Bobby Roberts
Banned
One of the more interesting phenomenons here in the off-topic side of NeoGAF concerns the film director Edgar Wright, whose last film, "The World's End" was a much-anticipated release here on these boards, and whose previous films, "Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz," and "Scott Pilgrim" seem to be pretty well-liked by most people visiting the site over the years, not to mention the television program "Spaced," which is almost universally enjoyed, even by the people who are closer to the "meh" end of the scale when it comes to Wright's filmography.
But lately, as the Marvel "Ant-Man" machine has began winding up, there's been a weird narrative that's spun out of the multiple discussions surrounding the project, which was assigned to Wright early in Marvel Studio's life, and was his for the past 8 years before both parties decided to part ways late last year.
1) Edgar Wright isn't a good filmmaker,
2) Marvel was right to fire him because he would have made a movie that people didn't like and
3) people who like Edgar Wright movies are pretentious film-snobs complaining just to complain.
To the first complaint: Aside from the fact that Wright typically tackles subject matter that seems perfectly engineered towards appealing to what I might as well call the "male geek in arrested development" market, his films are technically sound, to the point that his ability to get across visual information in a stylish way, without sacrificing either characterization OR storytelling is noted by not just other filmmakers, but by the critical community in general.
Here's an eight-minute video essay from David Chen of Slashfilm, dedicated to Wright's ability to use the close-up as a storytelling tool.
Here's an eight-minute video essay by Tony Zhou that directly compares Wright's work with a number of well known comedy directors as a means to point out just how cinematic his films are, in ways other comedies can't possibly compete with, or hell, even legitimate action or drama films.
It's pretty apparent the man puts a lot of thought into what he's doing with the camera, why he's doing it, and how to get it done. He puts a lot of thought into everything he does, period, which is not a thing that can be said for many filmmakers in general. Hell, look at how much thought he poured into the matter of simply programming a hypothetical horror-film festival for the AV Club. When asked, he not only first arrived at a theme based on a Shakespeare play, he then populated the hypothetical festival with films that not only fit within that theme but stood as legitimately great picks in and of themselves.
And while his filmography does not contain a single movie that has made over $100 million worldwide, it's hard to argue with the overall satisfaction level from general audiences who have seen his films.
Shaun of the Dead RT Audience Score: 93% liked it, 492,000 ratings
Hot Fuzz RT Audience Score: 89% liked it, 560,000 ratings
Scott Pilgrim RT Audience Score: 83% liked it, 136,000 ratings
The World's End RT Audience Score: 71% liked it, 89,000 ratings
(the World's End is a bit of an outlier there, isn't it. Huh. Also, yeah, I know, RT scores. Not the biggest fan myself, but as a sort of measuring stick, it serves the general purpose here)
I guess I just don't see how it's a "film-snob thing" to like the movies Edgar Wright makes. Up until recently, I wasn't even aware that such a notion existed, as it seems most of his movies previously were considered movies that normal, "regular joes" had no problems enjoying even WITHOUT any of that knowledge about filmmaking or storytelling needing to come into play. Would I have really liked to see his version of Ant-Man? Of course. I'm not gonna drag that into the theater with me when I finally do see Peyton Reed & Adam McKay's version, but I don't think it's an affront to the film's existence to suggest Edgar Wright might have done something really interesting to the character.
So basically: If you think you have an argument as to why Edgar Wright isn't a good director, I'm curious as to what it could be in the face of a well-liked filmography and an attention to craft that made such a positive reaction possible.
And if you do think Edgar Wright is a good director, feel free to post gifs and video clips of your favorite scenes/moments as examples of why you like what the guy does.
