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[Sanjuro]

I like his movies.

Does that mean I think he is a very good director? not at all.

No different than someone like Brett Ratner.

Brett Ratner?

 

[Cipherr]

However, this thread was seemingly started in reaction to some of the discussions going on in the trailer thread, and I think discussions of how Wright's film would have looked in comparison are totally valid there.

They aren't valid yet. The damn film isn't out yet for us to even see the current film looks, let alone for us to contrast it with the imaginary Wright version. Im not sure why thats so hard to understand. Besides that, noone in those threads are approaching it that way anyway, its just garbage "Wah wah Im not interested in this anymore because Wright isn't doing it!".

Noone in those threads is even looking for meaningful discussion on the matter anyway.

 

[Anton Sugar]

He heavily utilises close-ups, both as a narrative tool and as a source of comedy. Look at the various looks to camera that we get in Hot Fuzz for one example, or the use of close-ups to tell the love story in Scott Pilgrim.

He heavily leans on his editor, to provide humour and to utilise repetition in his plots. Look at the repeated montage of Shaun's plan in Shaun of the Dead, or the Whiskey Bar scene in The World's End, or Scott's extra life in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World- scenes were the comedy is almost entirely derived from the cutting of the camera, the choices of sound effects and the increased speed. His work is often kinetic in pace, while slowing down and using longer takes for action- observe how Scott Pilgrim has fast cuts in its montages and dialogue scenes, while slowing down for long takes capturing all of the action in the action scenes.

Linked to that is his use of sound effects to add mood and to convey the emotions of his characters. Scott Pilgrim is absolutely lousy with video game sound effects to portray Scott's emotions and life, but it's there in all of his works, from whooshes to give scene transitions extra pace and urgency, to cash register chimes giving Skinner's deliberately cheesy and slimy characterisation in Hot Fuzz some extra bite. There's often overlap between this and his use of close-up- there's a great example of close ups on the beer taps contrasted with the water tap in The World's End, which serves as an explanation of his characters and their emotional states without even having them on screen.

There are a lot more than that, but they're the ones that immediately leap to mind.

Great post. He's among the very best in terms of comedic staging/blocking, composition, and editing.

 

[Discotheque]

...Brett Ratner lmao.

Wright's style is so damn obvious, and if it isn't just watch one of the videos in the OP then

 

[Raptor]

He heavily utilises close-ups, both as a narrative tool and as a source of comedy. Look at the various looks to camera that we get in Hot Fuzz for one example, or the use of close-ups to tell the love story in Scott Pilgrim.

He heavily leans of his editor, to provide humour and to utilise repetition in his plots. Look at the repeated montage of Shaun's plan in Shaun of the Dead, or the Whiskey Bar scene in The World's End, or Scott's extra life in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World- scenes were the comedy is almost entirely derived from the cutting of the camera, the choices of sound effects and the increased speed. His work is often kinetic in pace, while slowing down and using longer takes for action- observe how Scott Pilgrim has fast cuts in its montages and dialogue scenes, while slowing down for long takes capturing all of the action in the action scenes.

Linked to that is his use of sound effects to add mood and to convey the emotions of his characters. Scott Pilgrim is absolutely lousy with video game sound effects to portray Scott's emotions and life, but it's there in all of his works, from whooshes to give scene transitions extra pace and urgency, to cash register chimes giving Skinner's deliberately cheesy and slimy characterisation in Hot Fuzz some extra bite. There's often overlap between this and his use of close-up- there's a great example of close ups on the beer taps contrasted with the water tap in The World's End, which serves as an explanation of his characters and their emotional states without even having them on screen.

There are a lot more than that, but they're the ones that immediately leap to mind.

Thank you.

I think he's being facetious....Brett Ratner lmao.

Wright's style is so damn obvious, and if it isn't just watch one of the videos in the OP then

XD

 

[guek]

I hope WB snatches him up for a major comic book movie or he gets a big-budget sci fi or something. I feel like his whole career has been leading up to a Star Wars or marvel/DC movie. And he could be the one to make the GOAT for comic books.

Put him on Spider-man. Are you listening, Sony?

 

[JumpJeff84]

I absolutely love Shaun of the Dead- his other movies I all like to varying degrees. And Spaced is pretty great too.

