Why I Hate Scott Pilgrim (vs. The World).

N.B Meant to post this about a month ago, no idea why I didn’t. Probably something to do with the university term starting or something.

For the past few weeks, there has been a buzz. A buzz that started by rumours and whispers and escalated to full-scale facebook takeover. The buzz was that which surrounded the newly released Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Dir. Edgar Wright). Everyone loved the film, claiming it was “the best film they had seen in ages” and likewise statements. Literally, one day my entire facebook newsfeed was full of positive raving about the film.

The film is different and the ideas behind its style have not really been explored before. The film is one of the first to treat the late-80s and 90s with a sense of nostalgia, and I’m guessing that’s why my generation of filmgoers enjoyed it so much. Everyone tends to look back to the decade of their own childhood with a sense of “the good old days”. The retro-gaming aspect of the film, with it’s pixellated graphices and chiptune sound effects appealed to a generation of “next-gen” consoles and reminded them where their love of computer gaming originated. The casting of Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim also appealed to the wave geek-chic, indie culture which is currently taking place, where cool is out and nerd is in.

However, my beef with Scott Pilgrim starts here. Confusingly, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is trying so hard to be cool by being uncool before being uncool was cool that it has drastically failed and has just become uncool. It was trying SO hard. Every other word was a lame indie culture reference in such a way that it wasn’t even postmodern; it just reeked of try-hard, poser retro-gamers who hadn’t even tried hard enough to pull it off. Seriously, that whole “Puc-Man” bit: did anyone not already know that?

I also hate Michael Cera. Just for the record. I’m not entirely sure what he brings to the table when a film is being made, but it seems to me like filmmakers seem to think he’s cute and quirky. He isn’t. He’s annoying and unremarkable and looks more like someone who looks like someone than someone who actually is someone.

At the beginning of the film, Scott Pilgrim has a chinese girlfriend called Knives. They get on pretty fucking well. They’re taking things slowly. They’re have a lot in common and they’re perfectly in sync, as shown in the cut scenes of them playing some sort of ninja DDR that I’m not about to go and google. Knives pretty much worships Pilgrim, and he seems to really like her back, and he doesn’t ever exploit the fact that Knives would do anything for him. She’s also a lot younger than Scott, but he doesn’t think this is a problem, more proof that he respects her and actually likes her.

Enter Ramona Flowers. She’s the main love interest of the film. Considering Scott already has a girlfriend who loves him, you’d think another woman wouldn’t be a problem. Not only does Pilgrim immediately fall for Ramona, he actively chases her down. He tries as hard as he can to cheat on his amazing girlfriend. Ramona must be pretty special right? Wrong. She has hair that’s dyed bright colours. She wears kooky clothes. She rollerskates! Fucking hell she’s so cool. I imagine this is the same thought process that Pilgrim makes before deducing that she is better than Knives.

For the rest of the film, Ramona pouts, acts mean, and looks sideways. She has a really bad attitude. When Ramona and Pilgrim first properly meet, she almost sleeps with him. A bit different from Scott’s relationship with Knives. Where’s the respect? The only reason they don’t sleep together is because Ramona seems to want to play games with Scott’s mind. (Which actually, he’d deserve.) Ramona initially hates Scott, so why does he keep chasing her? This is just another film trying to promote women as status symbols. Everyone knows who she is and she’s seemingly unobtainable, so he has to have her.

When Pilgrim finally gets Ramona (without telling Knives, I might add) he finds out he has to defeat her seven evil exes. At what point do you think it would be reasonable to say “Actually no, I’m not going to put myself in mortal danger just so I can stay with this girl that doesn’t even like me and just wants to toy with my heart.”? Plus the idea of fighting over a woman is so dated, so obviously sexist that I can’t believe it would even be included in a film with such new styles and ideas of filmmaking.

(I’d also like to add that one of Ramona’s evil exes is a girl. Whom Ramona fights herself, god forbid a man has to fight a woman.)

The whole way through the film Ramona maintains her steely composure and never really acts like she wants Scott in the first place. However, in true misogynistic fashion, Scott manages to explain her behaviour with the oft-cited “You just act cold and uncaring because you don’t want to get hurt but deep down you want to let me in and love me because I’m a man” or something along those lines. Why is it that girls can’t possibly just not give a shit, and it always has to be something about sex or love or boys, or maybe they’re just a lesbian?

Finally, the end of the film could have possibly redeemed this entire rollercoaster of rage that was Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. At the end, Ramona chooses a different man. She chooses her last ex, who is a little dominating and controlling, but doesn’t seem too bad. He even apologises to Scott, explaining that Ramona made her choice and he shouldn’t become another of her controlling evil exes. My perfect ending concludes here, with Scott coming to the realisation that no matter how much effort you put in, you can’t force someone to love you.
This is not how the film ends.
Actual ending: Scott does become a jealous evil ex. He fights Ramona’s new boyfriend, wins, and then Ramona magically changes her mind and gets with Scott.
Why couldn’t Ramona keep her choice? Women don’t always want the strongest, or the most protective man. Some might, but others won’t. We aren’t merely animals and there are other aspects of people’s personalities or appearances that we can find ten times more appealing than physical strength and perseverance.

Also, heads up to Knives. She eventually just accepts that Ramona is better than her and continues with her life. If I were her, I’d burn down Scott Pilgrim’s house.

P. S. I have a lot more to say about this, but I’ve already breached the 1000 word mark, and I try to keep my posts readable.