You Weren't Supposed to Know

This piece of work seems to me to be a unique blend of alienated attractions.  On the one hand, the film is going to be mostly enjoyed by a younger generation than the Smashing Pumpkins fans who, like me, have a dated coming-of-age story of our own.  That's why it took me a couple of years before I even watched the movie.  I haven't the attention span, nor the type of friends keeping me well informed of the pop culture going on.  These differences in taste and generations, no doubt, will leave a rift flowing between the uninformed and any phenomena to to be experienced.

Even Pumpkins fans have moved on to a certain degree.  It's a given, no matter how great an album is, it's easy to wear it out, and I wouldn't expect anyone to be looking for this to suddenly rise out of the moist graves of the 90's because of a trippy flick characterized as a live video game.  The movie is a blindside any associating fan base of the Pumpkins.  Although I find it interesting that just after finding out this hidden movie game, there has been a certain revival of their "exclamation mark" alt-rock juggernaut.

I don't know if this means there will be a new upsurge for the pumpkins, but Wright's experiment definitely adds some interesting new flavor to the pallet.  Watching a reenactment of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is fucking crazy.  The way the director associates the visual with the audio is so esoteric at times, you feel like the emotions are forming words in a language of impulse.  I have trouble differentiating the two from each other now.  When I hear a MCIS song, I think of Scott Pilgrim fighting for his life.

Edgar has managed to make a story out of the album, that's the bottom line.  He immortally disguised this film triumph however, and its a wonder that it even exists.  It's simplified organization, jutting up against a cocky decisive move, creating an inflexible code for a feature that has a strange breadth of land to cover.

You see kids, dear Edgar picked a big twist of track... did I say track? I mean fate... to chunk his melodrama into.  It's a cypher wrapped up in an enigma, and considering which accidental circumstances that must crop up to be able to detect such hidden treasures... well, that's to be debated.  In this case, it has to do with a screwed up meta-tag because, yes, I downloaded the album because, yes, I already bought it five times probably.

You're not gonna believe this, but Scott feels like a RAT IN A CAGE
You can play Bullet With Butterfly Wings to this video and see for yourself

I cut this clip EXACTLY 8 seconds before where the 00:00 mark of the song should be.
In other words, when the video hits 0:08, that's the time to play the song.
I would do it for you myself, but EMI doesn't like it when you upload their copyrighted stuff.

The Evil Xs

You may of noticed, of course, that there is some bit of circling around this frequently used mark, but it is important not to get confused about the number.  It's the placement of that mark that should stand out.  Here's one you might have missed:

If you know anything about film editing with ACTUAL film, that is, cutting and splicing frames together in a series, you'll know that this is one way to keep track of the millions of frames and their correct order.  In theaters long ago, switching reels during the middle of a film was the job of that guy in the window behind everyone's seats.  They'd have to mark the corners of the frames, sometimes circles, sometimes x's, to signal when the end of the reel was coming up.  This is a frame from the opening credits.  As the background whizzes by, this appears as fast as a flash, but instead of a little corner, it fills the screen.  Your eyes will see it though most likely its nothing to remember.  

How is any of this relevant?  It's not.  But it is a BIG chalky X I wanted to talk about.  In fact it may be misleading in the end.  There is actually something very striking about this X, but it's not the one in Sex Bob-Ombs. 

The funny thing about eyes and ears is they can work together in so many different ways, but if they don't harmonize, a lot can be missed.  People generally use their eyes first before any other sense, that's why consciously we discard so much visually.  Eyes need more than light to effect the brain in much more moving sorts of ways.  Like the "tale" of a tree falling in the woods, only the other way around. When things are appropriately in sync will your ears tell your brain that what you just saw was coming from what you heard.  

Take the twins for instance.  They never say a damn word! ...and now they're dead.  The twins take the Sex Bob-Ombs on with their hair and pop-synth.  Pretty evil.  As big and loud as the electromagnetism that's bringing down the house, they try to "scorch" the band.  Oh but the comeback is epic.  Scott proves his heart is bigger than emo!

As silly as it seems, this ninja-move-X is right in the middle of an audio-visual masterpiece.   You will know the tree has fallen to the "earth" then.

Now, I know what you're thinking... but if I told you there were 7 Xs hidden through this movie that tell you what to do and that was your way to find everything you need to know about this film, I'd at least be fooling you in a good way.  Luckily Edgar Wright has already done a good enough job at that already.  His confusing placement of symbols and mood will throw off even the most perceptive. 

3 unmistakably direct incursions of bold Xs positioned to line up with the album is more-so the truth.  And these 3 unmistakably obvious placements of Xs will drive you prematurely insane if you're up for it.

If you're a "night" person like me, playing into the wee hours of the morning is a little more like prime time.  There are less distractions anyway.