Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead star in an "epic of epic epicness."
I was eating at CiCi’s the other day and as I was paying for my adult buffet and drink, I noticed a small stack of pamphlets which were advertising the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which hits theaters August 13th. The movie was something I was interested in, so I grabbed one. Turns out it was a ticket for two to an advance screening. Score.
I’m going to try to be as unbiased as possible in this review, but it’s going to be a challenge. This movie was made for people like me who grew up playing video games (specifically the Legend of Zelda series) and that fact is evident within five seconds of the movie beginning. The first thing you see is a blue sky, and as the camera pans down to reveal the house where a good deal of the action takes place, the opening theme from Link to the Past plays. It sets the scene perfectly.
I have not read the graphic novels which the movie is based on, mainly because I knew that if I did, I would enjoy the movie a little less. I can’t say how “true” the movie is to the original works (penned by Bryan Lee O’Malley) but I can say that the movie was extremely enjoyable.
The plot is relatively simple. Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is 22 years old and he is a slacker who plays bass in the garage band Sex Bob-omb. At the movie’s onset, he is dating a high school named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), a union no one seems to take seriously. However, things change when a girl who appeared in Scott’s dreams turns out to be Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Scott’s focus quickly turns from Knives to Ramona. Scott breaks up with Knives and begins dating Ramona…though not in that order, which poses a problem later on. Soon after Scott and Ramona start dating, Scott discovers that to keep Ramona, he must defeat her “seven evil exes.”
The movie pays little attention to unimportant things such as physics and reality; at one point, Ramona’s first evil ex, Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), conjures up a chorus of “demon hipster chicks” while hovering in the air and shooting fire at Scott. Instead of creating rules which the audience would have to follow, it ignores rules entirely. In this case, ignorance is certainly bliss.
Another factor which makes the movie so enjoyable is the music. Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead fame), Beck, and Metric make significant contributions to the film’s score. Sex Bob-omb sounds like a garage band, but in a good way. Other bands in the movie include Crash and the Boys (who play a 13-second long punk song) and the Clash at Demonhead, whose lead singer, Natalie “Envy” Adams (Brie Larson), is Scott’s ex-girlfriend. The Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb” can be heard at one point, and its timing is excellent.
The movie does have its weak points, though. It moves extremely fast, covering a lot of ground in the 112-minute running time, which might leave some people confused. It also relies on a lot of gaming-based elements, such as points, combos, 1-ups, KOs, etc., which will not make sense to some people.
Scott Pilgrim has an obvious target audience, but if one keeps an open mind it can be enjoyable for people in all walks of life. Cera delivers wonderfully as the lead character, though one has to wonder if he can play anyone other than the awkward young adult archetype well. Winstead seems to be a perfect fit for the role of Ramona. The supporting cast is the highlight of the movie as a whole, however. There are too many actors to list off here, but rest assured that each and every character with a speaking role uses it well.
Verdict: 8.5/10. Biased verdict: 10/10.
