Po Mo Lesson 7.Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010).

• Postmodernism is not always serious. Postmodern texts have been created for entertainment.

• Let us look at a Postmodern film.

Ironic or what? Five ways to spot a Postmodern film• Postmodernism. It’s one of those frequently-used terms which is

often applied to films or TV shows alongside adjectives such as ‘ironic’, ‘quirky’, self-conscious’, or just plain ‘weird’.

Five ways to spot a Postmodern film

• 1. Playfulness and self reference

• Or to put it another way… ‘Hey you out there in the stalls’! Whereas a classical narrative will try to hide the fact that it’s a fictional product, carefully edited to make you forget any editing has actually taken place, a Postmodern film will jump up and down to draw attention to itself and its modes of construction.

Five ways to spot a Postmodern film

• 2. Generic blurring and intertextuality

Although films often cross boundaries between different genres, a Postmodern film will particularly delight in blurring those boundaries

Five ways to spot a Postmodern film

• 3. Popular and commercial media meet ‘High Culture’Postmodern films like to treat culture as a pick ‘n’ mix experience.

• The divisions between what was previously considered ‘High Culture’ (opera, classical drama and literature, fine art etc.) and those entertainment and commercial forms enjoyed by the so called masses (pop music and video, advertising, mainstream film, computer games and most forms of television).

Five ways to spot a Postmodern film

• EG. Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann again), owes much of its storyline to Puccini’s opera La Bohème and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. However, it also recycles famous contemporary music, most notably Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana. What’s more the film removes them from their intended period, and relocates them in Paris at the end of the 19th Century.

Five ways to spot a Postmodern film

• 4. Fragmentation and the death of representation

•Some people argue that modern audiences are so used to reading media signs and messages through film, television, advertising and, most recently, the Internet, that reading media representations has become the dominant way of making sense of ‘reality’.

• In other words, we ‘read’ the world not through any essential first-hand knowledge or experience, but through media representations – which themselves increasingly refer to other representations.

Five ways to spot a Postmodern film

• 5.Uncertainty and the loss of context

• All the above can result in a sense of uncertainty and the shaking up of previously understood beliefs and roles.

• Postmodern films can make us feel that there are no generic rules any more, and that representations only refer to other representations.

• This can make us feel insecure. Postmodernist filmmakers challenge many aspects of life or belief systems which were once taken for granted (Lyotard –Metanarratives).

How many can we spot?

• How many of these five characteristics are present in “Scott Pilgrim”? Lets look.

Origins

• The film is based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley.

• It translates the world of the comic book onto the big screen.

• Colourful freeze-frames and flashy special effects (Hollywood rumours are that the film spent $80 million while only earning ten!)

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010).

• Director:

• Edgar Wright

• Writers:

• Michael Bacall (screenplay), Edgar Wright (screenplay).

• Stars:

• Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kieran Culkin

Storyline

• Scott Pilgrim plays in a band which aspires to success. He dates Knives Chau, a high-school girl who is five years younger.

• He hasn't recovered from being dumped by his former girlfriend who is now a success with her own band.

• Scott falls for Ramona Flowers. He has trouble breaking up with Knives as he tries to romance Ramona.

Storyline

• As if juggling two women wasn't enough, Ramona comes with baggage!

• Ramona has seven ex-lovers. Scott must do battle with each of them in order to win Ramona.

How to watch the film.

• In order to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, viewers must suspend their disbelief and allow for the fantastical: in Scott Pilgrim’s world, vegan ex-boyfriends can possess superpowers, extra-lives can be earned by defeating opponents, and swords can carry mysterious love powers.

How to watch the film.

• None of this should be difficult for a generation of viewers raised on ‘Harry Potter and ‘Twilight’.

• Therefore, the film should be a success.

• Was it?

Did badly at box office.

• Box Office

• Budget:

• $60,000,000 (estimated)

• Opening Weekend:

• $10,609,795 (USA) (15 August 2010) (2818 Screens)

• Gross:

• $31,494,270 (USA) (4 October 2010)

Bad Box Office.

Why?

Why do you think it did badly?

Universal’s Response to Bad Box Office.

• Universal acknowledged their disappointment at the opening weekend, saying they had "been aware of the challenges of broadening this film to a mainstream audience“.

• Why was this film a challenge?

“Pushing the Envelope”

• Regardless of poor box office, the studio's spokesman said Universal was "proud of this film and our relationship with the visionary and creative filmmaker Edgar Wright. Universal said ……

Edgar Wright.

• ....” Edgar has created a truly unique film that is both envelope pushing and genre bending and when examined down the road will be identified as an important piece of filmmaking.”

• Do you agree with the phrases in red? Why?

“Variety” said ……

• Variety gave the film a mixed review, referring to the film as "An example of attention-deficit filmmaking at both its finest and its most frustrating" .

“Variety” also said ….

• "anyone over 25 is likely to find director Edgar Wright's adaptation of the cult graphic novel exhausting, like playing chaperone at a party full of oversexed college kids."

*IGN gave the film……

a positive rating of 8/10 calling the film "funny and offbeat" as well as noting that the film is "best suited for the wired generation and those of us who grew up on Nintendo and MTV.

