As promised, here's my take on the film adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's series.
Here's the thing; it's darn near impossible to judge an adaptation like this on it's own merits. Of course comparisons are going to be made to the comic book, especially since I and everyone else only just finished reading it, if they even have. Having said that, my only conclusion for the movie is that it's great...but the comics were just better.
If taken on it's own, it's an awesome movie, at least for the first two-thirds or so. It's funny, hip, has great videogame and pop culture references and is true to it's Toronto setting, even poking fun at it. Michael Cera does a great Scott, Mary Winstead is a cool-as-a-cucumber Ramona, and the entire cast did admirably. My favorite was Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells. Visually it was a stunner, especially with the fight scenes. Awesome soundtrack too, with performances from the fictional bands featured in the film and other artists.
Yet, in spite of all of that, I am disappointed, especially with the last showdown. While the film stayed true to much of the plot points and a lot of the dialogue of the comics, a lot was changed as well. I understand that this needs to happen to condense everything to a 2 hour movie, but often times things get lost in the translation. And, unfortunately, that's what's happened here. Everything moved around at such a fast pace, and while Wright is a master of the fast cuts, I didn't feel the connection to it that I did when everything had time to marinate and grow on it's own. A lot of character development had to be sacrificed, and the plot was changed around at times to such an extent I found it rather ludicrous (see Ramona's reason for staying with Gideon and an unexpected third party in the final scenes). Things were added that didn't need to be. Things were taken away that shouldn't have been. The twins didn't even have a chance to actually speak. And while they managed to maintain most of Scott's personal growth, I feel that Ramona didn't have the chance to close the door on her own past like she did in the books, which was sorely disappointing. Plus, Gideon was introduced way too early. Part of his whole appeal was that he was so mysterious.
That last fight was the most disappointing of the whole movie. It made me wonder if Wright had sat down with O'Malley at all and had discussed how the series was going to end.
But again, these are all opinions based on my comparisons with the books. Can this movie be good when taken on it's own? Feel free to set me straight below.
My Verdict: An epic of epic epicness...but only if you haven't read the comics first.
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