It’s Saturday morning and shafts of light are piercing through the clouds in the wake of a surprising notion (for me anyway) that Scott Pilgrim is getting hated on big-time by Joe Popcorn and his brood. One box-office specialist has predicted a “sizable Saturday drop” for Edgar Wright‘s film, another claims Pilgrim is “downtrending” and that Inception might just nudge it out of the fourth and into a fifth-place slot, and LexG wrote last night Pilgrim is “the single most obnoxious, deadly unfunny, embarrassing, repulsive gay-camp spectacle…absolute fucking MISERY to sit through.”
To what extent, if any, is a Scott Pilgrim backlash manifesting out there? Certain online geek prognosticators had been suggesting that Pilgrim might be the real comer in the pack, but now, it appears, reality has broken through and chunks of plaster and asbestos are strewn all over the rug. What is happening? Or am I just making something out of nothing? Are geeky-looking guys getting shoved around by angry Average Joes in theatre lobbies after Pilgrim showings? Or is this just a lot of hot air and most (or many) viewers are more or less okay with it? I’m asking.