” then “What do I do?” He means what did I do to piss this guy off, and do I have to get off my ass and do something drastic in response, right now? But the text of these questions are the harmless-unemotional-slacker-GenXer's central two questions.
- The first double-epiphany is an answer more pressing question, given he's about to be knocked out, but also the easier question. Slackers must grow up, and Scott's best friend Wallace gives him the kick in the pants he needs, “FIGHT”. Ok, he knows he should fight, that's an epiphany, but he knows he's never been able to, bc he's just Scott Pilgrim and he’s a gentle guy and maybe never cared enough to fight. But he always fought through characters in video games, and Scott realizes with the mode of Matthew Patel’s entrance that he's in one of his games, and can fight! What is the one thing he cares about so far in life that could give him the power he needs to fight Matthew Patel? Music and video games. He unplugs his bass, palms the patch chord, diverts the electricity into his nerves, accepts and merges with the alternate virtual world, and acts; he FIGHTS.
- The second double-epiphany is the heart of the movie and is not very deep, but is the kind I could see myself having, bc it involves failing to notice the emotional impact on others of your actions, bc you are such a nice guy generally, and bc taken alone, each action is not so very bad. Scott decides to love again, gains the Power of Love, after his first breakup, the first step. Then he decides to notice how he affects the girls he dates and to take responsibility and apologize for his relationship actions, and not just to rely on his cuteness harmlessness. And gains the Power of Self-Respect. This moral upgrade is, to the outside world, trivialized by being symbolized by an upgrade to a purple sword (note, the Love sword is red, Gideon's Self-Respect sword is blue, and Scott's is the combined purple), as in a silly video game. But to the inside world, who grew up taking video games seriously, bc of their stories and art and worlds, that is, to the writers, this is a serious epiphany, and they only scarcely cover it with irony (my opinion here).
- I like that this skinny, goofy, baby-faced, shag-haired, soft-spoken, harmless, snuggling hand-holder can FIGHT, and surprises you the first time he punches Matthew Patel. Anti-hero to hero.
- I like that the movie ends on a “happily ever after” note, but on reflection it feels more "happily indefinitely after”, which is the only acceptable optimism for me. “Indefinitely” is an interval, if a long one, and allows for an end without expecting one; “forever” is infinite and romantic and trivial. (Remember for NTs, their Time is the Interval, not the Future, as for NFs).
- I like that in the girl fight, they pull their weapons out of their accessories, and the weapons magicify in size and shape, as they would for a boss in a video game. Also that the Ex has a weak fleshy spot underneath the armor, as in many tales and video games, and has had the same cute one since Ramona dated her, and that she cums to death.
- I was very happy when first watching the movie and Matthew Patel burst into the venue, and we were officially taken out of a romantic comedy or coming of age story, into a fantasy action adventure world. Anyone who likes video games was always waiting for one of them to come true. Scott got his wish, and we get ours.
- I like the gradual introduction of magic elements, or better yet the gradual revelation that we are in a video game in which Scott Pilgrim is the main character. We know for sure with the Matthew Patel fight, but it starts with the jump cuts (people continue conversations when hours or days are passing), the sister calling Scott with information he just told Wallace a second ago (nearly but not technically impossible), the use of Zelda sound effects in the background (not magical bc they are presumed to be part of the movie soundtrack, and not audible to Scott et al. within the movie world, just like when we play video games) the use of overlaid visuals (again, with the characters so far unaware of the moviemakers devices), the dream w Ramona (skating with colored hair, prefiguring the video game trope), the dream coming true (first sign of real magic or alternate reality), the second dream of her coming to his door, that coming true (we presume people can't predict the future with their dreams), Ramona's possibly-sarcastic comment about the subspace highway, Ramona skating away causing the snow to melt around her, then MATTHEW PATEL (the ridiculous, the sublime). After this, Scott will wave away Knives's LOVE dust, and otherwise interact with the moviemakers devices, accepting the fact that he is in a fantasy reality, in a video game. And he'll fight like a champ.
