Scott Pilgrim vs.... The Expendables?
By
Acemace,
Posted on: 2010-08-05 22:01 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
I feel like this is one of the signs of the impending Idiocracy.
Thanks for eight fun years, Paragon.
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That's perhaps the most insulting thing I've read in this thread, and perhaps the biggest turnoff to my decision to actually see it, if the fans are looking down at people who just aren't particularly interested, for any reason.
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Originally Posted by ChrisMoses
I feel like this is one of the signs of the impending Idiocracy.
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Dawncaller - The Circle of Dawn
Too many blasted alts to list, but all on Virtue.
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The only recurring theme I see here is that the Scott Pilgrim crowd insists that by liking that movie they are somehow much more smarter than those who preferred The Expendables. It's just another case of a group complaining about people not liking their favorite movie.
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Originally Posted by UltraTroll
Wait, let me get this straight. This seems to be a recurring theme for the Scott Pilgrim crowd here.
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Not many people have said they didn't like Scott Pilgrim on this thread or any other. Most gave only reason why they don't want to watch it over The Expendables or at all. I personally wanted to see both, but circumstances prevented me from watching The Expendables this weekend (and probably next weekend) so I can't really comment on how good or bad that movie is, and it would be hypocritical for me to do so, as it just irks me when people talk smack or even give high praise to something they haven't seen.
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Originally Posted by Lazarus
The only recurring theme I see here is that the Scott Pilgrim crowd insists that by liking that movie they are somehow much more smarter than those who preferred The Expendables. It's just another case of a group complaining about people not liking their favorite movie.
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Nobody said The Expendables is for idiots. What was said is the argument that The Expendables is better simply because it made more money is idiotic. All it means is that it was more popular.
The Expendables is an action flick. So basically guys from puberty up is their targeted demographic. Plus it has just about every action star from the 80s and 90s with the exception of Chuck Norris so that also helps draw the older demographic. Plus the audience knew what they were getting upfront.
Scott Pilgram is a 20 something romcom steeped in the influence of classic video games and anime/manga tropes. So first being a romcom is going to dissuade guys in general if given a choice between that and an action flick. Then familiarity with anime/manga tropes skews the demographic younger plus there are some people who simply dislike anything related to anime/manga. Finally you have those who can't stand the lead actor probably because he keeps getting the good looking cute girl in all his films. Guess what, that just simply makes him the Anthony Michael Hall of this generation.
So it's not surprising The Expendables beat it this weekend almost 3:1 on a per theater basis, not really.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
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Tempus unum hominem manet
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Yep, this is what I intended. Sorry if it came across the other way.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Nobody said The Expendables is for idiots. What was said is the argument that The Expendables is better simply because it made more money is idiotic. All it means is that it was more popular.
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Also, I was going take umbrage with the "romcom" tag, but you're trying to help here, Kris Kringle, and I've done enough disagreeing on the topic.
Thanks for eight fun years, Paragon.
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Umm, I don't like him because he's annoying. I haven't sat through one of his movies long enough to the part where he gets the girl. |
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Finally you have those who can't stand the lead actor probably because he keeps getting the good looking cute girl in all his films.
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Though to be honest, I don't attach enough importance to him to decide if I'm going to see the movie or not. The fact that I hear more and more the movie is centrally built on manga and console game tropes is turning me off however since I don't much care for either.
A lead star I have little use for doesn't help the cause.
Too many alts to list.
I really wouldn't call Pilgrim a 'romcom' - just because it matches elements of that genre, it really doesn't match up with movies like "Pretty Woman" and "When Harry Met Sally", which iis what most guys think of (with a groan) when they hear 'romcom'. I think it's more like 'The Breakfast Club', which is similarly hard to pigeonhole.
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
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Maybe romcom is to strong of a definition for a movie that's difficult to to peg in one or two genres. Rotten Tomatoes list it as "Action & Adventure, Romance, Comedy". Metacritic tosses Fantasy into that list.
