It's all geek to me

One of life’s mysteries is how certain movies become hits while others don’t. Earlier this year, Universal released Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, directed by Edgar Wright, the hyperkinetic Brit behind Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. It had indie/comic geek/crossover hit written all over it, and Universal studios accordingly dropped serious dough on pumping up the movie with print ads, TV trailers, iTune downloads and giveaway loot at Comic-Con last April. (“Scott Pilgrim had the best loot,” my wife Therese informed me upon returning from San Diego.)

But despite film critics and geeks wetting their pants over it, the movie failed to win a big audience. It opened fifth in the US, couldn’t recoup its reported $90 million budget (it made only $45 million), and disappeared soon thereafter.

What gives? Are people just geeked out? In truth, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a wildly inventive flick, based on the graphic comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley. It’s about as close as you’ll get to being inside a comic book while watching a movie (well, with the exception of Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City). And yet it’s not for everyone.

It stars Michael Cera as a Canadian 22-year-old (talk about typecasting) who plays bass for the band Sex Bob-omb. Nursing his wounds after being dumped a year earlier, he dates an enthusiastic Chinese high school student named Knives (Ellen Wong) whom he promptly dumps after seeing — literally — the girl of his dreams in the form of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

Turns out Ramona has quite a history with the boys. Scott learns he has to defeat all of her “seven evil exes” before they can officially date. That, in itself, would put off most guys. Talk about TMT (too much trouble). But Scott, who’s a mixture of passive dweebie and slick ladies’ man (but not in a McLovin’ kind of way), goes for it, employing his considerable gaming skills and engaging in ferocious battle in some of the movie’s best scenes. Whether it’s a skateboard challenge (with Ex No. 2 Chris Evans) or a bass guitar duel (with Ex. No. 3 psychic vegan Brandon Routh), the screen overflows with information — gaming imagery, voiceovers, energy bars, floating exclamations à la the ‘60s Batman series (“Thonk!” “Krowww!”) — all of it soaring by a mile a minute.

Get funky: Pilgrim stares down one of seven deadly exes, this time in a bass duel to the death.

This, in itself, might be a little difficult for the average movie viewer to handle. Perhaps audience confusion is the reason that Solar Entertainment, which distributes Universal movies and music here, has failed to release the movie locally (though rumor has it they have a print of Scott Pilgrim lying around somewhere, gathering dust on their shelves). But if any audience is going to get the gaming-laced world of Scott Pilgrim, it would be young Filipino moviegoers.

Yet I’m not sure lack of understanding is the main problem with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Even in this age of super-explosive action flicks and hyperactive 3D cartoons, people do like to turn off their minds and float downstream, pretty much. Wright’s film, in contrast, is packed with footnotes (literally appearing all over the screen), marginalia and in-jokes. It never lets an uninitiated audience quite settle down into its unique, perverse rhythms. In its insistence on being cool, something Quentin Tarantino has been accused of since Pulp Fiction, it tends to alienate the “tourists” — those viewers who are unfamiliar with the comic books, or might not be too invested in Michael Cera’s appeal, or don’t really think too often about the social dynamics of fledgling rock bands.

In short, it’s made for a young, geeky audience — the type that will grin knowingly upon seeing that popular Japanese musicians Shota Saito and Keita Saito play Ramona’s Exes No. 6 and 7, or will have already navigated the Scott Pilgrim video game until their thumbs bleed.

But even that marginalized audience was divided over Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It strayed too far from the original comic, said hardcore fans (trying to cram seven separate books into a 90-minute movie). And some of the geek squad might have concluded that with all the studio hype — advance previews, TV ads, spin-off products, games, promotions and indie star-studded OST (featuring the likes of Beck, Frank Black, Metric, Broken Social Scene, et al) — maybe it wasn’t too cool to be down with a big studio movie after all.

It’s hard to say. No one really knows why Kick-Ass — another geek-fest released early in 2010 — became a surprise hit, despite its violent tone and gritty comic book sensibility. No one knows how The Social Network, a film basically about two lawsuits, turned out to be a huge commercial and critical hit, despite the studio’s fear and trepidation.

The ways of the movie audience are fickle and mysterious, much like Ramona, who changes hair color every week and a half and sheds boyfriends almost as often. It is possible that, despite the gushing critical reviews and general enthusiasm for something as audacious as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the world isn’t quite ready to go full geek yet.

There are a few other prickly points about the movie. In Knives, we have yet another crazed Asian girl character, similar to the one who develops an unhealthy attachment to Andrew Garfield in The Social Network. Considering how “cool” and “hip” the makers of these comic book films are supposed to be, can’t they come up with Asian characters that aren’t racist stereotypes and clichés? Just a thought.

On the other hand, you have Kieran Culkin as Warren, Scott’s gay roommate, who comes off as more multi-dimensional than Knives. He’s allowed wittier lines, naturally, but also defends his lifestyle with the kind of reasonable sensibility that’s lacking in other characters here. Equal rights for Asian characters!

Michael Cera’s character comes off as not too likeable throughout much of the movie, which is the point, I guess: he’s supposed to learn some things along the way about “self-respect” so that he can truly “love” somebody else. (I got this from the video game prompts that kept appearing onscreen; I’m not sure I would have picked it up from the dialogue.) And Winstead has the doe-eyed looks she employed as a cheerleader in Death Proof, though here she plays someone both more mature and less trustworthy, if that makes any sense. The problem is their relationship isn’t fully explored; he likes her (we get it) but we know precious little about her. And so the story arc doesn’t make Ramona out to be much more than a prize, the kind of energy bonus points that geeks strive toward while playing “Final Fantasy IV” (or whatever kids play today).

Mostly, though, Scott Pilgrim is a rush of adrenaline, perhaps too much adrenaline for some. Maybe it’s the kind of movie that will gain more from the Blu-Ray/DVD format, because there, geeks will have a field day hitting the “PAUSE” button to parse all the references to coolness imbedded in the scenery. Or it could develop a cult following in Manila, with its strong comic-reading/game-playing community. Then again, we won’t ever know, unless Solar decides to give Scott Pilgrim vs. the World a shot in local cinemas.