 

[Alienous]

Some people will do anything to convince themselves that Marvel can do no wrong.

Any director that has an identity in their work is one I'll root for.

 

[Messofanego]

tldr: wah wah wah why dont u like edgar wright

Good job on not understanding the OP.

 

[Discotheque]

Put him on Spider-man. Are you listening, Sony?

I was thinking flash but this would be cool too

 

[Cheebo]

I kind of doubt there'd be as many complaints if they brought on a new director with some significant name value.

That's the problem. We didn't lose Edgar Wright on the film. We lost him and got a director that has been shown to have very poor style and skill in direction.

If he got replaced by a good director things would be much different. But Peyton Reed is a bad director whose style is very TV like at best. He has shown no vision behind the camera ever in his career.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

There weren't many disagreements, Edgar ceded to all his demands, and created a script that everyone loved.

But at the last moment, Feige had two screenwriters drastically rewrite key sections of the movie, apparently these screenwriters suck and one is an inhouse writer. Mind you, this is right before principal photography. The script was incredibly shit, and Edgar had zero time to even fix any of this.

There was speculation, that Feige purposefully created a super shitty script to drive Edgar off the script, as this is a technique that studios have been known to use, to kick people off a project, without having to kick them off. Its possible that this isn;t the case, since Marvel is infamous for starting a movie with a piece of a shit of a script. But, Peyton Reed and McCay did get to rewrite, so perhaps it was a despicable and cowardly ploy after-all.

Its also important to remember, Edgar actually could've made the film in 2011, but he wanted to do Worlds End first, and Feige agreed that he would do it right after. So obviously Feige was pleased, but after a few years, he has become brainwashed with making all the movies interconnected pieces of shits.

You are one of the worst posters I've seen here recently. Do you have credible sources for all this nonsense being spewed?

 

[Squire]

Great OP, awful title.

Some folks are going to dislike Wright's films and genuinely think they're bad. I think that's less "kinda weird" and more the nature of opinions differing as different people hold them.

You made your case really well, but it's like... If somebody doesn't like Wright, who gives a shit? You seem to know quite well why that's in your opinion an ill-perspective.

I do agree with the posts saying that the Wright defense posts are far more common. It is indeed time folks move on as Wright did from basically day one.

 

[Jack Remington]

The World's End was one of my favorite movies in recent years.

 

[guek]

I was thinking flash but this would be cool too

This would also be acceptable

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Wright is a great director. The fight scenes in Worlds End were been better then pretty much any action scene in the Marvel movies bar maybe Cap 2. Plus he's a pretty versatile director. Hot Fuzz feels nothing like Shaun and neither of them feel anything like Worlds End. Plus, Scott Pilgrim was a great comic book adaptation. It felt like a living cartoon, which is pretty much what Scott Pilgrim's world feels like anyway.

 

[Cheebo]

I think Ant-Man likely turned a Wright off the super hero genre. I would enjoy being surprised but I am not expecting him to leap on a DC film.

 

[Exterminieren]

They aren't valid yet. The damn film isn't out yet for us to even see the current film looks, let alone for us to contrast it with the imaginary Wright version. Im not sure why thats so hard to understand. Besides that, noone in those threads are approaching it that way anyway, its just garbage "Wah wah Im not interested in this anymore because Wright isn't doing it!".

Noone in those threads is even looking for meaningful discussion on the matter anyway.

We have an example of Wright's vision for this film in the form of the Comic Con footage he prepared as a sneak peek. We now have the first footage of Reed's vision with this trailer. It is absolutely valid to compare the two as a first impression.

In addition to this, we have the rest of Wright's filmography, to the extent that we know enough to compare his hypothetical Ant-Man film to the one we have. There is no way that the humour of this trailer would have fallen so flat had Wright been involved with its creation, for example. His editorial style is distinct enough that it simply wouldn't have happened- the cutting would have been more sympathetic to Rudd's lines, and the music would have been far more carefully chosen. Wright has consistently shown himself to be more imaginative in his composition and his filmmaking than anything in this trailer.

Yes, the trailer might be unrepresentative of the final movie, but it's not invalid to discuss it as its own thing.

 

[Anton Sugar]

The World's End was one of my favorite movies in recent years.

