Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Review

(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Before we begin:
1) I have read all the Scott Pilgrim books
2) I am a former gamer
3) I am a member of the geek community
Now on to the review.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is one of the most entertaining films of the year. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the best video game movie ever made. Scott Pilgrim vs The World is the best theater experience of the year. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, is an excellent film… But flawless, it is not.

Scott Pilgrim is a 23 year old slacker living in Canada. His life is average, his band is average, his friends are average, his relationships are average…  You get the idea. That is, until one day he meets the girl of his dreams, literally. Ramona Flowers has been skating through Scott’s dreams, and now he wants to be with her. But it’s not as easy as he thinks, because in order to date Ramona, Scott must defeat her seven evil exes… You heard me.

Now, that’s the premise of a life time. But director Edgar Wright handles it with grace and tenacity. From the very first frame, Scott Pilgrim makes it very clear what type of film you’re going to be watching. Make no mistake about it, this is a geek movie. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some stuff for the passive watcher to enjoy.

At its core Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a love story. A very campy, violence filled love story and unless you’ve never touched a video game in your life (and if you’ve played Pac-Man you’re not in that group) you’ll get at least some of the main gags. But Scott Pilgrim isn’t naive about its audience.

No matter how much the film wants to bring the main stream crowd in, it’s a geek movie. And does this film work for the geek crowd? I think the better question is, do I even need to ask? The film is based on one of the geekiest properties ever created.

Which brings me to my first, and probably most pressing issue with the film. How it works as an adaptation to Brian Lee O’malley‘s popular book series. I’ll sum it up like this… Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is like Watchmen, this is the best film version we were ever going to get. The fact is, Edgar Wright had the very difficult job of compressing six very well crafted books into a 112 minute movie. So of course certain things from the books are going to be compressed, or even changed. For the most part, the movie parts ways with the books between volumes 3 and 4.

One of the best examples of this is Scott’s ex-girlfriend Envy Adams. In the books, Envy is the biggest hurtle that Scott faces. He can’t get over her, and every time he comes into contact with her, he breaks down. Like this:

However in the film, her role only serves a purpose in the first half. Then she just disappears completely. At that point, why bother including her at all? Especially considering the amount of build up that is given to her reveal.

The movie also doesn’t do the best job at explaining the portals that allow Ramona to travel through Scott’s dreams (which doesn’t happen nearly as often as it does in the books). While I’m not expecting a full act given to it, I would like a little explanation for people who haven’t read the books. This seems to be this films biggest problem. It forgets that people who haven’t read Scott Pilgrim are watching Scott Pilgrim.

Then there’s the portrayal of the characters in the movie. There are times when the characters are dead on, like Knives Chau. In the books Knives is a clingy seventeen year old that can’t take a hint, well that’s exactly what you get in the film. But for other characters, the portrayal falls flat, like in the case of Kim Pine. In the books Kim is a sassy, but sweet friend of Scott’s, who enjoys swapping embarrassing stories about him with Ramona.

But in the movie, she is a bruiting self-absorbed person, a very unlikable bitch of a character to be honest. Alison Pill really didn’t understand the essence of Kim Pine and apparently neither did Edgar Wright.

Some of the best character portrayals in the film came from the evil exes. Scott Pilgrim is full of some of this generation’s greatest character actors, such as Chris Evans and Brandon Routh. Jason Schwartzman who plays the main bad guy, Gideon Gordon Graves is also dead on. Some of the other excellent portrayals came from Scott’s love interest, Ramona being played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Stacey Pilgrim (who did not get enough screen time, another downfall of the rather short run time) being played by Anna Kendrick.

As for Michael Cera’s portrayal of the title character, it works… To a point. There are stretches where classic Michael Cera seeps through the cracks. Whenever a seen required him to over emphasize his emotions, he fails. But over all this can be considered a stretch for him. I really think that has more to do with Edgar Wright than it does Cera himself.

Another problem are all the scattered random jokes that are straight out of the book, that ultimately fall flat. One of the best examples can be seen in the trailer of the film. Scott learns that Ramona had a bi-sexual phase and one of the evil exes is a girl. To which he replies “you had a sexy phase?” Look at the way the joke is delivered in the book:

But the films portrayal of this gag is dull. And moments like this happen many times throughout the film. It really depended on how well the specific actor had grasped the essence of the character at that point in time. In this case, Cera’s usual whisper tone way of delivering dialogue ruined the joke.

The final gripe in regards to the adaptation aspect is that, certain elements taken directly out of the comic feel rushed in the film. Things like why Ramona wants to leave Scott all of a sudden in the final act, or why on earth is Ramona able to pull a god damn hammer out of her bag. Unless you read the book, these explanations will be lost on you. Like I said, Wright had to compress six books into one film, but he should of made it a little longer than 112 minutes. Twenty more minutes might have made a huge difference.

But let’s move on from the problems of the film as an adaptation. How about the style? It’s classic Wright. Remember all those quick cut sequences from Hot Fuzz and Shaun of The Dead? Well imagine if that editing style was used in an entire film.

One of the things Wright really nailed from the books was the pace of the story. The way scenes transition from one to the other is nearly identical to the book, and it plays very well. The only gripe on the editing/pacing is the first act of the film. You really don’t start getting comfortable with the jumpiness of it until the first evil ex battle happens twenty minutes in. But barring that, the editing and pacing are top notch. So props to Mr. Wright and his editing team on that one.

The movie is also beautiful. On a color, and cinematography level that is. It’s even seizure inducing at points (like the opening credits). The way Wright moves the camera in this film really reflects classic video game camera movement. Giving off the illusion of spontaneity, but in fact is very stable.

Cinematographer Bill Pope (who worked on all the Matrix and Spider-Man films) really had a grasp of how to block the scenes. He, Wright, and the set design team did a great job at the world building of this film. Like the book, the movie takes place in a hyper reality that looks like our own, until a super natural fight breaks out. And in that respect, everything was smooth and very well constructed; again I thank the production team.

Now, one of the big selling points of this film are the fights between Scott and the evil exes. So let me say these few things about them, they are the best parts of the film. And, they come at just the right moments. Any time the film starts to get a little boring with all the pop culture references, a fight starts.

The fights are both funny and brutal at the same time. There were scattered moments during some of the fights (the first one in particular) where the film deviated far from what was on the page and got too zany for its own good. But the fact is, Wright had a clear vision of what he wanted to bring the fights of the book to life, and for the most part, he succeeded.

Another big part of the film is the indy music scene. I’m not very familiar with this culture, but I felt the movie did a really great job of portraying it. It really captures that amateurness of an indy show. The bad audio, the untalented acts, the glimmer of hope act (Sex Bob-omb in this case) that exists in the sea of talentless crap, it’s all there. And the sound track of the film plays really well. This is one you’re going to wanna pick up right after the movie is over, I guarantee it.

As for the comedic value of the film, it’s high, very high. Some moments in this film made the audience laugh harder than anything I heard when I saw Zombieland, and that’s hard to do. While this film is no slouch on the dramatic, it’s clear that comedy was always Edgar Wrights go to, especially during scenes such as the fight involving ex #3. This movie is definitely the funniest film of 2010 (so far) without question.

To be honest, I’m just going to keep gushing over this film and its various parts. So let me leave you with this… Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is the best theater experience you are going to have this year (so far). It’s a film that totally gets its audience and tries its best to deliver on everything people want. This one you don’t want to miss. As long as you remember that things can change in the transition from paper to screen, than you’ll believe that Scott Pilgrim can defeat the world.

8.5/10