The person who asks why you’re not going crazy on the dance floor, who has flawed rhetoric but a seductive eye? The person who has you on the floor within minutes. These sorts of characters are the ones who enable us to fully engage with a moment.
Today, many movie–goers buy tickets with an unfortunately similar reserved disposition. Audience attendance was down again this summer movie season — even if studios earned slightly more revenue due to the awful 3–D ticket tariff from 2009’s “Avatar.”
It’s time for filmmakers to take chances and give their once–dedicated audiences something new and engaging. They need someone with that enchanting crazy eye.
They need director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”).
Wright’s latest film, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” is fresh, exciting, eye-popping, intelligent, and most of all, loaded with the most accurate portrayal of our young, hip, media–minded generation yet filmed.
It seems to be exactly what audience members need.
The movie is based on the comic book series, “Scott Pilgrim.”
In the movie, Canadian–born bass player Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), defeats the ex-boyfriend of his
American–born bea- uty, Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in a battle–of–the– bands, only to find out that he must do the same for the rest of her exes, one by one, throughout the movie.
The competition heats up when Ramona threatens to break up the band, and, in turn jilts Knives (Ellen Wong), Pilgrim’s ex who is trying to win him back.
Despite the obstacles and jealous triangles, the movie still bombed, in keeping with the summer’s sales. This can be attributed to the casting of Cera, who has become immensely unmarketable.
Producers removed his name and face from the poster. People are tired of the Cera–schtick and angry he always plays the same character.
What’s really happening is that people are just jumping in with the trend to dislike poor George-Michael, from the well–received, but short-lived sitcom “Arrested Development.” His sad character trend did an incredible disservice to what is easily the best directed film of the summer (and yes, I am looking at you, Mr. Nolan).
If audiences were truly sick of actors playing the same part over and over, the Hollywood system would completely fall apart. Look at Robert Downey Jr. Look at Leonardo DiCaprio. Two actors, both immensely talented, capable of playing many roles, and who starred in two of the highest grossing films of the summer, each acting as their most standard character.
When the movie’s out on DVD, rent it. Before then, watch “Hot Fuzz,” and “Shaun of the Dead.”
You’ll be on the floor within minutes. Scott Pilgrim vs. the world?
Scott Pilgrim is a loser.
