The game, err movie is just pandering to video game players. Why? Simple. The story might even stand on its own without it. It just adds a distracting layer so a significant portion of the audience can exclaim “HEY THEY LIKE THAT THING THAT I LIKE!” And no, you can’t excuse their pandering just because it happens to pander to something you like. That’s not “not pandering”. That’s pandering working.
And listen, it’s not like video games are a cult phenomenon any more. Anyone under the age of 40ish grew up playing video games and probably still does. So it’s not some big in-joke. It’s just a ploy to make you like an otherwise uninteresting movie.
The fighting was alright the first time. The rest of the battles (aside from the botb 5&6) were just more of the same. The movie was repetitive in that respect. I understand that the filmmaker’s hands were pretty tied in that respect; the comic is about 7 evil exes and cutting several out would have made you comic nerds howl. The movie spent too much time on the Scott-Knives story. I think she would have been fine with a text blurb like the rest of the cast is introduced and the film started when he met Ramona.
Ramona. Aside from being pretty, she has no redeeming qualities as a character. She’s just there, taking up space and being a walking (seldom) talking macguffin. The audience gets no compelling reason whatsoever to like her. Even at the end of the movie I couldn’t bring myself to give a tiny squirt of a shit about what ultimately ends up happening to her, and I have diarrhea all the damn time. She, as a character, manages to make Michael Cera’s Scott Pilgrim seem interesting.
As for Michael Cera, well, I can’t really blame him. See, I’ve reflected on this and I can’t actually blame him as a bad actor. Because he’s not an actor. To be an actor you have to pretend to be someone else; to act. Michael Cera has only 1 character and that’s Michael Cera. By god I hope that’s an act, but I fear it isn’t.
Now, there’s plenty of people like that. One such fellow is Chris Rock. In every movie he’s in he is essentially Chris Rock. That’s fine if you like him. I do. It’s torture if you don’t. Michael Cera is just awkward and unfunny. Oh, and he doesn’t have any other skills. Rock is at least a comedian too.
Pilgrim, like Ramona, gives us little in terms of character arc. You can’t just write on the screen video-game HUD style that Scott learned self-esteem. That’s lazy cheating.
What did I like? The Culkin brother was pretty funny. The supporting cast in general is top notch. The chick from parks & rec was great. And sure, Cera pulls off a few good funny moments here and there. But not enough to warrant a rewatch and certainly not enough to warrant a full-price theater viewing.