Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Review

There are minor spoilers in this review. If you don't want me to raise your expectations too high, I recommend skipping to THE END section to read my overall thoughts on whether or not you should see this movie. (The overall answer? Yes.) And then once you do, come back and read the full review. This was my #1 most anticipated movie of the year, and if you haven't been paying attention, I've talked about it a lot.

PLOT: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil exes in order to win her heart.


THE GOOD: Edgar Wright. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World's co-writer and director, Edgar Wright, is one of my top five... nay, top three favorite directors right now. With Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and now Scott Pilgrim, he has proven to be one of the most innovative directors of our time. He bends genres. He makes movies that are like nothing else. I can't compare Scott Pilgrim to anything. It's so unique, so out there, and so wild that we need a new word for it. We should call it "wright". This movie is so wright!

Adaptation. Practically everything, except some aspects of the ending and a few things here and there, are straight from the graphic novels. Lines, jokes, visuals... it's so awesome to see the book come to life on the big screen. Writers Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall did a great job staying true to the story. Really liked the use of Bryan Lee O'Malley's drawings in Ramona's back-story sequences and in some other scenes. It's just so faithful to the series. There are scenes that you can literally hold up next to the graphic novel panel they are based on and are exactly the same, down to the smallest detail. Lots of the shirts that Scott Pilgrim wears appear in the film. If you end up liking the style, you will probably enjoy the books.

Camera work, transitions, and effects. Holy. Freakin'. Cow. This is where the movie really excels and stand alone among other comic book/graphic novel films. Edgar Wright, DOP Bill Pope, and editors Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss all did an unbelievable job with the look of SPvTW. The transitions are quick, which is to be expected from Mr. Wright. The aspect ratio shifts add a huge amount of movement to scenes. The different split screen templates are also plentiful and unique. And not everything is CGI effects added in after; there is a lot of in-camera effects thrown in there, too. One memorable scene is when Scott goes to the bathroom from band practice and ends up going to three other locations. It's really cool. The overall look of the film is beyond amazing.

Action and special effects. The action looks and feels so cool. I had goosebumps during most of the scenes. Many of the moves came straight from the book. Loved the added announcer voice (voiced by Bill Hader) and little video game sound effects. The special effects were great. The 16-bit looks, the visual sound effects, and the neon highlights for just about everything were so much fun.

Casting and acting. I know a lot of people who are tired of Michael Cera. This confuses me. Yes, he does the same schtick most of the time, but that's what he's good at. Chris Farley played a fat, stupid imbecile in every movie he was in and I didn't hear any complaints then. Michael Cera could play in a George Michael ala Arrested Development role for the rest of his life and it will still make me laugh. He's funny. With all that being said, I have to say that this is Cera's most outgoing role yet. He's not as quiet and awkward like he usually is. He's a bit more out there, not afraid to speak what's on his mind, and of course kicks some serious butt. Okay, I had my doubts about him too, but he does a good job. I still think there might have been some other actors who could have been a little better, but it really doesn't take much away from the film. The rest of the casting is brilliant and totally works. Alison Pill does a great job with Kim's attitude, but I wish they didn't make her look so unattractive. Mark Webber surprised me a lot as Stephen Stills. Johnny Simmons played a great take on Young Neil and reminded me a lot of my cousin, Tom. This was Ellen Wong's first motion picture role and I thought she was an absolute perfect fit for Knives Chau. Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells steals nearly every scene that he's in. He's just plain funny, just like the books. Anna Kendrick played a capable Stacey Pilgrim, as did Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers. And last, but certainly not least, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was a fantastic choice for Ramona. My only small complaint about her, and it was probably the writing more than her fault, was that her character was too bitchy. Like, for people who haven't read the books, I think they would be confused on what makes her attractive to Scott in the first place. Anyway, Winstead is beautiful and does a great job with the role.

Music. There are three major influences on the Scott Pilgrim series: 1) video games, 2) anime, and 3) music. Nigel Godrich, Beck, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Cornelius, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala all contributed to the film's soundtrack and it's great. Wright was also able to get a few other "special" songs to play in the film; some songs that we should all be familiar with and you'll recognize once you hear them. The music plays such a major role in the film. Metric's "Black Sheep" (performed by The Clash at Demonhead in the movie) is used as sort of a way to inform of the strife between Envy, Scott, Ramona, and Todd. It's a wonderful setup.

THE BAD: Mathew Patel's song and dance. What the hell was that? These are just little nitpicking problems I had.

Katayanagi (Katamari) Twins fight. I thought this was the lamest fight out of all of them and wish it was done better. It's completely different from the books. I don't even think the twins have any lines. Oh well... I can live with only one out of six fights sucking.

Subspace. I don't think it was explained enough and I wish they showed more of Scott and Ramona traveling through it.

THE END: I freakin' loved SPvTW! I'm a huge fan of the graphic novels and now a huge fan of the movie. My expectations were so high as I've been crazily tracking this movie for over a year and I'm happy to say that it met my expectations, and in some ways, exceeded them. It captures the books so brilliantly and was non-stop fun and funny all the way through. I highly recommend checking this movie out, but throw caution to those who don't like comic book films, or unrealistic films and fights, or think that this is going to be the greatest movie ever made. It's not, but it is my favorite film of the year so far.

Side Note: Quick story on how I got to see this movie 8 days before it came out! I found out from a Google search of "scott pilgrim vs. the world seattle screening" that there was going to be one at AMC Southcenter 16 in Tukwila, WA on Thursday, August 5th. However, there was no info on where or how to get passes. I messaged Jason to see if he had any inside knowledge, but he did not. I e-mailed the public relations group that puts on the screenings and they would not tell me where I could get tickets. I thought about what kind of places I would give passes our to if I were promoting this movie and one of the first thoughts that came to my head was "comic book stores". I Googled "comic book stores tukwila" and called the first match that showed up. The owner picked up and I asked "This might be a weird question, but you wouldn't happen to have any Scott Pilgrim passes for tonight, would you?" His reply was, "Yeah, I think I might have a couple more of those." I was amazed at how lucky I was at figuring this all out. I asked him to hold a ticket for me, which he did, and I was able to pick it up and attend the film on the same day. I look at this as a 'happily ever after' story. =)


DISCUSS: What did you think of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World? Are you a fan of the graphic novels? Were you anticipating this movie at all? What's your favorite comic book movies? What do you think of Michael Cera?