TrueGentleman

IO9's Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Lamentable Weekend Gross argues that (1) the Michael Cera backlash is strong (as can be seen on these boards); (2) critics are still snarking about it as a movie for the stereotypical video gamer, implicitly lowering the appeal of being a member of the audience; and (3) it's too much of a guy flick, with Romana Flower's character noticeably diminished from the comic series in order to keep the running time down.

I'm still looking forward to watching this in the theater, where it's clearly made to be seen. Putting it off as a rental is simply a bad idea. That said, I was on the fence about it going into this week. The marketing campaign hadn't impressed me, nor did the buzz from Comic Con. Only when Edgar Wright and the cast were interviewed in detail on the cusp of opening weekend did the movie sound actually intriguing.

(Piranha 3D's box office will receive a significant buff from the extra ticket revenue that theaters can charge for 3D movies.)

On the meta-commentary side, Rich Vietch's The Maximortal took on both the Superman/ubermensch theme and the predatory early history of the comic book industry. There's also the Plutonian from Mark Waid's Irredeemable and Alpha One from Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne's The Mighty.

Back in the Golden Age, Fawcett Comics's Masterman was sued into oblivion for his thematic resemblance to Superman (not to be confused with the Captain Marvel analog Masterman).

This opening weekend isn't looking good for Scott Pilgrim in terms of Friday night sales and projected box office:

Although some dedicated City of Heroes players have created their own graphic serials based on their in-game escapades with painstakingly assembled screenshots, Apple is exploring how to simplify the process, according to a recent patent application. If Apple can pull it off, customized ebooks of players' online adventures from their PCs/consoles (or DVRs, DVD players, cable converter boxes, satellite receiver, or streaming video play) will be easily available.

Here's a (dry) summary of the proposal:

In an interview in the LA Times's Hero Complex blog for the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, producer Gary Kurtz breaks his (comparative) silence and reveals his insider's perspective on what Star Wars was like to work on at the beginning, exactly when George Lucas began to go wrong, and the fallout from his departure from the series that was never intended to be a series.

And the Star Wars saga's ending? The Rebel Alliance decimated, Han dying in battle, Leia enmeshed in politics, and Luke taking off on his own "like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns."

A spokeswoman for George Lucas said he was unavailable for comment.

Scott Pilgrim's video game element is breaking out ahead of its comics and indie rock ones in the building press coverage (although the latter two are no less important). Even as critical reaction splits between extremes, it's worth noting that typically the only thing more pejorative for a reviewer to call a film than a "comic book movie" is a "video game movie".

Under the headline 'Scott Pilgrim' Movie Speaks to Gamer Generation, Reuters declares, "After decades of Hollywood adaptations of hit game franchises{...}, Hollywood has created the first film that is designed to really speak to the video game generation. {...} While director Edgar Wright's film is based on a series of comic books by Bryan Lee O'Malley, not a video game, the universe he's created weaves classic video game elements with an alternate reality that focuses on a cast of 20-something gamers. In other words, it's the first Hollywood feature created by gamers, for gamers."

And in a different take on Method acting preparation, Michael Cera reveals that he retrieved his old Nintendo console from his parents' house and played his childhood favorites every night at his place after finishing work on the movie.

The Expendables is to action movies what Damn Yankees is to super groups: the overrated led by the over-the-hill. Stallone simply isn't in the first rank of action movie directors, and his screenwriting abilities have waned. 2008's by-the-numbers John Rambo was a vanity project packaged as blood 'n' bullets fan service and tied up with 80s franchise nostalgia. The Expendables looks like more of the same, only with a larger cast and budget. Besides, my action movie budget is already allocated to Machete.

Edgar Wright, on the other hand, is an up-and-coming original helming his first big-budget extravaganza, with the excellent movies Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead under his belt. Scott Pilgrim promises a unique combination of geek-fu, video game-fu, indie rock, wit, and, yes, explosions.

Interestingly, while both films fall in the same segment on Metacritic's average scoring system, Scott Pilgrim has a much wider range of scores, than the Expendables. That kind of split suggests there's something unusual to see.

Wright's coming on strong in interviews this week. Here's a more cinephilic interview from Coming Soon, in which Wright describes the presence of video games in Scott's real life as opposed to the way they influence his inner one.

My Warshade, Gentlemandroid 2.0, is an obvious choice to descend all the way to villainy. Other than that, though, my heroes aren't going to slip any further than vigilante status. For example, my pistol-based blaster Gentlemanhunter would be comfortable doing mercenary work in the Rogue Isles.

On the whole, redemption and roguery are more interesting to me than villainy. I expect only one of my villains, the bots MM Technophant, to remain fully Red. The others already have anti-hero elements in their concepts, so the shift to Blue should be organic. Plus I'm intrigued by the gameplay potential for CoV archetypes in the CoH setting.

Spoilers have no time-limit as long as the work in question can find a fresh audience. In fandom, there's no arbitrary statute of limitations, whether in years, months, weeks, days, or hours, on lasting achievements. Citizen Kane, Psycho, Watchmen, or the secret significance of the phrase "Would you kindly...?" are as suspenseful and resonating to newcomers as they were when they first appeared.

When discussing works with surprises, plot twists, Easter eggs, etc., geek etiquette obliges the simple question to one's interlocutor "Do you know such-and-such?" before embarking on a conversation. In the cases of reviews, articles, blog entries, marketing campaigns, etc., however, the responsibility falls on the reader to avoid the topics of interest, even potential ones. I have friends who now have blanket policies of forgoing trailers ever since studio marketing departments required the best scenes and/or plot arcs to be included in them. Likewise, clicking on this thread in the first place is at the reader's risk.

Also, wearing this t-shirt in public is right out.

With Scott Pilgrim vs. the World opening this Friday, the AVClub has a thoughtful interview with director Edgar ("Spaced", "Shaun of the Dead") Wright that ranges from working with Bryan Lee O’Malley to adapt a movie on a comic series that concluded only just last month to making "Billy Liar" for the Nintendo era.