Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: August 13, 2010
Tagline: An epic of epic epicness
Director: Edgar Wright
Recognizable actors: Micheal Cera, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, and Kieran Culkin
Plot: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's evil exes in order to win her heart.

The Short Review: If you don't read another single word in this review, read this-- go see it now!

The Review: An epic of epic epicness, indeed. Scott Pilgrim is based off a short comic series with the same plot-- Scott must defeat all seven of Ramona Flower's evil exes before he can finally be with her. This movie has loads of lines you'll hear people saying over and over again and had the entire group I went with still talking about it hours afterwards.

Much like a musical is set up so that you know at any time one of the characters might start sining and dancing, Scott Pilgrim gives the set-up of a really rocking video game from the beginning. We met our main characters and their surroundings by being given their stats right up front. For the most part, we hang with Scott's band (and both his girlfriends) who are all in their early twenty something and video game junkies. Because of our cast of characters, I got the feeling that we were seeing the world perhaps how they wanted to see it.

And they way they wanted to see life is like a large video game. The entire movie is peppered with classic video game music (to my delight, Zelda's "The Goddess Appears" seemed to be the most popular theme song), gaming bars (we get a really great scene where Scott has a pee bar that he empties, bad guys dropping coins when they are defeated, high scores, and other gaming paraphernalia so that when an evil ex pops in to whip some serious Scott butt, it feels fluent and natural with the world we are in.

This movie really shines everywhere. The acting is awesome, the writing is filled with unforgettable lines and scenes, the visuals are amazing to witness and the audio will be in your head days after the movie has ended. Because there are so many great aspects to this movie, I'm going to focus on two.

Micheal Cera portrays Scott Pilgrim, a twenty three year old Canadian who is in between jobs, and would rather hang out with his band than try to do something about it. What I particularly enjoyed about this movie is that Scott wasn't portrayed as being a "good" guy. Yeah, he's pretty nice to Ramona because he likes her but he also meets her while dating a seventeen year old who is crazy for him (and who he cheats on), he gets emo-ish when he has to fight and he puts himself before the needs of others around him. It sounds like he'd be kind of hard to love but then he goes and beats the snot out of one of Ramona's exes because the ex hit his ex-seventeen year old and he gains points back. Plus, he clever. Cera does an awesome job shining light on Pilgrim's flaws while also showing us he's just a regular guy with regular problems and an array of ninja moves underneath that tiny size X-small t-shirt. 

That's just Cera! I haven't even scratched the surface of awesomeness when it comes to the cast. His band members, particularly the female drummer Kim Pine (played by Alison Pill), both his old girlfriend Knives Chau and his new Ramona, his gay roommate Wallace Wells (played by Keiran Culkin), his younger sister played by Anna Kendrick and all of the exes provide a plethora of hilariousness for Cera to work with. The two that really shine for me where Culkin and Kendrick.

The other aspect I want to take a second to discuss is the visual. These fighting battle where so beautiful witness and there was such an array of things to watch. The script didn't just stick with the normal vs. battle ala Street Fighter, there were multiple styles including skate boarding (like all the skate boarding games out there), a bass battle (like Rock Band), a monster battle (like Pokemon but bigger!) and even super powers. It was beautiful to look at. They also combined comic book elements and even part of the comic in the movie for back story.

I haven't scratched the surface. There are so many lines you're friends will be repeating, so many scenes you'll be laughing at long after the film has finished rolling, so many beautiful visuals to witness that I could go on for days. The only tiny thing I had a problem with in this story was a detail about Scott's little sister calling him little brother but other than that, I can't think of a thing to change.

As I said in the short review, do yourself a favor and witness the epicness. I wish I was instead of writing this review and having to re-live it without seeing it again You won't be disappointed.

5 evil bunnies/5

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