15 Million merits and Scott Pilgrim are very similar in a number of ways, but they both show different aspects of Post Modernism, Scott Pilgrim features a number of stylistic approaches and 15 Million Merits takes a more theoretical approach, the two theorists I am going to apply to this is Jameson and Baudrillard.
Baudrillard said that ‘We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning’ and 15 Million Merits resembles this, as the characters in it no longer have a meaning, other than to ride the bikes and earn the merits they need, so that they can live. They live in a system, some of them disagree with it, but the main character Bing is like this but at the end he simply becomes apart of it. Even though 15MM looks very stylistic, as an audience this isn’t what attracts us, it is the situation of the characters. Baudrillard’s theory of Hyper reality and Simulacra can easily be applied to 15MM as the world they live in is fake, they do not know a reality or the outside their world, all they know is to ride bikes, ‘Fake fodder is the only think that works anymore’ this theory can be applies to the avatars they have to represent themselves as people, it is a simulation of what, or what they would like to look like, like the social networking site Facebook. It is hyper real as an audience we have not encountered the world they live in, so it gives us an insight to what sort of world we could live in, in the next 100 years. It could be argued that 15MM have also gone for a stylistic approach by making everything that is featured in the program very modern and futuristic, and the fact that all the characters communicate and live by using very developed technology. Also, in 15MM, they are represented as ‘a society of the spectacle’ they are watched all the time through cameras, a good example of this is when Bing is in his room and because he does not want to watch something he covers his eyes, but due to the fact that people/someone is watching him, they pause it until he stops, and is forced to carry on. This links in with other media texts, such as Big Brother, a reality show. People are put into a house for 12 weeks and are watched by the british public 24/7 and have to survive evictions and whoever is the last one standing wins a cash prize. This also links into Debord’s theory of ‘Consumer culture’ and that ‘the only way we can escape is if we go onto a reality show’ shows like Big Brother change people into celebrities over night, but this only puts them in the society’s spectacle and are only represented in the media, this applies back to 15MM as that is the purpose of the talent show ‘Hot Shot.’
Scott Pilgrim on the other hand is very stylistic, as it takes a theme of video games that runs the whole way through the film, especially in the fight scenes, as they are exaggerated with effects and hyperreality, so Baudrillard can be applied here too, but Jameson’s theory of ‘recycling old, to make new’ applies very well, as they are using other medias (video games) to make a new product, the fight scenes in Scott Pilgrim all represent pre-made video games, for example, the second fight is represented like a skateboarding game, and this is also heightened as one of the characters throws Scott into a tower and he comes out with no scratches or blood, which is what you would have expected. Another example of the fights is the very last one, it is represented as ‘The Final Level’ where you have to destroy the main villain. Everything in Scott Pilgrim represents the video game style it has, with titles to inform the audience who the characters are, how old etc, and also their ‘ranking rate’ which once again links back. These titles break up the film as it is told in the form of a video-game. Another aspect that makes Scott Pilgrim post modern is the band ‘Clash at Demon head’ as they are very style over substance, this is also the case for Ramona, as she is constantly changing her hair colour. The style over substance themes link to other medias such as X-Factor, because as soon as the contestants get to the live shows, their image gets changed drastically, for example, X-factor 2011, Janet Devlin went on the show and her hair got dyed to a different colour and the clothes she wore changed. It could be argued that Scott Pilgrim focuses on the video game themes so much that it is taking a theoretical approach from Baudrillard because of the hyper real elements, like in the opening scenes, the length of the room is heightened.
Overall, I think both stick to their themes and both have many aspects of postmodernism. which they show well, but one has more stylistic elements than the other, and the other has more theory behind it. But comparing these two texts leaves us with questions of will we live in a world where we have to earn merits to live like in 15 Million merits? or will the stylistic approach of Scott Pilgrim take affect on other films and follow Jameson’s theory of recycling old elements to make new ones? These are questions that cannot be answered until we get there, but for now, I think that the difference between theoretical and stylistic approaches works well as it gives audiences a wider choice of what films to watch, and gives us hope that maybe someday we will be able to watch more stylistic films, or actually live in a world where we can only use technology to communicate and survive, some will look forward to it, and others not. But thats the divide postmodernism puts in between audiences.
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