Review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) by Ryangee — 27 Sep 2010

Whenever Michael Cera is in a movie, there is always a connection between the Independent world and mainstream media. In other words, Cera usually stars in movies with an "Indie" theme but is geared towards the general audience (i.e Nick And Norah, Juno). In this case, Edgard Wright's (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World explores the world of pop culture using a combination of video games and indie rock.

Scott Pilgrim is an adaptation of the obscurely-known comic book series of the same name. Pilgrim, the bassist of the fictitious band Sex Bomb-omb, is a somewhat socially awkward Canadian that always finds himself in a bad relationship. He later meets a dead-pan hipster named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and soon dates her. But before Pilgrim can continue to date the mysterious girl, he must defeat her seven-evil exes in glamorous video game-like sequences.

The aspect that makes this movie stand out is its beautiful and clever art direction. Edgar Wright, who is famous for multiple cult hits, directs a film that thoroughly emulates the feel of a comic book/video game. From the apparent onomatopoeias to the video game life bars, the audience gets the feeling that they are watching something truly unique.

The other main characteristic that makes this film work is, as stated earlier, its countless references to pop culture and the Independent-music genre. With music composed by alt-rocker Beck, Canadian band Broken Social Scene, and Metric, this music is stuffed with Indie goodness that will make a hipster smile in their plaid cardigan and wayfarers (Small easter egg: Pilgrim's roommate was reading a fake newspaper with a Neko Case advertisement in it. This is totally irrelevant but it made me smile). It also occasionally ridicules the subculture in a friendly joking manner poking fun at veganism, "mainstream" labels, and common memes ("The first album was so much better than the first first album"). It also obviously succeeds in channeling the video game world with its boss battles and the occasional Zelda reference.

While all this said, the film is far from perfect. The concept of the boss battle gets stale quick; What is amusing at first becomes repetitive and dull. The number of exes, although accurate to the comic book series, is just too much to handle in two hours that it made me wish the final battle would happen twenty minutes earlier. Additionally, the battles are equally immense so its hard to discern that Cera's character is conquering anything significant. The film has a run-time of 112 minutes, and it lost its steam at the three quarter mark. What also is flawed is that the movie is simply brainless and does not have much substance. While I do not expect a movie called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World to be much of a thought provoker, I just thought that it was too silly for its own good. With an outlandish amount of slapstick humor, it was really hard to see this movie as more than a summer movie.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a blast. It is filled with so much action and humor that it is definitely worth the price of admission for music and video game lovers alike. There is no doubt that it will become a cult hit just as Edgard Wright's other movies have. But with its lack of substance and excessive silliness, it is disappointing that the movie could have been so much more than a fun two hours to spend.