*IGN is a casual news/reviews website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media

IGN also said ….

“ Its *kinetic nature and quirky sensibilities might be a turnoff for some.“

• *Kinetic = force due to motion.

• Do you agree?

Nick Schager of Slant Magazine….

gave the film a positive review of three and a half stars out of four, calling Edgar Wright an "inspired mash-up artist, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World may be his finest hybridization to date".

What did he mean? Do you agree?

Why would they like it?

• After its premiere in Japan, several notable video game, film and anime industry personalities have praised Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, among them Hironobu Sakaguchi, Goichi Suda, Miki Mizuno, Tomohiko Itō, Rintaro Watanabe and Takao Nakano

Are you surprised?

• A video game was produced based on the series. It was released for PlayStation Network on August 10, 2010 and on Xbox Live Arcade on August 25, being met with mostly positive reviews.

• The game is published by Ubisoft and developed by Ubisoft Montrealand Ubisoft Chengdu, featuring animation by Paul Robertson and original music by Anamanaguchi.

A. O. Scott made the film…

his "critics pick", stating "There are some movies about youth that just make you feel old, even if you aren't...

Do you agree that “SPvsW” does this?

Box Office Disaster! Why?

• Blurring of genres.

• Audiences like the security of knowing the genre.

• With “SPvsW” they do not get this. Instead they get a ………..

Box Office Disaster.

• Is the film a ‘mish-mash ‘of computer games linked with different film genres - comic book, romantic comedy, teenage coming of age film and cartoon element, Kung Fu etc.

• Do you agree with the term ‘mish mash’? Does it suggest a mess?

Pastiche or a ‘hodge-podge’?

Is the Pastiche in the film a “hodge-podge” of different styles, conventions, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources, and combined together to form an artwork.

• Does it succeed or is it a ‘hodge-podge’?

Intertextuality.

• The editing also highlights the intertextuality in the scene as Wright had clearly taken influences from comic books and manga with the use of the final “K.O” appearing on screen which relates to martial arts video games.

Problems with intertextuality.

• Another reason ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ failed at the box office and this was because of the nature of the intertextuality that is in the film.

• Scott Pilgrim is aimed at a the computer literate male teenager who likes playing computer games and his girlfriend who loves of romantic comedies.

• However, there is a problem with the target audience of this film.

Problems with intertextuality.

• Most of the references are too old for most of the target audience to know what it is.

• E.g.. ‘Seinfeld’ was an American hit comedy TV series. However, it was cancelled and removed off of the air before the target audience for the film was even born.

• This means that to understand this intertextual reference would have to be 20 – 30 years of age. This is not the target audience for the film.

Another Obscure Intertextual Reference lost on the Target Audience.• The ‘Super Vegan’ is a reference to the animated TV series called

‘Dragon Ball Z’.

• Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese mangaseries written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995.

•

In Summary

• Therefore, one reason ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’ flopped at the box office because its narrow / specific target audience were too young to understand many of the intertextual references in the film.

Made a loss. Why?

• The film is too ambitious it attempts more than can be satisfactorily delivered in a cinema.

“Mortal Kombat” – A Game

• While the story is set in the real world, it’s a version of the real world in which some of the laws of video games apply.

• Scott’s confrontations with the exes are staged like rounds of “Mortal Kombat.” When foes are vanquished, they turn into coins, and the point value appears above them before floating away.

• It’s not that Scott has to defeat these exes. He literally has to fight them, both he and they endowed with video-game-like skills.

A Post Modern Film.

• Weaved through this comedic romance are all the hallmarks of post-modernity.

• Special attention is paid to the ways media (T.V., cinema and video-game culture to name a few) intermingle with traditional narrative patterns, creating a new type of film.

The film made a loss. Why?

• Too postmodern - imitates a computer game.

• Alienates portion of the potential audience (females ? older viewers?)who are either unfamiliar with computer games or dislike them.

Made a loss. Why?

• No story to lose oneself in.

• The audience do not respond to the text in the classical way.

• Instead the pleasure comes from recognising intertextual references –if don’t know them, then don’t get the pleasure.

Self-reflexivity

• Self-reflexivity characterizes many postmodern works, which explicitly refer to themselves in order to indicate how aware they are of their own constructive character.

• Self-reflexive texts stress they are not real.

Should texts do this?

Reflexivity is an act of self-reference, where an artwork specifically calls attention to itself, or to its method of production.

Made a loss. Why?

• This post modern text is *self reflexive.

• *marked by or making reference to its own artificiality or contrivance.

• The viewer is constantly reminded we are watching a film – never lose ourselves!

Self Reflexive Editing.

• The Director, Edgar Wright, experiments with the editing used in this scene, as he splits the screen in half to show the expression of the characters and their weapons (instruments) for “fighting” to destroy two of the seven evil exes.

Made a loss. Why?

• No narrative plot that progresses and engages the audience . No real plot development.

• Instead the repetitive structure of a computer game.

Poor Box Office. Why?

• Violence in many postmodern films is brutal, excessive and often without clear purpose.

