Thursday, August 5, 2010

"That's it! You cocky cock! You'll pay for your crimes against humanity!" -OR- "She geeks, she geeks. She has the capacity to geek."

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010. Three Stars.

BACKSTORY!!! I like a lot of the stuff that Oni Press publishes, so even though it looked like it could be obnoxious, I decided to give a book called "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life" a shot (yes the backwards-facing quotation mark on the cover irks me, but I'm like that!). AND I LOVED IT. The art style is amazing. It's really fun. And really funny. All the characters are dorks and like music (who does that sound like??). And the main character has to fight his girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends, and all the battles are like video games. OH MAN! I'd alternate in between spazzing out about it and forcing it on anyone I could to read it! That was back in 2004; for the past six years I'd been impatiently waiting for all six volumes to come out (they ended up being released pretty much one volume a year; the final volume came out in July).

FAN BOY ALERT!!! If you know me, you know I never shut up about this. But I think this is still so unbelievably cool: So, before Volume 3 came out, I happened to be on the internet the same time Bryan Lee O'Malley was on it, asking fans for photos to use on billboards in the book. I exuberantly sent at least 15. Check out Chapter 15, 14th page: IT'S ME!!!

THE MOVIE!!! Firstly, I knew Bryan Lee O'Malley was involved in writing the screen play, and I'm a big fan of Edgar Wright, but I had serious doubts as to whether this comic that became so near and dear to my heart could successfully be adapted to movie form. I didn't wanna see any trailers, I didn't wanna see any clips, I didn't even wanna talk about it, so that I'd have zero expectations for this movie. Because if I let myself, I would totally nerd out and get really excited for it, inevitably getting my expectations too high, then be inherently disappointed when I finally did see it.

But, my super friend Alex got a few of us sneak preview passes to see it last night! So I finally let myself watch the official trailer on the website yesterday. And, it didn't look half bad!

The movie had me at the 16-bit Universal Studio logo. Mamma Jamma.

I can't believe Michael Cera pulled off being Scott Pilgrim. He was good! And Ann from "Arrested Development" was one of the evil exes! Reunited!

All the actors in this were superb. This review would be even longer if I wrote about every single one of them, so I won't. But I have to say that the girl that played Knives Chau was exceptional. I was very impressed with her performance!

I just absolutely love Aubrey Plaza, and I'm so happy she's in this movie. She's a perfect Julie. Uncanny in appearance, and she nailed the character.

Also, Jason Schwartzman is the perfect Gideon. I had my doubts about Kieran Culkin as Wallace (I thought he looked too slobby when I saw the trailer), but he ended up being perfect too. I can't remember if I saw Superman Returns or not (must not have made a good impression on me if I did...), so I was always like "Oh Brandon Routh's playing Superman, so he must just be another boring Hollywood actor." But then I saw this, and I was intrigued... His being Todd in this movie has sealed the deal on my small infatuation with him!!

Why didn't they have the real Comeau play Comeau? Nelson Franklin did just fine, but, there's a real Comeau so how cool would that have been?

Thomas Jane is the Vegan Police!!!

I liked the comic book-y graphics they added; I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but it ended up looking decent and fun. Really appreciated how they incorporated some of the text from the book, especially the names/descriptions/ratings boxes. And there was a good ratio of real-life scenes to fastly-cut-fantastical scenes.

Hey, is that Gideon the cat on Scott's mug in the first scene?

I have lots of little details I'd really like to talk about, but I think I have to stop here. But maybe someday, if you see the movie, we will talk about it!

Because I'm such a fan of the comic and already knew the story, I knew what was going to happen in the movie and I knew what kinds of things to expect. So I can't say if it was good or not, or even if the story was cohesive or if the pacing was effective. But I can definitely say I really really enjoyed it. They did a really good job of taking a six-year labor of love and adapting it to a 1 hour and 45 minutes movie.

If you've never read the book and know nothing about this, and you see this movie, please tell me what you think?

I want to watch it again right now.

BTW, at the end of the screening, Edgar Wright, Anna Kendrick, Michael Cera, and Jason Schwartzman came out and took questions about the movie. They talked about behind-the-scenes stuff, and Edgar talked about how they did the music stuff for the movie, and such. Cool!!

Photobucket
Hee hee hee.

Also, read the book some time! scottpilgrim.com




Can I please be a "Music Supervisor" for movies?????

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

"Lay down some phat beats for me to kick my buddy's ass to, alright?"

Iron Man 2, 2010. Three and a half stars.

Well, I should get started on this summer's movies before the summer ends, eh?

I thoroughly enjoyed Iron Man. In fact, I loved everything about it! And I'd been anxious to see Iron Man 2. I didn't have much hope for it being good: Usually movies I love have awful sequels, especially if they're big Hollywood blockbusters.

But this movie was pretty great! I mean, I feel like it's a different kind of movie, so it's like comparing apples and oranges: the first one is establishing the characters and movie universe, the second one is delving in more and taking it to the next level. Even though it was good... right now I'm giving it three and a half stars. That might change once I watch it again... Really it's good though!

Robert Downey Jr. continues his awesome performance as Tony Stark. There were a few points in the movie that I actually didn't like, that were (believe it or not) too fantastical that took me out of the movie. But his performance was so strong that he made it work. Like: the race-track scene where Vanko (BTW: Mickey Rourke? Excellent!) was Whiplash-ing cars to get to Tony... there would, and should, have been more destruction, shrapnel, and accidental hits that would have hurt or severely injured waaaaaaay more people. It's science, dudes. I know it's silly that something like that irked me, but, it did and does! Tony's reactions kept me from throwing things at the screen though. And that lame part with the little boy, Robert Downey Jr. made that cheesiness work in the end by having it be just so Tony.

Don Cheadle!! Terrence Howard was good as Rhodey in the first movie, and I'm not quite sure what happened here (I heard it was about $$, but I also heard it was a surprise to Howard...), and it's sad, but... Don Cheadle!! He is awesome, and if anyone had to successfully replace a prevalent character in a prevalent movie, it could only be him.

Scarlett Johansson. Blah. Sexy but pretty boring. And "Natasha Romanoff" shouldn't really be boring... right??

Pepper Potts! Gwyneth Paltrow is still good and as adorable as ever.

Has anyone else noticed that the ladies in this movies are wearing high heels that are too extreme and end up looking like they're walking in sand all of the time? Sexy while standing, awkward while walking.

Everyone in general is pretty much great in this. Sam Rockwell (slowly becoming one of my favorite character actors of all time), Sammy Jackson, like I said Mickey Rourke, and even Garry Shandling, who somehow sometimes makes me uncomfortable. And also, DAMN Jon Favreau's CV is getting pretty impressive, eh? Good for him!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Where've I Been??

I know I haven't posted anything in ages! There's lots I've been meaning to post about too, I just haven't had the time. I was brutally and prolong-edly sick, I bought a home (first-time homebuyer — what a crazy mess!), and I've been dealing with a particularly daunting work schedule. I meant to at least write about last summer's movies at least before this summer, but that didn't work out too well! Blaugh!

Well, I hope to pick up with more recent movies and shows, and eventually when things die down, I can go back and revisit the ones I haven't been able to talk about yet (like District 9, "Bones", American Artifact, Up, and "The Drinky Crow Show"). So, look out for some upcoming blog-iness!