Scott Pilgrim vs le monde

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is probably as close as we'll come to having an experimental film released in theaters nationwide. This is one of the most innovative, original movies to come out in years. It's unlike anything I'd seen before. And yes, it is good, very good. I could not stop laughing the whole time.

Onto the plot. Scott is something of a loser. He's socially awkward. He shares a mattress in a bunker-like apartment in Toronto with a sarcastic gossip king. He's in a band called the Sex Bob-Ombs, but they're really not that great. He also has a clinging, hyperactive girlfriend, "Knives" who's only 17- kind of a big deal when he's 22. All this changes when he dreams of a purple haired girl on roller blades. The very next day he finds out that she's real; that her name is Ramona flowers and she's the cool new girl in town. His first attempt to hook up fails miserably. His second attempt, although even more lamed brained, actually works, and they're soon an item. But now comes the bad news; to win her love, Scott must defeat her seven evil ex's. He also has an evil ex of his own. Plus, there's the matter of breaking up with Knives, and the battle of the bands is coming up!

That's the setup, what follows is a hilarious romantic comedy punctuated by a series of completely over-the-top video game style fight scenes. Stylistically, I'd have to call them a cross between Sin City, Street Fighter and Viewtiful Joe. Each of the ex's has their own unique fighting style and their own super powers, such as vegan-powered telekinesis or summoning an army of stunt doubles. Often you hear martial arts movies criticized because the action is obviously computer aided. Here, that's the whole point.

The movie's humor comes not only from the sheer ridiculousness of the situations, but also from the characters' reactions to them. After one of the ex's has flown in through a brick wall and battled Scott in the middle of a concert, everyone is just kind of weirded out. They don't act like nothing has happened, which would make it hard for the audience to suspend their disbelief, nor do they run screaming for the police, which would only complicate matters.

Comedic effect is also generated through the use of deadpan dialog. For instance, when Knives confesses that she's never kissed a boy before, Scott replies, with a straight face "It's okay, neither have I." Or the band's self-introduction, "We're the Sex Bob-Ombs and we're here to make you all sad and depressed and stuff.

The movie also pokes gentle fun at hipster subculture with the way that Ramona has thirty plus flavors of tea, or how Scott's roommate is always texting. There are also quirky touches like one girl who can bleep herself out, much to Scott's amazement, and a scene when the intro from Seinfeld plays after the characters enter the apartment, and canned laughter follows every line.

The editing and structure are highly non-traditional, with heavy use of dreams, daydreams, montages, animated flashbacks and asides, and chapter titles introducing segments. The visuals are impressive and very imaginative, such as the way that flashes of color accompany the playing of any musical instrument, allowing you to see the sound. Speaking of which, the sound is another high point, not only the energetic, rock fueled sound track, but also the sound effects taken from classic games like Mario and Zelda.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World succeeds in telling an offbeat story, providing interesting characters, and in producing lots of laughs. Other than a couple of too-obvious puns, I honestly can't think of anything wrong with this movie. I would highly recommend it to anyone in their teens or twenties. Four stars.

Honestly, I didn't even know what the story was about when I started the movie. At first it felt kind of random, like everything was happening all over the place with no clear reason, but then it started to make me laugh and I got into it. My favorite scene was when Knives came looking for Scott and he jumped straight out the window to avoid her, that moment really cracked me up.

It's a movie that doesn't take itself seriously at all, and I liked that crazy energy and style. The characters were unique and the editing was fast and fun to watch. Overall, it was entertaining and funny, even if it felt weird sometimes.

Scott Pilgrim versus the World is a Canadian romantic comedy and musical based on the comic books by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Scott Pilgrim is a 22y.o teen-age-looking insecure guy and guitarist who plays in a rock band called Sex Bom-omb and is going out with a minor high-school Chinese girl, Knives. He seems content until he has a dream about a girl. She happens to appear in his real world in the form of Ramona, the ever-changing-hair-colour American recently moved to Toronto. Scott is over the moon, but he has to face his own personal demons, break up with sweet Knives and fight for Ramona's love against her seven exes.

