With one week to go before the opening of the movie adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series, I'm sitting here with a bit of a nervous stomach about how it will perform. After seeing the movie in a preview at the San Diego Comic-Con, I can honestly say that it's a good movie, a good adaptation and I had a ton of fun watching it. We all know O'Malley is a genius when it comes to Scott Pilgrim and I'm a huge Michael Cera and Edgar Wright fan, so all should be well, right? Then why am I so nervous?
The past month has been a marketing barrage of Scott Pilgrim all over the place. Of course we all know about the huge poster on the side of the Hilton in SD and the dominance of the movie at the San Diego Comic-Con, but after this week it's gotten even wider. I saw that the movie was the sponsor of ESPN programming the other night (Baseball Tonight, I believe) and we've seen Edgar Wright and the cast all over the talk show circuits hyping the movie. In addition to the marketing hype, there have been tons of sneak preview screenings all around the country. Now don't get me wrong, I think it's great that Universal has put this much effort into promoting the movie. But the wider the exposure, the bigger opportunity for a very public criticism of it's box office performance.
The fact that it seems like everyone I know has already seen the movie in a preview worries me. Similar to Serenity, the Whedon directed Firefly movie, you may make the die-hard's happy by getting to see it early, but then they're less motivated to actually go pay and see the movie once it "officially" opens. In addition, as reviews roll in, I get excited to see the movie has an 88% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, but then it has a 33% approval rating at FFlick. That wide gap between approval ratings worries me a lot.
Only time will tell though and in one week we'll either be celebrating how well the movie did or groaning at the lack of box office returns. It may be overstating the importance of the movie, but after the so-so performance of The Losers, Kick-Ass and last year's Watchmen, when it comes to Hollywood and the opportunity for comic book movies that aren't driven from the big 2 the opening weekend of Scott Pilgrim could end up being very important.
Meanwhile, to continue the hype, Empire Magazine has the poster art from the fake movies that appear in Scott Pilgrim showing off evil ex-boyfriend Lucas Lee in his starring roles, and many of them are quite funny, my favorite being Action Doctor and the tag line for Let's Hope There's a Heaven
So what do you think? Have you seen the movie already? Will you go see it again or would you rather go see The Expendables (I would make fun of it, but Statham!)
(No spoilers for Scott Pilgrim in the comments, that's not what this is about.)
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A lot of the FFlick stuff is from people who haven’t seen it or things that aren’t actually negative, I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
tbh The Expendables
I’ve never read the series and I haven’t seen it on a preview. I definitely plan to see it next weekend! I like Cera and Wright too! It looks funny AND it has Superman and Captain America! What more could you ask for?
I’m really excited to see both Expendables and Scott Pilgrim, but Scott Pilgrim’s the one I’m going to see first. And I have a strong feeling it’ll be an uphill battle for it, so I’m definitely going to pay. Maybe see it twice.
I saw SP at Comic Con right after the panel, but I’ll be paying to see it again on opening night! Great flick. Love Edgar Wright’s work, and loved the comic series (though I didn’t get a chance to read book 6 before I saw the movie).
I’ve seen Scott pilgrim twice already. I’ll pay to see it again, but the three friends who saw it with me those two times probably won’t. Regardless, I don’t think Scott pilgrim would be a big hit anyway. I wish it were, but I just don’t think it’s in the cards.
Saw it with the wife, I loved it, she liked it but was glad it was free.
Saw a snaek preview earlier this week, and I can’t wait for the film to open so I can promote it with my wallet. I took a few friends who aren’t comic readers with me, and they immediately went out and bought the first three books in the series.
While I don’t think that this will be a film that does anything to bolster the reputation of movies rooted in graphic storytelling (I stand by Road to Perdition on that one), SP is kinetic and funny – I can’t remember laughing nearly as hard in any of the other comedies I’ve seen this year. Wright’s taken the property and created something with a ton of youthful energy, and as a result, I’m really hopeful that Scott Pilgrim will score big with teenagers (and grown-up 80’s kids who owned Power Gloves, like me).
