The Big Picture: The Numbers

[ZeroMachine]

As much as Scott Pilgrim bored me, and as much as I hated the fact that you just wouldn't let it go, hearing the news about Del Toro's project going south makes me sad...

At the very least, this time, you didn't insult the people that enjoy those other movies.

 

[Togs]

Welcome, you have now truly become a member of the escapist, the most bitter forum in the world.

Meh it will still get made eventually, especially knowing Del Toro, it will just half the budget with silly wobbly sets.

And it will still be awesome.

 

[sheogoraththemad]

they were making a lovecraft movie! and the pan's labyrinth guy was going to make it! and now they FUCKING CANCELLED IT!!

 

[Clonekiller]

I guess the key is making good movies inside they money-maker mold. Still, as true as it is, I have noticed that random artsy movies do much better when based around morality and religion (mainly Christianity due to the demographic in the States). Take movies like Fireproof or To Save a Life. Both those movies are completely outside the cookie-cutter logic of a successful movie, but they stunned the movie community with how well they did. Fireproof stayed on the top ten box office list for four weeks despite a limited release, which is pretty much unheard of, especially for some random "indy" movie put out by some Church in the south. Meanwhile, To Save a Life has become the movie poster child for suicide prevention, being shown in schools nation wide, despite the fact that it is a "Christian" movie. Anyway, I'm not saying all movies should be Christian, but it is something to think about.

 

[Draconalis]

I still say Scott Pilgrim was terrible...

 

[Acidian]

Usualy I watch the big picture to learn and laugh more about how comics are weird (I work in a comics store, but I still learn stuff from moviebob), but this one just made me sad.

 

[franzieperez]

Well, at least he got this out of the way here and we can actually hear an in-depth review on Escape to the Movies.

 

[ZeroMachine]

You'll have to excuse me, I have to go beat me head against a wall for several hours.
*wham wham wham wham wham wham wham wham wham wham...*

Nail agrees with your sentiment.

 

[kickyourass]

As if I needed another reason to hate The Expendables, god this species sucks sometimes.

 

[Sutter Cane]

Hey bob, thanks of bringing back all the rage that I had when I first heard that it was canned. That probably ruined my day. Good ep though

 

[ZeoAssassin]

ugh depressing.....one a good note thou.

Del Torro has has proven his integrity by saying fuck-you to the PG13 dumbing down and censorship of his dream project. we solute you sir. Hopefully he'll get picked up by someone for this.

 

[walsfeo]

I just saw the Scott Pilgrim movie this weekend, half of it anyway, and it was a nice movie. Not amazing, not revolutionary, not one I need to own for my collection. It was fun when it needed to be, and painful where it had to be, but it it had been successful it would have spawned so many painful knockoffs that over-used video game tropes I'm relieved it wasn't too successful. Or at least I was until I learned it might have contributed to the cancellation of the Mountains of Madness.

 

[DearFilm]

Originality is not a panacea for bad storytelling and flat characters.

oooh fancy words.

Care to explain how Scott Pilgrim has bad storytelling and flat characters? because last tiem I checked, Expendables was more guilty of this crime.

Expendables was definitely guilty of this as well, though in the case of that movie we as an audience weren't supposed to be invested in an emotional journey of self discovery. Expendables was like the McDonald's of the cinematic world - it was a cheap, junky, quick way to satisfy an otherwise unscratched itch: big dumb action film.

Scott Pilgrim had grand designs, big themes, and a message at its heart, but it bungled the execution. The characters were all defined by a single trait which only later on may have found a second foil to give the illusion of dimension. Scott never rose to a level where I would expect anyone to be friends with him, let alone love him. The entire final scene in the night club was a confusing mess of motives, conclusions, and ideas that never fully gelled into the meaningful whole that it was clearly striving for. Scott Pilgrim was a noble failure, and I wish it had been more, because I think the visual talent clearly on display was worth being seen. However, storywise and characterwise, it never rose to meet those expectations.

It was so consumed with doing things with originality and newness that it never took the time to perfect the older arts of concise, meaningful story.

 

[MasterV]

More Scott Pilgrim bullshit? Also The expendepals was not that bad. There are worse movie out there like Twilight

I agree with this fine man. Scott Pilgrim was crap and would be unwatchable if not for the "references". It's not as great as people in fora seem to make it be and I was fooled into watching it, influenced by all this hype. No wonder noone went to see it. Who wants to pay money to watch shit? Conversely, I actually enjoyed the Expendables, despite the criticisms.

 

[DearFilm]

I don't know how you can possibly blame poor advertising. I thought, if anything, this movie was a victim of oversaturation. I couldn't get away from it.

The only way I found out there was a movie was when I picked up the first copy of the book two days before the film was released.

Well damn. I live in the DC area, so maybe my market was just more on the radar of the ad execs, but I could not turn around without seeing a poster of TV ad. It got to the point where I almost rejected the film because it seemed too eager.

 

[MBE]

Depressing. This is probably as pure an example as there is of capitalism simply not working.

I agree. The best movies are produced by anti-Capitalist countries like USSR, Cuba, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya, et al.

Now, if we only had some sort of endowment on a national scale that could fund art like "Scott Pilgrim" and Lovecraft that would free selfless artists like Del Toro and Cameron from oppressive Capitalist pig studios and let them make whatever films they want on the taxpayer's back.

Actually Capitalism works perfectly when it is allowed to work. In this case, people WANT "The Expendables", people WANT "Fast & Furious 4/5/6". If people didn't want to watch crap, they wouldn't voluntarily give their money to watch crap.

Who's fault that the Lovecraft movie didn't get made? IT'S YOUR FAULT! YOU! It's your fault! You didn't watch the movie in the theater enough. You didn't encourage your friends (Facebook and real-life) and family to watch it in the theater. If you had voluntarily paid more money to watch quality movies, your Lovecraft movie would have been made.

Maybe it was just bad timing for Universal. The LOTR series was definitely a niche product but it turned out that everyone loves (or had seen) LOTR. Maybe if Universal had a more diversified portfolio between highly profitable crap and made niche art films as their loss-leader, they might have made the Lovecraft movie.

Or maybe Kim Jong Il will finance the Lovecraft movie, since "capitalism sucks".

 

[teh_Canape]

okay bob, even though I respect your opinion and love your work

every time you go and talk about the Expendables I genuinely want to slap you until you shut up

I know everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but since your insulting Expendables review, I'm more careful of watching your stuff

other than that

yes, money moves the world and it's a shame that Del Toro's project didn't fly, he's the kind of director that would've made stuff like that properly

 

[teebeeohh]

this is the problem when old people run the world.
if i movie makes tons of money in dvd-sales it doesn't matter because the important numbers are the ones at the box office. And in between a movie failing at the box office and making everybody involved rich through dvd-sales good stuff gets canned.
i can not eat enough to do all the puking i want to do.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I hope that HP movie gets made, I really wanna see a horror movie based on his works, the comics and stories alone give me nightmares.