:punching noises:
Huh, well that wasn’t too bad, actually. I wonder what memories I’m suppressing.
Eh well they’re probably Fifty Shades related. Hello my Beautiful Watchers and welcome back
to Lost in Adaptation. I believe I was just about to give you my final final thoughts
on the Scott Pilgrim adaptation as a whole.
First of all I want to say that all things considered this is a valiant attempt at a
Scott Pilgrim film adaptation. And I’m not just saying that because I enjoyed the film
on its own Edgar Wright related merits.
They had every excuse they could have needed to justify doing completely their own thing
with it but they only did kind of their own thing with it.
I am however clearly not saying that it’s perfect.
The main failing of this adaptation is its lack of character development. Both comic
and film Scott start the story as lazy, amoral, self absorbed wasters, perfectly content to
lie to their significant others, sponge off their friends and make zero effort to get
a job or do anything with their lives, but only comic Scott eventually had to face the
reality of what his treatment of his friends and lovers had done to them and see what his
life would have been like without the people he’d taken for granted for so long.
Yes, they try to cram a semblance of this into the last few minutes of the film, with
Scott on his SECOND ATTEMPT, acknowledging his band, apologising to Kim, and confessing
his adultery to Ramona and Knives.
The problem is, with the happy ending so close after that it inescapably means Scott doesn't
face any real lasting consequences for any of his foul deeds, so with human nature being
the way it is it's very unlikely he will have learned any permanent lessons from them.
Comic Scott gets a job, Comic Scott has a chance to cheat again and turns it down, Comic
Scott finds a way to establish a relationship with Knives without taking advantage of her
emotionally, Comic Scott learns to confront his past misdeeds and accept them as part
of who he is so he can become a better person and Comic Scott admits that he isn’t entitled
to get Ramona back, he has to EARN her back by doing better than he was before.
He goes from “I have to get with this girl no matter what,” to “I have to be a better
person for this girl” and finally to “I just need to be a better person.”
The closest thing film Scott has to a character arc is him overcoming his Michael Ceraness
and showing that he has some balls right at the end and even that is undercut somewhat
because he goes right back to being self conscious and meek right afterwards.
Film Ramona faces the same lack of character development issues as Scott. She never seems
to make it past the generally disinterested, slightly rude woman she was right at the start
of the story. I’m not even ENTIRELY convinced the film version of her even LIKES Scott,
and… Well ok yeah that's fair why would you? He’s a dick.
This is another thing I didn’t take issue with until I read the comics. Seeing that
Ramona was supposed to eventually warm up, form connections with the other members of
the group, start showing Scott some genuine affection, be enthusiastic about things and
end up portraying much a more obvious vulnerability made me realise what a non character she was
in the film beyond being an attractive too cool to care hipster chick.
Kim, Stephen Stills and Wallace, the arguably next most important characters don’t suffer
for lack of development nearly as much, not because they got any, just because the film
treated them very much as background characters so you don’t notice its absence as much.
They were there to facilitate the main plot and make, or be jokes, not to have any subplots
of their own.
I already touched upon this last time but the transition between insane evil genius
comic Gideon and slimy git film Gideon is kind of fascinating.
This film version can certainly fit in the same role in the story but it's almost like
he’s a parody of the character he was in the book as opposed to a film adaptation.
You might have noticed we never got a definitive explanation of what exactly happened between
Scott and Envy the night they broke up, but I don’t think we really needed one in the
end. It’s pretty safe to say there was equal blame to go around and they were hella not
right for each other.
Because Envy was written out of the finale, her story becomes not so much one of personal
growth but a straight up revenge fantasy for anyone who’s ever been left for someone
else.
You just headbutted my boyfriend so hard he burst.
Yeeaahhh how do you like THAT Emma! I mean Envy heh heh heeeh….heh.
She’s still a pretty good and surprisingly memorable character in the film, mostly due
to Brie Larson’s excellent performance but I dunno I think it would have been nice for
her and Scott to have gotten their mutual closure.
The next big difference between the comics and the film isn’t a failing of adaptation
as such, but an inevitable consequence of some of the decisions they made to make the
story work better as a film.
Namely the big difference in what these two Scott Pilgrim stories were ultimately about.
The Scott Pilgrim books are a coming of age story but they’re not just a coming of age
story, I wouldn't have loved them so much if they were, there's a million and one straight
up coming of age stories to the point where I’m kind of sick of them.
No, the Scott Pilgrim comics are also a cautionary tale about the consequences of NOT coming
of age when it's time to do so and highlights that it probably won't just be you who ultimately
pays for this failure but those around you.