- I like when Matthew Patel sings of himself that he is slick, the demon chicks say “S-L-ick”. I like this bc it is a bit clever, but mostly bc this kind of pun makes me feel gross and icky, in just the way Matthew Patel is gross and his demon chicks' fangs are icky.
- I like that when Scott fights in the Chaos Theater and gets through the warmup ninjas, they die in a shower of coins that fall into the shape of bodies, like chalk outlines. The whole idea of characters dieing as coins is neat, as Scott's reward is the ability to feed more arcade Continues.
- I like that Knives falls in love with Scott's band, bc she is 17, has only seen piano players, and has never seen rock up close before. This is plausible, ala School of Rock.
- I like that when Scott tells Matthew Patel that he skimmed his email, he only means he did not get all the information from it and is therefore still surprised by the attack, but he accidentally insults Matthew Patel, as if he's saying the email wasn't worth more than a skim, which enrages Matthew Patel. This is another example of naïve Scott accidentally hurting someone, just by acting naturally. But now he's at a place in life where he has to deal with the consequences of doing so.
- I like the references to Zelda III, bc that is right from my era of video games, and it contained a quest for the princess through seven stages and bosses, with upgrades to swords, as in the movie.
- I like the concept of vegan power and Vegan Academy (“chicken isn't vegan?”).
- I like the casting of Cera as Pilgrim, bc he is like a video game hero in that he is typecast as a stereotype, but unlike a video game hero in appearance.
- This movie brings together the ideas of grunge and video games. Although these occurred at the same time for me, I never put them together for a reason. But grunge is based on Fuzz pedals (shown in the movie more than once), and their appeal in making noise and smoothing out imperfections; 16-bit SNES in retrospect is appealing for being fuzzy pixeled with low-quality sound anyone could make, and distorted and imperfect. I don't know, an idea.
- So now we hit the big question, allusion? or even allegory? Scott's last name is Pilgrim, like in the Progress and Regress, like with Mithrandir, the Grey Pilgrim, like with hero John Wayne's “hey there pilgrim”. He dated a girl (who re) named (herself) Envy. He dates another named Knives and another named Flowers. His arch nemesis is named Gideon. Pilgrim is stabbed in the back by Gideon while defending his bad behavior with girls. Pilgrim dies and comes back to life, makes all right with the world, and redeems Flowers. Could someone sort this out?
- I like that the characters and even plot make sense (mostly, so far), in that you gradually find out that Gideon is the mastermind of the League of Exes, which fits his character, as well as the character of every End Boss in every video game I played. To be good, the movie must make sense as a video game and as a bunch of interconnected real world characters. It does not need to make sense as a movie.
- I like that as Scott fights more Evil Exes, he gets more irritated and exasperated and can't take it, just bc he's tired and beat up. This is analogous to a guy who keeps hearing about a girl's exes, bc all relationships involve mentioning exes, and can't take that she was with other guys, that they were bad, and that she still likes some of them. This bad reaction by Scott drives Ramona back to an ex, which is perfect, and sets up the show-down nicely.
- I like that he gets a one-up, and instead of this being a throwaway reference to video games, it is used as a necessary device for beating the game's end boss.
- I like the small humor (“What's the website for amazon.ca?” The nega Scott resolution. Wallace seeing Matthew Patel, “Hey, it's that one guy!” Scott reading Matthew Patel's email about DUEL to the DEATH, and saying “This is so . . . boring”)
- I like that Scott needs a summoning spell to defeat the Japanese twins, ala Final Fantasy and many other games (and prob anime).
- Ultimately, I like the movie because it is a rom-com I got into. Or if not a rom-com, then a love story that I loved. Yes, it had action and questing and coming of age, but the dual-core processors were how to fight for love and how love is worth improving for. It's all about love, which I normally can't tolerate (as in “tolerate” a dosage of medicine, not as in fail to hate). But this is the way to sell it to me.
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