Ian WhiteGreat buys on DVD: Scott Pilgrim vs the World
December 9th 2010 21:46
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Few could have done justice to the big screen adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s beloved and unorthodox graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, and he was fortunate to land one of them. Edgar Wright, who co-wrote the cult hit Shaun of the Dead , had a tremendous story to work with and a talented cast, so the pressure was on to deliver. Now while Shaun of the Dead was pure zombie movie parody, Scott Pilgrim pushed the envelope for on screen creativity by essentially being a live action video game, from the Super Nintendo era sound effects to vanquished enemies being reduced to coins. Michael Cera, the man who hit the big time by being the epitome of non threatening would have to tweak his nerdy Juno and Superbad personas by incorporating naïve narcissism, a subtle edge, and karate moves. Similar to when he played alter ego Francois Dillinger in Youth and Revolt, minus the fighting prowess. Meanwhile Kieran, the other Culkin, was tasked with playing his gay roommate, who’s wit made for some of the best moments of the graphic novels. Well fan boys need not have worried because both were tremendous extensions of their hand-drawn counterparts.
Michael Cera plays 23 year old Scott Pilgrim, an unemployed Canadian slacker living in a small Toronto apartment with his aforementioned gay roommate Wallace Wells, who steals quite a few scenes in this movie. Scott is also a bassist in a glorified garage band called Sex Bob-omb. Sounds like a chick magnet right? Sarcasm aside, he really is, as the story is centered around his plethora of dysfunctional relationships with the opposite sex. There was his awkwardly ended fling with the feisty Sex Bob-omb drummer Kim Pine (Alison Pill), being dumped by bombshell rock goddess Envy Adams (Brie Lason), a comically chaste rebound relationship with 17 year old high school girl Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), and the literal girl of his dreams Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Things get even more complicated when Scott discovers a troubling obstacle standing in the way of his blossoming love affair with Ramona: she has 7 evil ex’s hell bent on destroying him. We first got wind of this situation when Scott received an email from the first evil ex explaining the entire situation, which he promptly skims and puts out of his mind. However the battles Mr. Pilgrim finds himself in are can’t miss events with their intentionally over the top insanity. Scott’s fights with the evil ex’s are like a combination of Kung Fu Hustle and Kill Bill if it took place in a Playstation game rather than a movie and if you were on acid. The fights often put a torch to realism, but were always entertaining especially when interrupted or preceded by gags.
One in particular saw Scott Pilgrim faced off with an evil ex named Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) who happens to have psychic powers stemming from his stringent Vegan diet. Todd states that he will pulverize Scott to dust, an exclamation our hero opposes leading to this exchange:
Todd Ingram: Tell it to the cleaning lady on Monday.
Scott Pilgrim: What?
Todd Ingram: Because you'll be dust by Monday... because you'll be pulverized in two seconds. The cleaning lady? She cleans up... dust. She dusts.
Scott Pilgrim: So, what's on Monday?
Todd Ingram: 'Cause... it's Friday now, she has the weekends off, so... Monday, right?
The film is littered with similar repartee of the intentionally silly variety and are quite a treat. Particularly with Wallace Wells who makes a comedic impact in nearly every scene. Whether its stealing Scott’s sister Stacey Pilgrim’s (Anna Kendrick) boyfriends or updating her on Scott’s love life over the phone despite being asleep. Wallace is deeply sarcastic but serves as a positive influence on Scott with tough love used to guide his moral compass which rarely tends to stay north. The big villain of the story is the wealthy and pretentious record producer Gideon, the last and most deadly of the evil ex’s. Their battle while not only epic holds most of the emotion of this movie, a knock from most critics who wanted more seriousness in a film that was drowning in jokes. A fair point if you’re thrown off by the magic doorways and creatures created out of sound waves. However the movie is never without a dull moment of filler and accomplished the rare achievement of satisfying the fan boys without alienating the casual observers. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World will stand as a hilarious, innovative, and occasionally heartwarming movie that gets better with each viewing.
Final Score: 9
Review by Ian W.
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