This was was an awesome premise for a story in my opinion, but it's one that take time
to tell. A long time.
Even if we assume for a moment that O'Malley provided the film’s writers with a detailed
synopsis of everything that was going to happen in all the incomplete volumes, the story that
the six Scott Pilgrim comic books is telling is just too long to fit into a film.
From start to finish it takes place over more than a year. Over a year of character development.
That’s incompatible with a single film’s storytelling format.
From what I’ve been able to tell over the last few years, filmmakers have two adaptation
options when faced with this problem, assuming their intention is not to simply throw the
book out of the window.
Do what each and every one of the Harry Potter films did. Keep the timeline but tell only
the bare bones of the story, incorporating countless time jumps and covering most but
not all of the essential plot moments.
OR change the story so it takes place over a much shorter amount of time, and accept
that that means you might not be able to keep some of its fundamental core messages.
This particular film chose the latter option.
I would like to make it clear that neither option is automatically superior and both
require you to omit much of what made the books good in the first place. A bigger factor
in success is how skillfully the filmmakers carry out their choice, whichever one it is.
By the way, I know I reference the Harry Potter films far too often in this show BUT… they’re
the reason I am the way I am in regards to film adaptations so yeah that’s not going
to stop, I can’t.
To fit a shorter timeline, the film adaptors had to make Scott’s journey less about growing
up and confronting one's own inadequacies and almost exclusively about… If Scott would
or would not win the day and live happily ever after with his love interest, with a
secondary, much less pronounced emphasis on Scott finding his self confidence.
That this is comparatively shallow is a sacrifice the filmmakers had to make for the reasons
I just described so I won’t hark on about that. What's more interesting to me is that
for the MOST part they actually adapted the existing story to suit this… Pretty damn
well.
To start this, they subtly changed it so, up until the moment he decides to fight Gideon
at the end, Scott never willingly seeks out a battle with an ex like he so often did in
the comic. They come to him and don’t give him a choice, or he unknowingly stumbles into
the situation.
This way they could still include all the battles while maintaining the plot thread
that Scott doesn't have the stones to do anything for himself.
I have to admit Cera’s casting was perfect for this new character arc as he sure as fuck
doesn’t radiate confidence and self respect as standard.
However despite how impressed I am at how well they applied this method of adaptation
overall I have to admit that pursuing this new arc for Scott while also keeping so many
line for line moments from the books does created a certain dissonance between Scott’s
new personality and his actions.
You can see how overly self confident, fist happy comic Scott became the best fighter
in the province and a serial womaniser but this wallflower? It just doesn't add up.
Scott’s new film personality also lessens the impact of some of what WERE his greatest
achievements in the comics.
There's also nothing that really suggests that Scott is afraid of commitment in the
film. He’s damaged from his break up sure, but that actually seems to make him MORE willing
to rush things, not less so unless you assume him saying lesbians instead of love is a mental
block he had to fight to overcome, gaining the love sword doesn't come off as huge breakthrough
for him.
So too, the SECOND time around when it's treated as a big deal that he’s fighting Gideon
for himself, not Ramona and gains the sword of self respect, it’s kind of odd because
well…. Scott’s done plenty of things for “him” since the start of the movie. You
could even call him a selfish bastard who does EVERYTHING with himself in mind.
Even the big conclusion to his new arc of finding confidence lacks satisfaction. They
did such a good job of making Gideon punchable, him running off to punch him at the end doesn't
immediately seem like him overcoming an inadequacy, he’s just doing the obvious thing.
Fun fact about me, I am really REALLY bad at seeing symbolism. I tend to take things
quite literally and at face value. Not out of an active choice to celebrate ignorance,
I’m just… really bad at seeing symbolism.
That said, the significance of haircuts in this comic series is impossible to to miss
even for me.
Because of the timing of his haircut to Envy dumping him, Scott fears change and associates
haircuts with it.
Him letting Ramona cut his hair in volume 3 represented the moment when he starting
being willing to change for her, to strive to be a better person so he wouldn't end up
hurting her like he does everyone else around him.
Ramona on the other hand straight up explains at the end that she forces herself to change
constantly so she won’t get stuck in one place while the world changes around her and
therefore it was significant when she stopped changing her hair when she was happy in volume
four, but cut it in five when she had her crisis and left Scott.
I never really thought I’d ever be reading this much into haircuts but here we are.
The film kept Scott’s traumatic association with them but Ramona constantly changing her
hair is implied to be just a cute quirk of her personality.
