Back in the heady days of this blog’s birth (all of two and a half weeks ago…), the first post made mention of some recent movies, most of which I’d failed miserably to catch at the cinema. One of them was Scott Pilgrim vs The World, a film that appealed to me on several levels, but clearly not enough to most other people. As a result, its box office performance was sadly lacking.
My good friend James, who also had a cameo in that inaugural post, recently purchased Scott Pilgrim on Blu-ray and sent me his thoughts upon watching it. Because his opinion on film is a worthwhile one, I wanted to repeat those thoughts here:
“It was the second time of watching it, and it definitely requires repeat viewings. Although I enjoyed it at the cinema, time – and a greater appreciation of the source material, Wright’s intentions and the gaming narrative – allowed me to simply relax and enjoy it on this occasion. There is a lot of fun to be had in what is genuinely one of the most overlooked films of last year. It saddens me to think that so few saw it upon its release, and I just hope it doesn’t lead to Wright having to compromise his vision next time in order to gain funding he richly deserves. I may well watch it again tonight.”
The sentiment about securing funding is particularly apt, because another of the films I missed in 2010 was Inception. Everybody’s favourite cult film reviewer – Mark Kermode – repeatedly made the point on BBC Radio 5 Live that Chris Nolan traded on the financial success of his Batman films to secure the opportunity to make it, and duly produced a film nearly as successful as The Dark Knight in monetary terms, grossing in excess of $800million, and presumably giving himself the freedom to make anything he bloody well likes for the rest of his career.
This isn’t a precursor to a rant about the state of cinema; there is nothing I could say on the subject that better qualified people couldn’t, and with more authority and eloquence. Really, it would be foolish to try and draw specific conclusions from just those two examples; it is simply an interesting comparison worth giving voice to. After all, considering the successes of Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, there is every reason to think (hope?) that Edgar Wright’s career won’t be adversely affected by the reception for Scott Pilgrim, and that is as it should be.
As for Chris Nolan – well, who isn’t excited by the prospect of The Dark Knight Rises?
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