It has really, really grown on me. I kinda love it now. I was lukewarm on it the first watch, but like it more every time.

 

[robotrock]

Edgar Wright is a very good director!

 

[MattKeil]

You are one of the worst posters I've seen here recently. Do you have credible sources for all this nonsense being spewed?

No, he doesn't. Almost everything in that post is complete fiction.

 

[anaron]

That's the problem. We didn't lose Edgar Wright on the film. We lost him and got a director that has been shown to have very poor style and skill in direction.

If he got replaced by a good director things would be much different. But Peyton Reed is a bad director whose style is very TV like at best. He has shown no vision behind the camera ever in his career.

Huh?

Bring it On and Down with Love absolutely have a distinct visual direction.

 

[Sanjuro]

It has really, really grown on me. I kinda love it now. I was lukewarm on it the first watch, but like it more every time.

Same. I did the theatrical marathon and saw it again not long after. Like it more than Shaun, Hot Fuzz is just too perfect to dethrone.

 

[Mully]

Edgar Wright films are the only films that I like more with each successive viewing. I hated Hot Fuzz and The World's End the first time I watched them. I love both now.

 

[Sobriquet]

Edgar Wright is a very good director!

, and it's sort of weird to suggest he isn't.

 

[Blader]

There is no way that the humour of this trailer would have fallen so flat had Wright been involved with its creation, for example. His editorial style is distinct enough that it simply wouldn't have happened- the cutting would have been more sympathetic to Rudd's lines, and the music would have been far more carefully chosen. Wright has consistently shown himself to be more imaginative in his composition and his filmmaking than anything in this trailer.

Yes, the trailer might be unrepresentative of the final movie, but it's not invalid to discuss it as its own thing.

Does Wright personally cut his own trailers? Did Reed cut this one?

If the answer to either of those questions is "no," then this particular example is actually totally invalid.

 

[Just_myles]

I always thought the actual filming of the actors was long done. Am I wrong? What did this new guy actually do?

 

[LaNaranja]

He is absolutely undeniably a fantastic action director. That said, Scott Pilgrim and World's End had huge pacing problems in my opinion and ended up feeling kind of meh as a result. Shaun and Hot Fuzz were both great though, with the later being one of my favorite movies ever. He is 2 for 4 as far as I'm concerned, but I still absolutely look forward to his upcoming work because they are always at least visually interesting. It sucks that he is no longer attached to Ant-Man but people acting like he is some flawless director that was definitely going to deliver a great movie with Ant-Man are fooling themselves.

 

[Amir0x]

Yeah he's great. The Ant-Man trailer was also completely uninteresting.

But who knows what his film would have been like so at this point it's all just wishes

 

[Pai Pai Master]

I always thought the actual filming of the actors was long done. Am I wrong? What did this new guy actually do?

They didn't start shooting until months after Wright departed. How you gonna film a movie without a director?

 

[Abounder]

Plus Brad Allan from the Jackie Chan Stunt Team is on the Ant-Man project and has experience working with Edgar Wright; in other words we are missing out on possibly the best action sequences for a superhero movie.

 

[Tobor]

I feel like I must have seen a different film when I hear all the gushing over Hot Fuzz. I've tried to watch it again and give it the benefit of the doubt, but I just dont get it. It's dry, and a slog to get through. It's not funny. Compared to Shaun of the Dead, it's a missed opportunity.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I love Edgar Wright. I don't really have anything meaningful to say about people who do or don't like him (I can see how his work isn't for everyone), but Spaced and his movies feel so personal to me. In high school Spaced and Shaun of the Dead felt like this secret thing me and my friends shared. Our humor felt like their humor, our friendship felt like Simon and Nick's friendship, the environment their stories took place felt like the environment we grew up in (as opposed to the American world as seen in other movies). We could watch it over and over.

