I definitely think that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World could be considered as a postmodern film. This is because a vast amount of the film can be seen as a video game or even a comic book. A film like this couldn't be classed as modern, which is what postmodernism is a rejection to. Modernism is the idea that everything created is original and we don't use anything from the past. The audience to a modern media aren't able to interact with it and the narrative is set- it cannot be changed throughout the story. Postmodernism on the other hand believes that we take inspiration from the past to create things today. On occasions the audience are able to get involved and postmodern media can often be left to chance.
The first way in which I believe Scott Pilgrim could be postmodern is the use of bricolage. When watching a film as a consumer you have an understanding of what is typical from a film- everything can seem realistic when concerning the characters, the setting and even sometimes the narrative. However, you do not expect to see words appearing on the screen, such as "Ding Dong" when the doorbell rings, or black boxes containing the characters name and rating. This idea could be considered very unusual for a film and seen to belong in comic books or video games. However, with the context of the film and the narrative I think it works well and suits the film, resulting in bricolage working successfully.
Another example of how Scott Pilgrim could be considered as postmodern is as a film it could be seen as a homage- a homage to both video games and comic books. On the front of Kim's drum kit there is an image of a bomb. This is an intertextual reference to the original Super Mario. Therefore, its use of images like that could be paying respect to video games. As well as this, intertextual references are used regularly within postmodern media because postmodernists reply on their audience to have a knowledge about the past to be able to understand the intertextual references. It also pays homage to video games by having Scott's score level going up each time he destroy one of Ramona's evil ex's. This is common in every video game that consists of levels and scores. By using the idea in the film it is giving the idea recognition and showing they like the idea. As well as video games, the film pays homage to comic books too. An example of how it does this is the split screen used when a phone call conversation is being shown between Scott and his sister. This use of split screen is used regularly within comic books when two characters are on the phone. Therefore, the film makers are showing they like this idea by incorporating it in the film.
A different way in which I think Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the hyperreality created when within the film. Hyperreality is used to describe the inability to be able to tell what is reality and what is fantasy. As I have said previously when describing the bricolage in the film, the use of words on the screen that spell out the noises heard, such as "KPOK" when Matthew Patel first attack Scott, as a consumer watching the film you accept that as reality and that is what is happening in the film, you do not question it. You are unable to distinguish that in fact the words on the screen wouldn't happen in reality and are just a fantasy.
It was thought that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was going to do well at the box office with it's big budget and unique aspects that make it different to other film. However, sadly it didn't and made very little impact within the film industry. Therefore, I don't think there is a future for films like this. This is because it has too much of a small target audience. With the exception of a few, the only people I think this film would strongly appeal to is those interested in comic books and video games, because to understand the majority of the references in this film, you must have a large knowledge about comic books and video games. This makes it very hard to appeal to a wider audience. Despite saying this, I have very little knowledge on these areas but thoroughly enjoyed watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. A critisism of this however has come from
Frederic Jameson. He sees postmodernism as "vacuous and trapped in circular references". As well as this Jameson has described it as nothing more that a series of self referential 'jokes' which have no deeper meaning or purpose.
To conclude, I think Scott Pilgrim could hugely be considered as postmodern mainly because of it's many intertextual references to video games and comics and knowledge it's consumers have to have to understand them.