Scott Pilgrim is one of the most refreshing teen-sophomore movies produced in the last years, and one the best movies of 2010. The movie is cute, funny, entertaining, has great characters, a terrific soundtrack and stunning visuals. The story is presented as in a video-game in which the main characters are the players, and their lives is the game. The issues regarding relationships are masqueraded by the video-game approach, but they have depth. Unlike many other movies focusing on the emotional challenges of very young people, sex is not the focus, although it does not avoid it either. The movie focus on how difficult is to make a relationship work when you fall in love whit people who already have an emotional baggage and you are insecure about yourself. Scott's fights against Ramona's exes are just a metaphoric way of putting it. Moreover, the emotions of the girl are not the focus here, but the emotions of a young man who is not obsessed with sex. How do you get a girl who has an emotional baggage when you are not an over-confident guy, your dream girl is uber-cool, and her exes were brilliant guys? The good thing is that any of this is boringly presented. On the contrary, the movie is lots of fun and does not take itself seriously.

All the actors are great in their roles: Michael Cera as Scott, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau; Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons and Alison Pill as the other band members Stephen, Young and Kim. Kieran Culkin is Scott's confident grounded gay Wallace Wells, Anna Kendrick as the know it all Scott's sister Stacey, and Jason Schwartzman as the revolting Gideon Graves. However, Cera really shines in this movie, in part because his physique really portraits the character from the start.

The visuals of the movie are stunning, the camera's movement, the video-game and comic use of the screen adding to the freshness and originality of the film. The fights wit the exes are extremely funny and witty. I specially liked the fight with the Vegan ex-boyfriend, which is hilarious. Also visually stunning is the musical competition between Scott's rock band and the techno Asian twins band.

The music is truly terrific. An extra bonus to a great script.

Scott Pilgrim vs the Wold movie is not only well done but done with passion, a project cherished by the whole team and by director Edgar Wright.

The movie has freshness, soul and a special something that stays with you longer after you've seen it! It is miles away from any other young people romantic comedy lately made.

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a twenty-something slacker living in Toronto, who basically leeches off his friends. Despite being in a "relationship" with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), he keeps dreaming about another girl. He quickly finds out this dream girl, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), is actually quite real, and decides to pursue her. But before they can truly become the couple Scott hopes for, he has to defeat her seven evil exes.

I did not think it was possible, but Edgar Wright has fairly successfully brought Bryan Lee O'Malley's epic graphic novel series to the big screen in the most uniquely entertaining way possible. It is his first adapted work, but it feels every bit as fresh (I use that word very loosely) as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz did upon their initial releases. It deviates from the books a bit (much like Matthew Vaughn's excellent adaptation of Kick-Ass earlier this year), but the majority of the film stays true to the series and gives the fans everything they might expect from a Scott Pilgrim film. Right after the film opening with an 8-bit Universal logo and score, you know you are in for a treat.

What propels Wright's epic and inspired vision is the editing style. All of the little idiosyncrasies, background/foreground items and ideas, everything that made O'Malley's books so revered in the graphic novel community are all in full force here. Some shots in the trailers suggest the comic book-style feel of the film, with the sounds of the actions appearing as words on-screen and the video game-related pop-ups appearing the same way they would in the game. But that is only the start. The entire film is filled with them, and with references to numerous pop culture entities (specifically video games), to the point that it looks and sounds like a ridiculously enhanced motion comic or game. Add to that the quick cuts and multiple panel style of the format, and you have the closest film representation of a comic since Robert Rodriguez attacked Frank Miller's Sin City.