GREAT movie, a ton of fun, and totally suitable for a date or a night out with friends. I’m with Gabe though – don’t think this will be a huge hit, but it’ll pull its budget back in and then some.
Yeah, just to expand on what Gobo said: FFlick is a dubious metric to me. Unlike RT, which bases its percentage on actual reviews, from mostly established reviewers, FFlick is based on the automatic categorizing of Twitter comments, and if you look at the negative, most of them are people grumbling about not liking the look of the trailer. I hope in the long run FFlick doesn’t get considered in the same way that RT or Metacritic does… People are more likely to complain online than compliment, I find.
That said, I will definitely be going to see SP vs The World on opening weekend! Can’t wait!
fflick is a waste of time. The site is only getting buzz because Twitter is such an over-hyped service and anything attached to it automatically rides its hype coat-tails. I would never, ever trust that service to even give me a reliable read of what people think of the movie, let alone let the Twitterverse sway me either way on a movie. What the hell do I care what random people on Twitter think of a movie, especially one they haven’t even seen?
is it bad that i saw the movie 4 times already? (and probably 1 more time before its released)
but i do have full intentions of seeing it once its released so i can support it with my wallet.
im not sick of it yet.
"Why are we so nervous?"
Uh, hm, I guess I’m the odd one out for not being nervous about this? I don’t even particularly remember fans of other comic movies being "nervous" about film adaptations.
The argument that the future of the comic book movie rests on Scott Pilgrim is bogus. It rests far more on things like Green Lantern and the next three Marvel movies. The "smaller" comic movies like Kick-Ass have never done gangbusters at the box-office anyway, so the fact that Kick-Ass didn’t do Batman-level business is nothing to worry about. Recent movies have met expectation$, even if they haven’t exceeded them.
Beyond all that, I’m a Scott Pilgrim fan but I couldn’t care less about wracking my nerves over the movie. If it’s good, I’ll see it. If it’s not, big deal, I still have the comics. Seems pretty simple to me.
My wife and I are there opening night. We both love the series and cannot wait. Seriously, I’d stay home rather than going to see The Expendables.
We’re also in for the game day one.
Critics are worthless when it comes to box office, impact, art, etc. etc. etc.
I’ve seen it once. i fully intend to watch it at least two more times. and not because i want to help the box office, but because i genuinely had a great time. i want to see it again.
i also want to see the expendables. i am most definitely going to see that.
Initially I was not very interested in the movie, as the first two books didn’t really do it for me. Having finished the series now my wife and I are much, much more excited.
Looking forward to it.
Saw the movie for free last week, will see it again for free this week, and will easily pay again to see it opening weekend.
I think that the advance screenings are a clever way to get reliable word of mouth going. Your geeky friend sees the movies for free, espouses the wonders of it for weeks, motivating you to go buy a ticket opening weekend.
Also, for reals, this movie is outta this world. My face hurt from grinning so much. See it without delay.
The good news about FFlick is that I live on the internet in a binary hut and I have never, ever heard of it in my life. Maybe it hasn’t reached the Midwestern part of the web yet, but as far as I’m concerned it might as well be some dude’s Angelfire page.
I saw a sneak peek of it a few weeks ago but I will go see it again easily. I want to take my wife to go see it!!
Correct me if i’m wrong here but isn’t Eat Pray Love coming out this weekend too? That’s going to take a big chunk out of the box office pie.
As for the Expendables – I’m not sure how it’ll do (maybe an A-Team opening) but it’ll Nader Scott Pilgrim’s numbers.
Definitely want to see Scott Pilgrim but probably will wait a couple weeks.
WTF is FFlick? Never heard of it.
Scott Pilgrim was damn good; a bit more enjoyable than the first two volumes in some ways.