Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World – A Non-Spoilery Review

No witty subject line this time as my brain is currently fit to explode.

Tonight, I saw a preview screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

I know, you wish you were me.

I am bursting with the need to talk all about the movie. I am desperate to OMGthatpartwiththe-YES!Iknowitwas-AHAHAHAHABloorandBathurst!–didyouseeOMFG-ASKDFJADVEGDA.

But that could be construed as the hyperbolic aftermath of an Awesome Movie Going Experience. Which, in part, it may well be. It’s enthusiasm and glee and unabashed, starry-eyed awe.

I want people to see this movie. I want to geek out with other people about this movie. But, I don’t want to contribute to the overhype that stops disaffected hipsters from seeing it.

Wait, no. Fuck the disaffected hipsters.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is fresh. It’s exciting. It’s, dare I say it? Important.

It was unlike any film I’ve seen before; visually rich and metatextually dense, like a pop-culture pound cake. With sprinkles.

It was filmmaking taken to a new level; one where the CGI enhanced the text, rather than just made it prettier.

It was different from every movie I’ve seen because it was in a different language. But it wasn’t in French, or German, or Czech.

It was in Geek.

It was the ultimate ADD, 83-Firefox-tabs, fifteen-chats-going-at-once, can’t-stop-playing-til-I-reach-a-save-point, just-one-more-song-on-GuitarHero, check-out-this-band-on-YouTube, multitasking, geek addled, twitterpated experience.

It was different because it took everything we – as geeks, as nerds, as fans – are, and made it a part of the visual vernacular.

It was our movie, on our terms, in our language.

See it.

When it comes out.

Or, y’know. Whatever.

Don’t judge a book by its cover… But feel free to judge a TV show by its title sequence. (Part 2)

["...hopefully in the next couple of days." apparently does not take into account a loss in the family, sliding into two weeks in New York, and the onset of the dreaded flu. AND 23 hours without power in temperatures peaking at -17 degrees celsius. Go, go Toronto! Last time I try to give anything close to a definitive answer. Fr Srs.]

And so it continues: gloriously abstract TV titles that contribute effectively to the creation of the thematic identity of the program. (Continued from Part 1 here.)

I’ve been thrown for a bit of a loop here as one of the title sequences I had searched down is no longer available on YouTube thanks to a copyright claim by NBC Universal. Thanks, ever so much. Just for that, I’m not even going to mention the title of the show, or give it some free advertising. No need to thank me, I’m only paying you the same courtesy you pay your viewing audience. (When will you learn? No, seriously. I want a succinct, precise answer.)

I will however pimp shows from some of your competitors outside the jump: Pushing Daisies. Dexter. True Blood. Carnivale. Flashpoint. Dirty Jobs. Nip/Tuck. The Big Bang Theory. Grey’s Anatomy. Supernatural. Stargate: Atlantis. Twin Peaks. Psych. Reaper. Robot Chicken. The Young Ones.

All of those are on other networks. Some of them don’t even fit the criteria for this post. Some of those have been cancelled. Some of them haven’t been on TV in decades. What matters is I like all of them.

Also, you suck.

MOVING ON.

The remaining titles are after the jump. I haven’t figured out what to replace the [SHOW THAT WILL NOT BE NAMED] titles yet, so there may only be four. I sorted it. There are five.

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Don’t judge a book by its cover… But feel free to judge a TV show by its title sequence. (Part 1)

First up, apologies for the lack of updates. I was a little bit busy moving to Canada. I’m in Toronto and I have bought boots and a jacket and gloves and I still manage to nearly lose my limbs to frostbite every time I step outside. I reserve the right to shout “The sky is falling!” whenever it snows. Like right now.

Moving on!

I love TV, that’s no secret. I love episodic and serialised drama, comedy, pseudo-horror, and the like. I love watching the characters grow and develop within the realms of their own little worlds and plots. I love the little intrigues and mysteries and the various permutations of the basic narrative structure.

