Scott Pilgrim & Kick-Ass Vs. The Movies

I have a deep love of the Scott Pilgrim books; it's actually one of the few stories I've read that I would love to musicalize. Of course, there was no way I'd get the rights to that even if there weren't a movie coming out, so instead I've had to content myself with re-reading the books every few months and daydreaming of the Scott Pilgrim tour of Toronto I will embark upon the next time I'm back there. (I've been in love with Toronto since I was there for barely 24 hours a year and a half ago, and Scott Pilgrim has only made it worse.)

But there IS a movie, and its official trailer was recently released and it looks awesome. There's so much going on in those books: there's the beautiful, genuine way the characters and their relationships are written; the way Bryan Lee O'Malley celebrates Toronto while establishing the city as a character; the fantastic yet natural use of video game and classic comic book conventions; the expert and delicate balance of Scott's straightforward mission (to defeat Ramona's 7 evil exes) with his more subtle mental journey and, similarly, with Ramona's own internal arc.

I was concerned that a lot of those things would get lost in a movie, causing it to end up as yet another indie romance. This trailer, however, has me confident that the movie won't disappoint. It's not always wise to judge a movie by its trailer, but there are so many little things in this one (such as the comic-book style sound effects and the integration of the video game elements) that to me are enough to show that the movie has got it right. The tone seems perfect; it's taking itself seriously, in that those weirder aspects aren't cartoonish and are taken in stride, but it's not by any means a heavy film, and watching the trailer is fun.

I don't want to get my hopes up, but it seems like the movie does full justice to one of my favorite series. I can't wait to see for myself.



I am also extremely excited/apprehensive about the Kick-Ass movie, for somewhat similar reasons. I love graphic violence in my comic books as much as the next person (...maybe a little more than the next person...I'm a big fan of Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis, after all...), but for me, Kick-Ass is more about...well, kicking-ass. It's about the role comics in general and superheroes in particular play in our lives; it's about the consuming loneliness that drives a high school kid to put on a wetsuit and face off against mobsters, even after being beaten to a pulp. It's about hating who you are so much only a mask lets you be who you want to be.

I hope all that's in the film. Letting the awesome action sequences and the premise overshadow the pain at the root of the story would be really too bad, and a missed opportunity.

Regardless, I'm thrilled that there have been so many comic book movies lately, especially since lately some of them have veered away from bigger, more mainstream ones. I never would have thought Scott Pilgrim or Kick-Ass would be adapted to film, so to have them both coming out so close to each other makes it even more amazing. And, like with musicals, anything that gets people to read comics is fine by me--even if it's not perfect.