Even with all the nods and references to the original work, Wright's film still feels very much his own work. He makes Scott Pilgrim's epic quest to defeat Ramona's exes into an understated work you will likely not see replicated too soon. After seeing Christopher Nolan's Inception just under a week ago, I did not think that mainstream Hollywood would release something so blazingly original and something so astonishly unique so close together. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is not nearly as strong a film as Nolan's masterpiece is, but Wright has clearly given it his all here. He has sidestepped away from following the lead of other comic book/graphic novel-style films, and has created something he can truly be proud of. The visuals on display are simply remarkable, and are worth the price of a ticket all on their own. The musical choices are even better. If you have seen the trailers, you are merely only getting a hint for what Wright has in store for you here.

If I do have an issue, it is that the film is a little too exposition-heavy in the first half, and way too jumpy in the second. It never loses its tone or its style, but it becomes all too blatantly obvious where the books stop and the deviation begins. The pacing here is also a touch off, and on further research, thoroughly suggests there is material missing or altered from the final cut of the film. I understand that Wright and his co-writer Michael Bacall wanted to set-up the story and where it plans on going for the few who venture into the film without having read a single issue, but there is too much detail given in those early scenes, and not enough to pivotal moments later in the film.

Another gripe, although it is one I hope will be less bothersome on repeat viewings, is that a good chunk of the characters feel incredibly underused. The books are stacked to the brim with an eclectic mix of supporting characters, who are present in the film, but they feel very stunted and get absolutely no development. Kim Pine (Alison Pill) is a very important character in the books, but she merely appears in the background here and delivers some of the best dialogue. Wallace Wells (the absolutely incredible scene-stealer Kieran Culkin) is the moral centre and source of an incredible amount of exposition, but he is barely in the film after the first half. Envy Adams (Brie Larson) almost feels like an extended cameo as opposed to an indispensible figure in Scott's character development. But then, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and especially Jason Schwartzman all deliver stunning performances as three of Ramona's exes, despite the lack of time on-screen.

Cera on the other hand, is perfect as Pilgrim. The character plays a little too close to his stereotypical neurotic and off-centre archetype, but it works out beautifully here. He makes the character real, and brings a depth to Scott Pilgrim that no other young actor could. He has the right look and the right sound down pat. It was a little weird to see him get so physical in some sequences, but this is a vintage fit for Cera. Although they are downplayed more than I liked, Winstead and Wong are great as Ramona and Knives. They both have a certain edge throughout the film, and even at its most ridiculous, deliver strong performances. It helps too that they have insanely good chemistry with Cera.

I jumped at the idea of an advanced screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and I do not regret seeing the film in the slightest. It is a bit of a niche movie, but it is one that is lovingly made through and through.

8/10.

(An extended review also appeared on http://www.geekspeakmagazine.com).

Teenager problems (find yourself, get real, etc.) might not give anything to people considering themselves mayor adults, but consider this is a movie built on arcade video gaming motifs, I don't think it concerns mayor adults at all in the first place. I for one did not necessarily long for dark moral drama in this particular movie at all, I think the story was just about right for this movie, but you decide, if this is childish watch Haneke.

Now for the rest: Surprisingly, Scott Pilgrim features the best martial arts scenes in years. Every fight is choreographed and executed in the most awesome ways and the fact that it's not Jet Lee pulling off these moves makes it even more fun to watch. And you get the fights absolutely frequently which is really, really satisfying. The editing is incredibly skillful as probably the most crucial element that makes this work. It gives the movie an incredible rhythm, reaching new levels of dynamism and the use of CGI and the visual design is plain fantastic. The amount of creativity put into this part is mind- blowing, resulting genuine and most original style. The cast is cool and I don't think anyone should look for academy material here. I liked these kids and they suit the movie.

So, all together I found Scott Pilgrim being one of the most original, exciting and fun productions I've seen in my life. As a huge fan of things like fighting games, comics, or martial arts anime I felt satisfied to a point of screaming 'awesome' out loud after 30 minutes into the movie. Though people who never played Street Fighter or kept crossing fingers for Goku and friends yelling 'kamehameha' as evil bosses get pulverized by energy beams might not really get what Scott Pilgrim is about, it's very hard to deny the originality featured and the creative and professional qualities of the way it's executed.

Fantastic! 8/10