Coburn's Domain

Yesterday, like all self respecting gamers who have completely avoided /v/ for the massive influx of Scott Pilgrim: Hipster Bullshit Spam: The Movie, I went down to my local cinema to catch a showing of the movie adaptation of the indie graphic novel series “Scott Pilgrim.” However I went to a midday showing, and much to my surprise, there was a sheer lack of gamers, hipsters too. The audience I witnessed lining up to see the movie was middle aged men and woman and their children. Anybody  who has heard of Scott Pilgrim will know that the series is just another metaphor for society, except for the fact that it is completely jam packed to the brim with video game references. While the book did a great  job making tons of tongue-in-cheek humor about video game elements being a part of the real world, the movie does a fantastic job of bringing these fantasies to life. From the extremely well choreographed fighting sequences, to the simple act having a “pee meter” on the corner of the screen slowly drain while Scott relieves himself in a bathroom. The movie did an excellent job of making the video game elements seamlessly intertwine with the real world to create a fantastic viewing experience. The whole time I was watching, I couldn’t help but plaster a smile all over my face seeing the glow of nostalgia in the middle aged parents eyes as they watched the movie, at one point I even heard a guy whisper to his son that when he was his age enemies in one of his favorite childhood games “River City Ransom” enemies dropped coins and exclaimed “BARF!” in a very similar way to how it is presented in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I could easily tell there were a lot of people who a fair amount of references passed right by, but the common place mainstream video game references such as gaining an extra life and leveling up has everybody cracking a smile and enjoying themselves. As with all book to movie adaptations, there will always have to be some content cut out, and considering the Scott Pilgrim series spans six books, the screenplay writers really had their work cut out for them, turning them all into one two hour film. They did a very good job with it though, they got most of the key elements in, kept in a lot of the great jokes, and made time for all of the action and musical sequences performed by the video game named bands in the series such as Scott’s own “Sex Bob-omb,” Envy Adams huge indie band “The Clash at Demonhead,”  and the titular “Crash and The Boys,” composed of, well, Crash and The Boys. The movie has very fast pacing, so there is never a dull moment when you are watching the movie and it will grasp your attention like a starving hobo trying to shank you on that one street corner by your favorite coffee shop. That’s not the point though,  all-in-all Scott Pilgrim vs. The World does a fantastic job at gartering the attention of anybody who wants to just see a whimsical romance tale full of humor and action, as well as the gaming aficionado who will go and have a great time just noticing the amazing attention to detail with all the little references. The movie does a great job at bringing the series to the masses in a way everybody can enjoy and have a fun time watching, I would highly recommend everybody go and take their families to go see it together.  Read more...