Again I want to stress that I actually think they did do a really good job of pushing this
square peg through the round hole, it just wasn’t seamless.
O’Malley has gone on the record saying he thinks the film’s ending, that tied the
conclusion to the Knives/Scott/Ramona triangle into the final confrontation with Gideon was
better than the slightly convoluted glow orientated ending he came up with for the comics.
I guess I agree that it does make a more satisfying climax, though I wouldn't have wanted him
to drag out the obsessive stalker part of poor Knives’ emotional journey all the way
through six books so he could have done the same thing.
However…. Wright and the other filmmakers discovered that they had something to learn
from the comic’s ending as well, because the ending we’re all familiar with, was
not their first choice.
Those of you who are avid watchers of my show will know I tend to ignore deleted scenes
and alternate endings. Deleted is deleted, if it’s not in the final product we saw
in cinemas why should they get extra points for it?
However in THIS case I’m choosing to make an exception simply because the original,
hastily changed ending to the Scott Pilgrim film is fucking fascinating in how horrifying
it is…. Umm like emotionally horrifying, it doesn't become like a gore fest or anything.
In the original conclusion to the film… Scott bids a bittersweet goodbye to Ramona
as she goes to travel the world alone, and gets back together with the high schooler
he used and abandoned at the drop of a hat.
Yeah, Scott chose Knives in the original cut of the film.
And you know what the WORST part about it is? The set up, in another deleted scene,
Scott and Ramona’s posthumous desert conversation goes a little differently.
I really fought for you back there.
Someone was fighting pretty hard for you too.
SCOTT!
Knives?
I wish I was ever as fanatically devoted to anything as that girl is to you.
This not only conflates being an obsessive stalker with true love, it’s also a line
from the comic.
A line that was originally delivered mockingly by Ramona TO Knives herself, as she sat crying
on the floor of a public bathroom and was about to reveal that Scott cheated on both
of them.
The original context of this line made it very VERY clear that it was not a good thing
to be this devoted to someone who hurt you, and they still used it to try to justify Scott
choosing to get back together with her at the end.
With all that in mind I have to ask… Edgar Wright, buddy… Are you… Ok? I’m asking
out of concern as a huge fan.
Moving on from that, I really wish I could have seen the film that Edgar Wright might
have made if he’d had access to all the finished books. Not because I didn’t like
this film, but just out of extreme professional curiosity as an adaptation critic.
The way he recreated so much of the early novels shot for shot wouldn’t have been
sustainable if they wanted to have a realistically lengthed film so would he have taken an even
amount from all six or would he have almost completely abandoned entire books so he could
concentrate on doing justice to the ones he kept. I just, I want to know so bad.
Ideally, speaking strictly from an adaptation perspective, I really think this should have
been a trilogy with 2 books making up each film.
That way they would have had time to include the insanely cool things they had to omit
like Knives’ dad, and the really important things like Scott turning his life around
and becoming the kind of person who does deserve the kind of happy ending he gets at the end.
However, do I wish they’d actually done that? No… I guess not. Remember that Scott
Pilgrim vs the World bombed at the box office. If that had happened to the first of a three
part trilogy it would have been a one way ticket to cancelled town and we would have
ended up with a frustratingly incomplete third of a story instead of a imperfect but at least
FINISHED product.
As I’ve said in this case I saw the film first and thought it was a fun action flick
with a clever concept and amazing directing and writing so I was kind of expecting the
comics to be a similar sort of thing, fun and weird.
I wasn’t expecting them to be that AND surprisingly deep and relatable in several different ways,
being enjoyable when taken at face value AND when analysed to fuck so… That was a nice
surprise.
All in all I make no apologies for taking the middle ground here and saying that both
versions of this story, despite being different are amazing and I love them.
I’ve mentioned this a few times now but there were several occasions where I didn’t
notice issues in the film until I read the comic and saw them done slightly better. And
while that does suggest comic superiority it also speaks to the film’s credit as it
basically means you need a cheat sheet to critique it.
I would definitely recommend the comics to a fan of the film and I probably would recommend
the film to a fan of the comics, though I might take a few minutes to set expectations
beforehand.
Thank you so much for joining me my Beautiful Watchers. If I might leave you with the now
standard reminder that liking, commenting, sharing and subscribing is the best way to
stop your favorite channels from being consumed by the all powerful and very broken Youtube
algorithm……
Huh… You’re, uh, still here?...Do you want to fight again?
Alright come on, I’ll tell Terrence we have another one.
Hello again my Beautiful Watchers. I just wanted to take this opportunity to give you
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