That's another thing The Expendables had going for it, it's very definable genre wise. People going to see it knew that it's a bullet/explosion fest that's as lite on plot as your basic FPS.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
The weekend estimates based on Friday night's box office are in, and The Expendables and Scott Pilgrim are shaping up to fall on opposite ends of the top ten by Sunday:
- The Expendables: $15M
- Vampires Suck: $12M
- Eat Pray Love: $11.5M
- Lottery Ticket: $11M
- Piranha 3D: $10M
- The Other Guys: $9.6M
- Nanny McPhee Returns: $8.5M
- The Switch: $8M
- Inception: $7M
- Scott Pilgrim vs The World: $4.6M
Well considering it had a two day head start, I don't see VS lasting for the entire weekend and I would be happy to see it end up 5th or 6th. 2nd would just encourage whoever is financing those dopes to pay them to do yet another ??? Movie movie.
Piranha 3D is another late teen flick, horror instead of parody.
I've seen SP twice now. It's ranking up there with some of my all time favorite "fun" movies. The soundtrack also kicks butt.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
The guy who runs the local comic shop tells me that they let an absurd amount of people get to see an advanced viewing of Scott Pilgrim for free near here weeks before it came out. None of the people who saw it for free went to see it because well... they already saw it. If they did this in other areas that could explain the poor box office sales, in other words they may have shot themselves in the foot here.
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Free tickets = 1 theater and 1 showing it would not have saved the film.
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Originally Posted by OzzieArcane
The guy who runs the local comic shop tells me that they let an absurd amount of people get to see an advanced viewing of Scott Pilgrim for free near here weeks before it came out. None of the people who saw it for free went to see it because well... they already saw it. If they did this in other areas that could explain the poor box office sales, in other words they may have shot themselves in the foot here.
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That's why I said if they were doing it in other areas as well. I know that one showing wouldn't have had an effect on it's own.
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Originally Posted by UltraTroll
Free tickets = 1 theater and 1 showing it would not have saved the film.
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Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
The weekend estimates based on Friday night's box office are in, and The Expendables and Scott Pilgrim are shaping up to fall on opposite ends of the top ten by Sunday:
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Ouch....
America has NO taste.
(the above is a point of view statement. Should you disagree, TOUGH!!)
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Indeed. Expendables, by all accounts, wasn't trying to be anything more than steak 'n' bullets. Scott Pilgrim actually aims high and hits it for the most part. Shame people voted the other way.|
Originally Posted by BlackArachnia
Ouch....
America has NO taste. (the above is a point of view statement. Should you disagree, TOUGH!!) |
Oh, and can we use the phrase "steak 'n' bullets" from now on? I really like it.
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How about the extra alliteration of "beefsteak and bullets"?
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Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
Oh, and can we use the phrase "steak 'n' bullets" from now on? I really like it.
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Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
How about the extra alliteration of "beefsteak and bullets"?
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Oooh, it's soo 'working class', I love it.
I'm also at a loss over SP's crash and burn. Where are all the tweens who plopped 300mill of moms money down for that Twilight tripe.
All the way down to #10 in a single week, I guess there has to be something to the Cera disdain..?
edit, this made me chuckle:
My chick and I saw both yesterday. SP first, then went to a late lunch, followed by the Expendables. SP is a better made movie in the "film maker sense" I think. Better writing, fun, more complex, invokes different emotions, etc. The Expendables is simple and silly guns, martial arts, and explosions fun. The bad writing and most-of-the-time bad delivery adds to the personality of the film not as a good movie in the traditional sense, but as a great "turn your brain off and have fun" type flick. I'll watch both again, but neither in theaters.
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You shouldn't be - it has just about zero penetration into the mainstream geekosphere, which is itself a niche market - so it's only appealing to a niche within a niche, and the exec who decide to throw 60 million bucks at something that weak with such a tiny chance of even breaking even will most likely be looking for another job.|
Originally Posted by Acemace
I'm also at a loss over SP's crash and burn.
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I'm not a hardcore geek, but I do geeky things - I play MMOs, I read comics, I'm a Star Wars fangurl - but I'd never heard of this thing until I saw a thread about it here.
