Posts Tagged ‘superheros’
SCOTT PILGRIM VERSUS THE WORLD, A No-Spoiler Film Review
SCOTT PILGRIM VERSUS THE WORLD, a 2010 film starring Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, dishes out a nerd meets cool girl story and takes it to the videogame/superhero plane, right into transmedia storytelling. This is an entertaining and funny PG13 story, full of teen angst, youthful lust and the longing for true love.
The Short Review…6 Reasons I Recommend this Film
- Pleasing visuals and interesting action sequences…I would watch it for this alone
- Surprising and entertaining turns with the characters and the story, many of which will make you laugh
- Angsty youth longing for connection
- Vibrant characters, like the melancholy Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) and the spunky Knives Chau (Ellen Wong)
- A mix-up/mash-up of reality and virtual reality in the story world
The Long Review…
SCOTT PILGRIM VERSUS THE WORLD is a film co-written, produced and directed by Edgar Wright. It is based on the graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim, by Bryan Lee O’Malley. The film plumbs issues surrounding a young man longing for love. Scott Pilgrim is in his mid 20s and coming off a breakup. He finds himself in a relationship with Knives Chau, a highschooler who adores him, then meets Ramona Flowers, a captivating twenty-something cool girl. To win her, he has to contend with Knives as current girlfriend as well as Ramona’s ex boyfriends.
We carry our romantic histories with us and they are not always easy to shed. This is true about Scott letting go of his ex girlfriend and Ramona figuring out how to move on from her controlling ex-boyfriend(s). Both characters carry wounds and the strange action sequences in the end are a fantastical outworking of how they need to slay those old demons that might keep them from true love.
I really like this film. It’s different, quick-paced, visually gorgeous and spins a good yarn.
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, A Guest Review
Hello audience of All Sci Fi! Welcome to the second guest post. My name is Abby Jensen and I am Susi Pritchett Jensen’s daughter. She raised me with a strong love of good stories and science fiction. I also am lucky enough to be one of the first test readers for many of her stories and her novel. I have been helping my mom set up this site for the past year and am very excited to write my first content for it!
No Spoilers Review:
We have a longstanding tradition in our family of seeing a movie on my mom’s birthday because it’s so close to Christmas. This year she chose SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. My brother and I had already seen it once, but it is definitely the kind of film you can go back to and enjoy more every time.
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE is an action-packed, hilarious, and heartwarming story of family told from the perspective of Miles Morales, a Black/Latino middle school boy. Miles faces the standard coming-of-age problems of a mixed-race kid from gentrifying Brooklyn, along with a plethora of classic Spider-Man villains to save not just his universe, but the entire multiverse from collapse. It’s also rated PG and is accessible to kids as young as 7 or 8 (younger if they’re precocious.)
The writers deftly deal with multiple Spiderman comic universes, keeping them accurate, in-character, and interesting for both kids and adults. If you are a nerdy parent looking to introduce your kids to comic books, this film could be an excellent inroad. And even if you aren’t familiar with Marvel Comics, Spiderman, and especially Miles Morales as Spiderman, is incredibly relatable for people of all ages. After all, anyone can wear the mask, which Miles and the Spider gang (from the other universes) discover together. All they need is a persistent willingness to get back up after every hit.
What impressed me more than the well-handled story, was the unique animation style. As a designer, I was dazzled by the ways the visuals connected to narrative elements in the film. High quality 3D computer animation has been around for long enough that it finally seems like studios are willing to experiment with the medium. For SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, Sony uses animation to its full potential, creating a colorful comic-like universe for Miles. The textures and chaotic 3D effects connected with the disruptions of the multiverse evoke the unknowns of multiple dimensions in a way that is familiar enough that even kids will appreciate it.
3 Reasons You and Your Kids Should See SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE
- The message is inclusive and accessible to kids as young as 7 and as old as me (a 23-year-old kid.)
- The animation is beautiful and artistically adventurous, both of which add to the story.
- Miles Morales, a black/latino middle-school kid, brings one of the most relatable superheroes ever created to 21st century gen-z relevance.