And then World's End hit a while back. And that movie hit me HARD. I've talked about what this movie means to me before in the Mental Health thread, but I feel it's worth saying again. It was a combination of things - my personal nostalgia of growing up with Spaced and the other movies and how special it was to my group of friends, and the fact that I just came out of my own battle with addiction (it was alcohol in the movie, drugs for me), depression and not being able to move on with my life. I had put all that behind me at that point, and I was finally moving on with my life, but the message of that movie hit very, very close to home for me. It was insane, it was like Wright took a look at how my life had been going and decided I needed a sharp reminder that things needed to change. Someone working on that movie must have had close personal experiences with all that stuff because it got way too real at points. I only managed to watch it twice - once by myself (and I was a crying mess at the end), and once when I showed it too my old best friend from high school (who had been struggling with similar things around that time). He was also very quiet after that, and he texted me to apologize for being so quiet after the movie and asked if we could start hanging out more again. This might sound like bullshit, but I never felt such a personal connection to a fictional work before. I still get a bit emotional when I think back to it. And it's a freaking sci-fi comedy. I'm still not ready to watch it a third time (and I've watched all his other works countless times).

I can totally see why people prefer his earlier movies. They're definitely funnier, and they never get as dark as they do in this movie. But man. I'll support anything he does. I don't care if it's Antman or not (don't care enough about Marvel movies for that), but I was looking forward to him making a big budget movie. We'll have to wait and see what he makes next and when it happens. Give him the third Tintin movie or something.

Really appreciated this post man. Definitely the most underrated thing he's done next to Pilgrim. Don't know what I was expecting going in, but it wasn't that; and wow, it was a lot better. Went to see it with two childhood friends, and it was a great experience for us. And it was similar as you say, we stayed up all night once and watched Shaun of the Dead twice back to back, and quoted it for about a year straight. Even now when I say "How's that for a slice of fried gold?", he'll reply with "Yeeeeaaah booooyyyy".

I think people were way too harsh on TWE for trying something different and not being "funny". It's a very subdued, cheesy kind of humour, with something a lot deeper and more emotional lying beneath it. Something most comedy directors, and I hate to generalise but most American comedy directors, couldn't pull off. There's ennui and loss between two old friends attempted in This Is The End for example, but of course it's played for laughs outright. You're not really meant to believe in their friendship, because you're too busy laughing at a big CGI demon with the ray of light blasting through it.

And World's End pulls it off better than most comedies, and certainly better than any other of Wright's films. Shaun of the Dead attempts it, but it feels a little too close to the knuckle, and is often sandwiched between bigger jokes. Hot Fuzz is deliberately generic with it, i.e. dramatic cop buddy taking a bullet for his cop buddy, NOOOOOOO. World's End manages to be a hell of a lot more subtle, to the point where you're not really expecting the moment in the final bar.

My favorite film of 2013, and probably the best of the Cornetto's for me. It's just so well-rounded, and is so tonally smooth.

/Wright wank I'll probably be lambasted for.

I feel like I must have seen a different film when I hear all the gushing over Hot Fuzz. I've tried to watch it again and give it the benefit of the doubt, but I just dont get it. It's dry, and a slog to get through. It's not funny. Compared to Shaun of the Dead, it's a missed opportunity.

Do give World's End a try. It's much closer to Shaun of the Dead in what it tries to accomplish.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

This, in every thread there is someone damn near claiming edgar wright is the second coming of christ. Edgar had 8 fucking years, time to move on. and he beats his wife also.

Again - I'm not entirely sure that's the case.

In fact, looking at the posts regarding Ant-Man that have happened in just the last week - yeah, there are some posters who do express disappointment that Wright is no longer directing the movie. Of those posters, there's a smaller subset that take it as far as GreenRobot just recently did, and get obnoxious about it.

And then there are posters who respond to that disappointment with derision and mockery that people think Edgar Wright is "the second coming" (in fact, doing a search for that phrase brings your posts, Mix Master), and it really does appear that number is actually LARGER than the "Wrightboys" as the term was coined earlier. J10 especially has a LOT of posts combatting the supposed horde of "Wright Lovers" wandering about the Ant-Man threads.

In fact, if I do a search for "Wright" in any Ant-Man thread, it looks like the number of hits I get back from people shitting on the man's skill as a director (or clowning his lack of box-office success as a means to dismiss his abilities as a storyteller) is larger than the number of people who express disappointment that he's no longer directing the movie.

(of course, there are a decent number of people respectfully discussing the man's abilities as a director and the manner in which he left the project, too)

Which is partially why I started the thread: It's kinda weird to suggest Edgar Wright is a bad director, not only due to the filmography that serves as a pretty decent counter-argument to that statement, but because it seems to be trying to counter an argument the "Wrightboys" aren't even making.

