Two weeks in and Internet fans are crying over the lack of enthusiasm shown toward Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The heavily marketed 60 million dollar film has little hope of recouping it’s costs while in theaters. The dismal showing was compounded by the fact that Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendibles, filled with action movie stars of years past, has sat on top of the box office charts for two weeks. A common interpretation has been that people don’t understand Edgar Wright’s latest film. Another reason is that Americans have bad cinematic tastes. The only thing for certain is that movie goers have little to no interest in seeing yet another Michael Cera romantic nerd comedy.
I’d like to state that I actually really like Michael Cera. I thought that Paper Hearts was not only one of the more original concepts but also one of the most effective romantic comedies I’ve seen in quite some time. How Scott Pilgrim vs. The World failed is more of a sign of audience desire than anything else. In the 80’s and 90’s, fans were kept healthy with a heavy dose of action films. Many of which were far from making any sort of sense from a cinematic or plausibility standpoint. However, this level of fantasy is a necessity for audiences. Aside from the occasional Jason Statham Crank film, people have been left desiring more in recent years. The Expendables gave mindless entertainment seekers something to sink their teeth into. What Scott Pilgrim vs. The World represented was a new age action hero. Something that many audiences weren’t ready to accept.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of arguments that lean heavily towards the lack of internet support for the film. However, time has shown that the internet has not been able to produce a significant dollar value in the entertainment business. Television and print advertisement still dominates the medium. Whether or not that changes in the coming generation remains to be seen. Scott Pilgriim vs. The World centered heavily on an internet marketing campaign. The posters avoided descriptions of any sort of plot description or even cast members. Michael Cera’s face was usually obscured during a moment of musical enjoyment. This sort of marketing detached the everyday man or woman from being able to acknowledge what they were viewing. While the posters were quite original, they failed to do what movie posters are supposed to do… promote the film.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World could be suffering from the same thing that The Wizard of Oz suffered from or even Citizen Kane. It could be a great movie obscured by lack of interest. The DVD sales of the film will show this more than anything else. While I can’t comment on the content of the film, I can say that universally the film has been snubbed on its initial release. Whether or not this reflects the actual content is a completely different argument.