I asked my geeky friends if they'd heard of - the anser was "no" - I even asked my non-geeky friends - still "no".
I found some examples from the source material - it was crushingly unfunny.
I found the trailer on YouTube - it was pants-on-head dumb.
It's simply not blockbuster material, which is why it's heading for box office bomb/summer disaster status afetr only one week in theaters.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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I can understand Expendables beating SP.|
Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
Indeed. Expendables, by all accounts, wasn't trying to be anything more than steak 'n' bullets. Scott Pilgrim actually aims high and hits it for the most part. Shame people voted the other way.
Oh, and can we use the phrase "steak 'n' bullets" from now on? I really like it. |
But Vampires Suck? You have to be kidding me.
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Zero penetration in the contradiction in terms that is "the mainstream geekosphere"? Production news for SPvtW blanketed the moviegeek sites from AintItCool and CHUD on down since it was greenlit; the final cut received a standing ovation at Comic Con last month; and O'Malley has won both the Eisner and Harvey awards, among many cartoonists' accolades, for his graphic novel series (which has made best-of lists from Wizard to Entertainment Weekly). If anything, over-saturation is more likely to have contributed to the movie's disappointment at the box office.|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
it has just about zero penetration into the mainstream geekosphere
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In the case of the extensive preview screenings, Universal may have been hoping to create a word-of-mouth groundswell going into the opening weekend. Instead, this strategy seems to have backfired by giving the movie away for free to its core audience, who then either outright scared off their mainstream friends by geeking out over it or were simply unable to convey their enthusiasm when describing this unusual film. Certainly in my own case, I haven't been able to rouse my peers' interest and have found myself stumbling when trying to pitch it to them (really, what is a videogame-magic-realism-twentysomething-Canadian-slacker-indie-rock-romance movie anyway?). The Expendables's "beefsteak and bullets" formula is much easier to get across when deciding on movie night.
It's entirely possible, of course, that SPvtW will put to rest the received idea that geek culture has truly penetrated the mainstream. The overlap on the Venn diagram between the two may turn out to be much slimmer than expected.
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You would have to be living under a rock as a geek to not heard of Scott Pilgrim in the last 5 years. Buzz about it has been all over the internet and comic scene for years and it was promoted heavily this summer in the gaming scene as well with the DLC game. |
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
You shouldn't be - it has just about zero penetration into the mainstream geekosphere, which is itself a niche market - so it's only appealing to a niche within a niche, and the exec who decide to throw 60 million bucks at something that weak with such a tiny chance of even breaking even will most likely be looking for another job.
I'm not a hardcore geek, but I do geeky things - I play MMOs, I read comics, I'm a Star Wars fangurl - but I'd never heard of this thing until I saw a thread about it here. I asked my geeky friends if they'd heard of - the anser was "no" - I even asked my non-geeky friends - still "no". I found some examples from the source material - it was crushingly unfunny. I found the trailer on YouTube - it was pants-on-head dumb. It's simply not blockbuster material, which is why it's heading for box office bomb/summer disaster status afetr only one week in theaters. |
On-topic: as dismal as the tickets sales are, universal will probably make up for it in game and dvd/bd sales. Keep in mind that the game was cheaply produced and has sold a lot of copies with promise of more DLC priced updates for fans. Also this is without a doubt a cult classic that is going to make money for years to come even if it continues to bomb in box office sales.
I saw an ad or two for the movie on the Live dashboard. It... did a poor job of selling the movie to me. The game looks interesting, and I might buy it. That's the only source I ever heard about Scott Pilgrim from before this thread.
Anecdote is not data, but please keep in mind that fan myopia can easily set in going both ways.
Dawncaller - The Circle of Dawn
Too many blasted alts to list, but all on Virtue.
Certainly more people went to go see The Expendables than went to see Scott Pilgrim, doesn't exactly mean they liked it. Especially given the generally lower reviews and 'users scores' The Expendables had at the various websites around the internet when compared to Scott Pilgrim.
Personally I thought both were a ton of fun, but they both had some issues that I could easily see turning off viewers.
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