Does Wright personally cut his own trailers? .

I believe he has before. But I'm pretty sure the directors of each Marvel movie don't really have much to do with how they're marketed past a certain point. I think Gunn had something to do with the Ooga-Chaka, didn't he? And Favreau had something to do with the AC/DC in the Iron Man campaigns, I think. I might be wrong about that, though.

I do like the turn towards discussing his abilities as an action director though. There aren't any good clips on YouTube, but I remember thinking the action in World's End was some of the best I'd seen all that year, better than most of the legitimate action movies that were released, in fact.

 

[Kain]

Hot fuzz is the best movie ever, so yes I think he is a great director.

 

[wanderingprostheyltite]

I wish he'd made more films by this point rather than the unintentional waste of time Ant-Man was in his career. I want a sci fi comedy movie from him. I know World's End has aspects, but hoping for a full on other galaxy level scale. I think he's capable despite what Marvel thinks (production scale wise), something grounded in Earth-bound characters ie Galaxy Quest. Could be really cool.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I wish he'd made more films by this point rather than the unintentional waste of time Ant-Man was in his career. I want a sci fi comedy movie from him. I know World's End has aspects, but hoping for a full on other galaxy level scale. I think he's capable despite what Marvel thinks (production scale wise), something grounded in Earth-bound characters ie Galaxy Quest. Could be really cool.

To be fair, I think he delayed Ant-Man production considerably to finish World's End, as he'd promised a dying friend he would? I think is the story. Which I don't really regret, as my outpouring for TWE above will attest.

 

[metsallica]

Every piece of media Edgar Wright has made has been better than the previous one; his "filmography" is currently impeccable. Ant Man looks like a made-for-TV movie at this point. So, I'll perpetuate the narrative until proven wrong.

 

[jackissocool]

I love Edgar Wright. I'm someone who doesn't like movies as a medium very much, but he always makes entertaining and clever films that I find very watchable. I'm also a big fan of the MCU for its lively comic book nature and look forward to everything in it. So I was very happy to hear about Wright making Ant-Man, and was just starting to get properly hyped right before he left the project. That put a big damper on my excitement for obvious reasons - it's bad news when a director leaves right before filming, and especially bad when that director is one of your favorites.

However, Reed inspired some confidence in me with his obvious and enthusiastic love for the character. None of the actors bailed, which was reassuring. The trailer came out, which clearly suffered from serious trailer syndrome, but revealed that Rudd was heavily involved in the rewrite. So I'm earnestly looking forward to the movie now and trust in the cast and Marvel to deliver something I'll have a good time watching.

I'm still sad Wright left, because him making a movie the MCU was a perfect storm for me. I'm not sure Feige didn't do him dirty. So Ant-Man might not be everything it could've been, but I believe it'll still be a great addition to Marvel's universe.

 

[Ithil]

Edgar is easily one of the best living directors on this planet. Very skilled indeed.

He is too good for Marvel. As Kevin Kunt Fiege himself said, they find the movies in edit. I think GOTG is an exception. But they heavily use reshoots and rewrites to get their shitty scripts to become decent movies.

Edgar, like all the great directors, don't shoot coverage, they sure as shit don't find movies in the edit, they know exactly what they want. The have a vision.

This Antman movie will be decent I am sure, because it will have Edgars action scenes as he visualized it, and they will have stolen all his best bits from the scripts. But, I guess this is stating the obvious, whatever the movie is, it will be a turd to what Edgar would've made. Edgars movie would've been something special.

Worlds End is my favorite movie of his yet.

There weren't many disagreements, Edgar ceded to all his demands, and created a script that everyone loved.

But at the last moment, Feige had two screenwriters drastically rewrite key sections of the movie, apparently these screenwriters suck and one is an inhouse writer. Mind you, this is right before principal photography. The script was incredibly shit, and Edgar had zero time to even fix any of this.

There was speculation, that Feige purposefully created a super shitty script to drive Edgar off the script, as this is a technique that studios have been known to use, to kick people off a project, without having to kick them off. Its possible that this isn;t the case, since Marvel is infamous for starting a movie with a piece of a shit of a script. But, Peyton Reed and McCay did get to rewrite, so perhaps it was a despicable and cowardly ploy after-all.

