After months of hype, those who eagerly awaited the arrival of ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the World’ finally got their chance to watch the film. Although, by the looks of the opening weekend sales figures, not many were actually awaiting the films release. Why? Might you ask, was the target audience even flinch a nerve when the film was released, hell, did the film even have a target audience. It’s time to find out.
It starts with the promoting the film to those who will be interested, cue target audience, to which I ask the question, who was the target audience of Scott Pilgrim, was it fans to comic books, who could finally see their ‘favourite’ comic guy come to life, or was it supposed to appeal to those were into their comedy-action films, not necessary comic books etc. In my opinion, this is first brick wall that was film was going to run into, and technically, they hadn’t even got out of the starting blocks yet. The marketing team, I do not believe knew who the film was going to appeal to, or even if the film had it’s own target audience, therefore it would have a very difficult task to market the film to the right people, and know the correct places to market them. If the man who you’ve cast to play Scott Pilgrim himself, Michael Cera, is even unsure on the marketing of the film, then you know you could have a slight on your hands, he was quoted as saying “a tricky one to sell. I don't know how you convey that movie in a marketing campaign. I can see it being something that people are slow to discover.” Cera pretty much is trying to disguise that he has no idea who the film.
From the moment the film begins, and the 8 bit technology were added to the universal logo (I thought I’d rebooted my Sega Megadrive at first, ready for a game of street fighter), you realised this was going to be a running theme throughout, and I do believe the parts that were reminiscent of a video game, worked well, such as the scene when Scott’s is in the toilet, and also the pastiches, such as when the laughing track was added to a scene, mimicking US sitcoms. Although, it once again reiterated the point that this film has no identity, it’s not billed or marketed as a pastiche, when it clearly shows foundations, and it’s considered more aesthetic to comic book readers, more than video game players, when there are clear references to Super Mario and Donkey Kong, which to me implies to me that the marketing team lost an audience here.
The film is about Scott Pilgrim, a slight lowlife in his early twenties, who’s in a band, but does this catch the ears of the music fans alike, no it doesn’t, and if the marketing team had of put more effort into the music side of the film, they could have gained more followers, another missed opportunity. American ‘shoe-gazer’, supplied the music for film. Personally, I don’t know if this was a great move, simply because Beck isn’t as relevant as he was in the 1990’s, since then he has become quite experimental, and has also entered a few grounds of self-indulgence, in my humble opinion. This could have switched of the some younger music fans, but could have appealed to those between the age of 20-30, which would have been into music during Beck’s peak.
Finally, if I was to hazard a guess as to why success Scott Pilgrim wasn’t as big a success as it should been, was simply, well, because the film itself wasn’t actually that good. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good, enjoyable film, but I wouldn’t label it as great. It is compiled with sub-standard actually from start to finish. I have never been a huge fan of Cera’s work, which is no respect to him, I just believe he lacks a considerable amount of charisma and drive in front of the camera, admittedly, I respect that he was most probably trying to portray a downbeat persona in the film. The glue of the film is a narrative that I wouldn’t describe as gripping, I had, had enough of the comic book fighting scenes after his first duel with Matthew Patel, let alone having to watch him do battle with another 6 ex’s, and this is where people turn off. If the film doesn’t have a strong story to tell, then why would the public to go and see it. Reading a comic book is hyper real, you know it’s not real, but the quality of writing forces you to believe it is real. The Mighty Boosh and is an example of hyper reality being used at it’s best, to guide the reader in the right direction, and people believe what is happing on their screen is real. Although, when Scott Pilgrim, in a comic book you can believe all this fighting, but after a 100+ ‘Kapow’s’, are visible after Scott strikes, you start to think, “No, this is too much”. Which leads to me say again, that I don’t believe the directors and producers were able to do a good enough job in transferring a video game and a comic book into reality, hence why the film wasn’t a big success, because when all is said and done, the audience just wasn’t interested and captivated.