• In postmodern films violence is typically used to overwhelm the spectator, potentially leaving her or him desensitized and without a clear sense of its function within the narrative.

• Is this true of “SPvsTW”?

Violence in a Moral Vacuum.

• “SPvsTW” has violent scenes.

• However, there are no consequences to this violence.

• This reflects the loss of meta narratives in a post modern world.

Made a loss. Why?

• No meta narratives – no moral sense.

• No consequences to violence. This will disturb many viewer who will feel they are in a moral vacuum.

No metanarratives

• For Lyotard, the postmodern culture distances itself from this centralizing effect on knowledge, thus removing the need for the epistemological hierarchy which cultural or political movements such as modernism and Marxism seem to enforce.

Lyotard

• Lyotard announces that “the grand narrative has lost its credibility” (Lyotard, 1984: 37), praising local and temporary knowledge instead.

• This is the stage onto which the postmodern artist or writer emerges, each contributing her or his own mininarrative in the form of liberating postmodern expressions.

Made a loss. Why?

• Not original – a recycling of a comic book.

A simulacrum is a likeness or similarity of

something that lacks the substance or quality of the original.

Is this true of the film?

Serious or just fun?

• Postmodern Cinema pluralizes the discourse, creating multiple sources of knowledge, diverse histories, and many ways of analyzing contemporary society.

• Does “SPvsTW” do this or is it just fun?

Serious or just fun?

• Cornell West describes the importance of the ”demoralized, demobilized, depoliticized and disorganized” cultures to ”trash the monolithic and homogenous in the name of diversity, multiplicity and heterogeneity.”

• Does “SPvsTW” do this or is it just fun?

Serious or just fun?

• Cornell West describes the importance of the ”demoralized, demobilized, depoliticized and disorganized” cultures to ”trash the monolithic and homogenous in the name of diversity, multiplicity and heterogeneity.”

• Does “SPvsTW” do this or is it just fun?

Shocking!

• If a movie that looked and sounded like Scott Pilgrim vs. the Worldhad come out 40 years ago, people would have been shocked and possibly appalled.

• Even by 2010 standards, the way it’s written, performed, shot and edited is supremely unusual.

An Exuberant Mixture

• The film is an exuberant mixture of comic books, video games, and teenage romance by way of John Hughes.

• Hughes directed and scripted some of the most successful ‘teenage’ films of the 1980s and 1990s, including National Lampoon's Vacation, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Beethoven, Uncle Buck.

Revolutionary!

• The film uses an impressive number of unconventional filmmaking devices, most of which have been done before, but probably not all in the same film.

• In 10 years from now this may be the norm. For now, it’s almost revolutionary.

How odd!!

• How oddly the story is told, by director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).

• Electronic sound effects accompany some of the action as befits a video-game story aimed at an audience of video-game players.

How odd!

• On screen titles, like boxes in comic-book panels, introduce new characters.

• One scene is played out like a sitcom, complete with laugh track.

• There are sight gags like Scott talking about his shaggy hair, then cutting to someone’s reaction, then immediately cutting back to Scott, who’s now wearing a hat.

Audience Response

• We recognize all these quirks as postmodern variations on the way movies normally speak to us.

• We aren’t meant to believe that there is suddenly a studio audience in Scott’s apartment, or that Scott can put on a hat in a fraction of a second.

Audience Response

The usual rules of editing, storytelling, and the expectation of reality — the standard “grammar” of film — is out the window. We’re able to keep up because we know the grammar well enough to appreciate variations on it.

A Positive Response.

• I was never a hardcore video-gamer, nor have I read the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, so maybe it’s not specifically a generational thing.

• I was impressed that despite how incredibly imaginative and energetic the film is, it never becomes exhausting.

A Positive Response.

• Wright seems perfectly in control of the kooky tricks in his arsenal, never deploying them just for the sake of being weird.

• The fact that I didn’t suffer from stimulation overload suggests that perhaps I am not too old just yet

A Negative Response.

• You see, for as clever and inventive as the movie’s style is, its lack of traditional “reality” makes it hard for me to feel any emotional investment when the John Hughes moments arrive.

• In a video game, you never die. Even when you’re out of lives, you can continue. When you think of it that way, the stakes actually aren’t very high at all.

A Negative Response.

• ‘There are some aspects of the story that don’t resonate with me, that indeed I don’t “get,” possibly because I’m not fluent enough in the insane language of the film’.

• ‘ Maybe some people are moved by Scott and Ramona’s story and it tugs at their heartstrings. Or maybe those strings don’t matter anymore, in our brave new postmodern world.’

A Negative Response linked to randomness.

• The whole concept of the film is rather random, especially how the scenes are portrayed such as this one, as the Katayanagi Twins create some sort of dragon with their music to try and beat Scott.

• In another scene Scott daydreams about Ramona on rollerblades in a desert. Once again we see the randomness that Wright so eagerly uses.

Is this true of “SPvsTW”?

Postmodern society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs. In a postmodern film, the human experience is a simulation of reality rather than reality itself.

If this is true, how satisfying is it?