Battle Royale

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2010)

To say the last ten years have brought forth many comic adaptations would be a daft understatement. With CGI coming of age, as well as the attention deficit generation, it made sense as a source.
But until recently, most adaptations were actually films. That is - you were watching a film of a comic. With Scott Pilgrim, you are watching something that is part film, part comic, part video game. The logic of the film is not entirely cinematic. If you don't read comics or play video games - you simply won't be able to progress to the next level. Even when the logic runs as a film, the genre keeps altering through rom-com to bollywood. The constant battleground is a post student McJob Toronto, with a sort of 90s view of geek rock.
While the plot is simply guy meets girl, guy loses girl, guy battles with mystic evil ex-boyfriends to the death, the film isn't too bothered whether the audience is involved or not. Cool and funny things happen, but it seems all a bit esoteric.
While much of the sensibility is Kevin Smith vs Douglas Coupland, and therefore pretty funny, I would expect that it will take a few more tries in this direction before a true classic emerges. But the attempts will be entertaining.