| my worthless two cents |
[Feb. 20th, 2008|04:14 pm] |
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some reviews of stuff i've read/watched recently (recently as in within the last year.):
WARNING, CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS! i tried not to give too much away, though.
scott pilgrim
manga-style comic by canadian artist brian lee o'mallEy
published by oni press
scott pilgrim has taken the indie comic world by storm, and it seems like literally everyone - EVERYONE - fucking loves this comic so much, they probably beat off with pages of it wrapped around their dicks. or that's how it seems to me, anyway. so one of those times back when i had monies, and i was making some comic purchases on amazon, i popped a used copy of SP vol. 1 in the ol' shopping cart, since anyone and everyone who likes/makes/reads comics is always hailing this series as the greatest comic in the indie comic scene, or whatever scene it is now. maybe because of all the rave reviews my expectations were a bit high, but i must say i was very disappointed with this book. don't get me wrong, it doesn't suck horrendously or anything; it actually has some pretty redeeming qualities. first of all, let me say i LOVE brian lee o'malley's art. it's beautiful, simple, cartoony, and has an obvious manga/anime influence without being that annoying, over saturated "western artist drawing 'manga' to cash in on the asian culture fad" you see so much of nowadays; it has more of a nod to osamu tezuka-type style (which i adore) but is a completely original and refreshing drawing style in and of itself. i love how seemingly simple the drawings and character designs seem at first glance, but at the same time the art, the angles, the actions are captivating. also at times the dialog is witty, engaging, and even funny. but that's about where the pluses end for me.
the main gripes i have with this series are two things: 1. the main character, scott pilgrim, is a douche bag. i get that he's supposed to be this loveable loser, every-man type character that the 18-35 hipster male demographic are supposed to relate to. that's probably why he's a douche bag. he's not a real jerk or anything like that, but if he were a real person, i definitely wouldn't want to hang out with him. he's a lazy, jobless underachiever who just mooches off of his (stereotypical) gay room mate, dates under aged asian girls for bragging rights (and he even as much as explains to his friends that he likes dating a 17-year-old because it's easier than having a relationship with a girl his own age), and when he becomes obsessed with the main focus of the rest of the story, the hot alternative roller blade delivery girl-on-a-pedestal, ramona flowers, he tirelessly pursues her and attempts to date her without even breaking up with or informing his 17-year-old girlfriend. so yeah. i'm supposed to like this character, even cheer him on? maybe if i were a douche bag hipster guy in a band and living in my parent's basement i'd have a better understanding of how this character is supposed to be likeable.
my next gripe is the biggest one; 2. the plot make ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING SENSE. like, at all. when i first started reading the comic, i thought it was another slice-of-life comic, but with a slight sort of alternative band scene twist or something, which is cool. but then all this weird shit just starts suddenly happening, and absolutely NONE of it is explained. like the first thing that made me go "wtf?" is that scott keeps having dreams about a cute girl on roller blades basically passing through his dreams, and later he sees her in real life and becomes obsessed with her. so he devises a way to meet her, and scott flat-out asks her why he's been seeing her in his dreams. then the girl (ramona) recognizes him, and pretty much starts explaining that a "really convenient" subspace highway goes through scott's head, and she's been using it for her delivery route. and when scott seems confused, she just stops explaining. WTF, MAN??? then of course, there's the whole plot carried through the rest of the books, in which scott wishes to date ramona flowers, but, for some reason, in order to earn the privilege of dating her, he must defeat her "seven evil ex-boyfriends." again, wtf? this is never elaborated upon, either, of course. ramona's just like "yeah, you gotta fight my seven evil ex-boyfriends if you wanna date me," and scott's all like "okay, lol!" the battles are staged in showy, sort of old-school kung-fu movie style combined with video games...but again, this makes no sense. when an "evil ex-boyfriend" appears, he and scott and scott's band suddenly have some kind of weird super powers (perhaps music-related?), and they're all flying through the air, summoning demon hipster girls, and shooting laser beams and shit. yeah. i just don't get it. and that's pretty much the first volume...absolutely none of is explained at all. maybe it's not supposed to be? perhaps it is elaborated on more in the other three volumes out now? i feel kinda bad reviewing this comic and giving it a bad review after only reading the first volume, especially since it's a series, and i know some artists have to work through a couple of volumes to really start getting good, but i don't know. after reading the first volume, i was so disappointed/confused that i definitely didn't want to spend more money on that half-assed story and infuriating main character. maybe it's just me and there's something wrong with me, but i just don't get why everyone likes scott pilgrim so much.
wow, this took a lot more time/space than i thought. guess i had a lot of hatred for old scottie pilgrim! i'll have to finish my other reviews later. bet you can't wait! |
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