Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Scott Pilgrim Wins. Flawless Victory.
****
The movie opens with an 8-bit recreation of the Universal Pictures company logo, complete with a new rendition of the studio’s fanfare done in nostalgic MIDI format. Ah the good old days of fat video game cartridges that never work until you blow into the microchip slot. For me, this was love at first sight as Edgar Wright (Director, Shaun of the Dead) prepares you for a crazy ride through the trying times of Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), a young romantic determined to literally fight his way into the heart of his one true love, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). You will find yourself entranced by the dazzling visuals backed by a score made up of head-thumping punk rock and classic video game themes. This truly is an epic of epic epicness.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is adapted from a popular series of graphic novels written by Bryan Lee O’Malley. Inspired by punk rock, Manga comics, video games, and Kung Fu classics, this movie is a modern telling of a classic love story, catered to the MTV Generation. That’s not to say anyone born outside of this generation won’t enjoy the ride. No joke falls flat. Instead they fly at you in vivid color. The movie reads like a comic book and plays like a video game. Like a comic book, the text is an integral part of the storytelling. A series of D’s flies out of Scott Pilgrim’s bass guitar in rhythmic fashion as he prepares for a killer solo. An occasional onomatopoeia flashes across the screen with a THWOMP or THUNK of someone’s head, reminiscent of the Adam West Batman. Like a video game, every bad guy Pilgrim kills spontaneously bursts into coins, accumulating a score that serves no purpose. It’s a wacky game of Whose Line is it Anyway where the points don’t matter but you find yourself rooting for a winner.
I was reminded of Tarantino’s Kill Bill. The hero has a list of people to kill, but unlike the Bride, Pilgrim isn’t out looking for trouble. The trouble finds him in the form of The League of the Seven Exes, a dark alliance formed by Ramona’s latest ex, Gideon Gordon Graves (Jason Schwartzman), whose sole purpose is to challenge any romantic soul brave enough to seek the heart of the impulsive, attractive, and elusive Ramona Flowers. Every ex that Pilgrim encounters offers a different kind of fight, a new challenging way for Scott to win, and another chance for Wright to bring you an entertaining display of light and sound.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World introduces you to a wild ensemble of characters. Scott Pilgrim himself is a scrawny, unassuming young man who seems harmless at first until you discover the impressive track record of broken hearts he’s left along the way. One of those broken hearts belongs to the girl drummer in his indy punk rock band, the Sex Bob-Ombs, another endearing Nintendo reference. Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) is his Chinese high school girlfriend, head-over-heels in love with her boyfriend and completely obsessed with his band. Pilgrim’s anal sister (Anna Kendrick) and his gay roommate (Kieran Culkin) also offer big laughs.
Like Tarantino in Kill Bill, Wright is given a playground with no rules. The fourth wall is almost nonexistent and nobody ever asks why, not the people watching the movie nor the people in the movie. You sit back, suspend all belief, and hope that Scott Pilgrim beats the game. Like Miyamoto’s Super Mario Brothers, Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a game you will want to play again and again and again.