I love title sequences.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been putting together a list of title sequences from various TV shows that use the minute or so of title time to go beyond a simple ‘This is X person, This is Y person, they are in this show’ structure and use the time to create a textual representation of the character of the show itself. These types of titles tend to use the juxtaposition of images to create a mood and an ideology–a thematic identity–for the show beyond the pecking order of the main stars.

These may seem like fairly obvious and straightforward concepts; in our celebrity driven culture, the title sequence is designed primarily to let the audience know who is in the show coupled with a vague idea of what the show is about. But, and this is what grabs me by the short and curlies and makes me sit up and pay attention, some title sequences go far beyond these basic expectations. Some shows abandon the ‘Heroic Headshot, Shot from Show, Sympathetic Headshot, Shot from Show, And Anthony Stewart Head as Giles, Title of Show Plate’ format, and create tiny snippets of art unto themselves. They divulge the character of the show as an entity in itself and, often, draw you into the world of the show as something beyond a way to sustain the live characters and the plotlines.

Now, this whole fascination I have with short form textual analysis stems from my study into Eisensteinian Montage as applied to Music Videos. It’s a long (and potentially boring for anyone not interested in film theory) story, but if you want to know more, my essay on the subject is here. I’ve also recently found Art of the Title which goes beyond the restrictions I’ve set (only TV, abstract form) to show the titles of films and TV as mini works of art.

Now, I’ve compiled a collection of ten television title sequences that best display (in my opinion) the use of the title sequence as a means to firmly present the character of the show as a whole through abstracted means; i.e. no headshots, textually rich, and aiming to develop the character of the show as a whole. The only limitation on this little study was what I was able to find on YouTube and my own viewing habits.

Due to the fact that I’m apparently a long winded bag when it comes to analysing and squeeing over things I enjoy, I’m splitting them up into two posts.

Beyond the jump, are the first five. All the videos are embedded. So, dial-up beware.

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No, really. That was fun. Let’s never do it again.

The hardest part is starting.

No, wait. The hardest part is starting and not sounding like a self-aggrandising moron.

Unless, of course, you skip straight past self-aggrandising and go straight to moron.

Shall we?

In order to get this wee bastard up to my ‘I’ve just spent nine hours trapped a) at work, b) on public transport, I don’t really care as long as it’s shiny’ standards, I spent two hours trawling through the themes.

I think my favourite was the WOECAKES ME ARE EMO bloody hand. And possibly Stewie. But mostly the bloody hand.

I spent the entire time thinking ‘Okay, this is the way you’re going to be perceived. You are your blog design. You must convey your INTELLIGENCE and WRY HUMOUR without dipping into SCENESTER.’ and then I realised it was like searching for a pre-fab house that completely compliments your entire personality and sense of home… in a Toys’R'Us catalogue. Sure, some of them were cool, but none of them said ‘me’. So I took the one that said ‘Look, I have a skull.’

I’m shallow that way.

Other things I am:

  1. Over-educated.
  2. Underpaid.
  3. Working in the wrong medium.
  4. Going to Russia Canada.
  5. Reading 8 books concurrently and getting nowhere.

One day I’m going to be able to list my degrees without feeling like I’m bragging. Today’s probably not that day. (The minute you bring out the ‘I have X and Y and F Qualifications blahblahblah’ people start going ‘*eyeroll* *yawn* Entitlement Boor.’ Because in my head, people talk like that.)

I’ve really nowhere to go now. I can’t talk about how exciting my day was (Everything was done half an hour after I started so I photocopied stuff and felt guilty about the trees for six and a half hours.), or exciting things I’ve done (I’m saving up to go overseas. Life? Where can you download that?), or… well, I can read. But I don’t really think anyone cares whether or not I’m annoyed by Lukanyenko changing from Anton to Alisa for the second book. (That, and the fact that I’m only two chapters in.)

So, yes. In conclusion: Rocket Packs