Its also important to remember, Edgar actually could've made the film in 2011, but he wanted to do Worlds End first, and Feige agreed that he would do it right after. So obviously Feige was pleased, but after a few years, he has become brainwashed with making all the movies interconnected pieces of shits.

Case in point.

 

[Mix Master]

Put him on Spider-man. Are you listening, Sony?

if marvel studios got the rights to spiderman i could see that being a good relationship mending project.

 

[Cheebo]

if marvel studios got the rights to spiderman i could see that being a good relationship mending project.

Only Feige keeps some distance lets Wright do his own thing I imagine. If they want a heavily MCU-intergrated film then they'd run into the same situation they got on Ant-Man

 

[Monocle]

I could not agree more. Great OP.

 

[Pelydr]

The issue is no one can claim with a straight face Peyton Reed is even half as good as a director as Wright. No chance at all based on track record. And the quality of a film always hinges very heavily on the directors ability.

Wright inherently in being a far more skilled director would have made a better film than Peyton Reed. Thus we are getting a far lesser Ant-Man film than we could of.

I mean just look at the camera work in the teaser. It is clearly very pedestrian when Wright shots are not.

Even the most rabid Marvel fanboy can and should at least attest that what we are getting will be below the potential of what we could of had.

The movies he has directed in the cornetto trilogy are great because of the writing he didn't produce. His directing is just boring constant cuts. It's like watching someone fresh out of film school. Also, he made Scott Pilgrim. Horrible film. Dude is propped up by his friends.

 

[jackissocool]

if marvel studios got the rights to spiderman i could see that being a good relationship mending project.

I wonder if either side would ever be willing to work with the other? We don't really know the details of the break up. A Spider-Man by Wright would be amazing.

Maybe they could have him direct some tv episodes as a first step at reconciliation? He'd be great for an episode of Agent Carter, if it comes back next year. It's totally his sort of thing, I think.

 

[PeskyToaster]

Edgar Wright would've been the best director to have helmed a Marvel movie so far so it's a big loss and the MCU would have benefited from his style to at least stave off some fatigue that people are starting to feel and it's getting stronger.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I also don't mind if this ends up becoming sort of the preferred playground of this particular debate regarding Wright's skills so that the Ant-Man discussions don't become the weird back & forth they have been for the past couple weeks.

 

[Cheebo]

The movies he has directed in the cornetto trilogy are great because of the writing he didn't produce. His directing is just boring constant cuts.

You do realize...he wrote all 3 movies in the cornetto trilogy right? Wow, what an oblivious post.

Wright co-wrote the Cornetto movies with Simon Pegg. All 3 are fantastic. Pegg wrote Run Fatboy Run and Paul without him both are subpar.

I wonder if either side would ever be willing to work with the other? We don't really know the details of the break up. A Spider-Man by Wright would be amazing.

Maybe they could have him direct some tv episodes as a first step at reconciliation? He'd be great for an episode of Agent Carter, if it comes back next year. It's totally his sort of thing, I think.

That makes it sound like Wright having to "earn" back trust by doing a tv show episode. That is a major downgrade of his talents doing network tv. Wright doing something Marvel likely would involve Marvel having to come to him on his terms.

 

[Blader]

I wish he'd made more films by this point rather than the unintentional waste of time Ant-Man was in his career. I want a sci fi comedy movie from him. I know World's End has aspects, but hoping for a full on other galaxy level scale. I think he's capable despite what Marvel thinks (production scale wise), something grounded in Earth-bound characters ie Galaxy Quest. Could be really cool.

I don't think Ant-Man was any major waste of his time, maybe took a year off he could've spent elsewhere. He was largely writing and rewriting the script on the side while directing other things, and he already started putting together a couple new things almost immediately after leaving Marvel.

 

[Cipherr]

I also don't mind if this ends up becoming sort of the preferred playground of this particular debate regarding Wright's skills so that the Ant-Man discussions don't become the weird back & forth they have been for the past couple weeks.

I agree, would be nice if this could become the thread everyone still scorned by the director change can use to vent. Would really clean up the Antman threads a bit.