Are you a twiggy, college grad guy who’s in a band? Are you by chance Scott Pilgrim? You’d certainly relate to him if not.
IIII got to see a free advanced screening of the movie adaptation of Scott Pilgrim today. Seeing the trailers for this for months, I was really on the fence. It looked like it could be interesting, however at the same time, the flashy style made me leery. How good could a movie with the word “kapow” coming out of someone’s face be? It seemed like it would either be fantastic or complete trash.
It was good. If you can tolerate semi-epileptic action and take the movie with a grain of salt. It’s all in good humor, really. If you’re unsure, go with an open mind. It will entertain and make you laugh if you let it! I mean, the basic story is of a guy named, you guessed it, Scott Pilgrim, who finds the girl of his dreams but much to his misfortune he has to literally defeat her seven evil exes before he can really be with her. It’s based on a graphic novel called simply Scott Pilgrim. Obviously this story is not based in our reality. It’s got the logic of a comic book and that’s something that one has to remember while watching.
But evil exes aside, the main focus of this movie was by far the music. As evidenced by the poster. Scott is in a band called Sex Bob-Omb who throughout the movie are competing in multiple rounds of a Battle of the Bands competition in Canada (where the movie is set, as I kept forgetting). They are trying to be heard by a Mr. G or whatever his name is, a guy who could get them the illusive record deal they seek. And boy howdy, their band, contrary to what many characters in the movie think, does not suck. In a rather long (and unnecessary) opening credit sequence, their main theme plays and it just sounds wild and fantastic and epic and I’m sorry the soundtrack isn’t out right now because I would be buying it on the spot if it was. That song made the minute of epileptic opening credits bearable and even had me tapping my toes to it.
Spoilers are going to happen after this line. Highlight the text to read.
I say music is the main focus and the exes are kind of an afterthought because the majority of the duels between Scott and the exes happen while he’s performing. And if not when he’s performing, then the foes have something to do with the music industry, whether it be as a competing band member or as a manager capable of giving them a record deal. Really, only 2 exes aren’t involved with the music scene (2 and 4). Also let it be noted the first scene includes Scott’s band playing and the (sub)plot that continues through the movie is their attempt to get a record deal to properly compete with rival band The Clash at Demonhead.
Since it seems the movie covered the entire Scott Pilgrim series, it covered a lot of ground in just two hours. Though the pacing was quick and kept us on our toes, the movie did seem quite long come the end. It was done well though, balancing epic fights with romantic drama, each of the exes becoming increasingly difficult to fight and defeat. It led to a great final battle that included not only Scott but also Ramona and Scott’s recent ex, Knives. But I’ve got to ask, did this movie really...end? Scott defeated all of the exes but he most definitely did not defeat himself. Nega-Scott (which I was definitely not expecting, I was expecting some moral dilemma for Scott instead) appears in the wake of the last ex’s vanquishing, gray skinned and red-eyed. The movie ends with Scott saying he talked it out with his double and that they were even “going to have brunch next week.” I know the movie is supposed to be humorous but its blatantly breaking the rules of needing to defeat the villains here. And it doesn’t seem like it was aiming to make a sequel; the end of the credits only offered a pixilated Scott Pilgrim punching the words “the end.” All in all, the movie came to a nice close, throwing back to the 1-up scene in an imperative moment and using Scott’s skills from the ninja video game to defeat the final villain. I appreciated that these things initially taken as pure humor actually had a purpose in the end.
I had no qualms with the talent. I like Michael Cera though I’ve not really seen any of his movies and he seemed to be an excellent Scott Pilgrim. The characters were great, mysterious, odd, over-excited and everything in between and they each stood apart from each other in memorable ways. The same could not be said for the exes, who for the most part just seemed to be over dramatic idiots. But then again Chris Evans was a surprise (he’s a good one in my book) but I admit I was a bit disappointed in his rather brainless performance. Then again, all of the exes behaved in such a similar manner, all angry and willing to kick Scott’s ass…I suppose the whole point of the story was that if each of them couldn’t have Ramona then no one could.
/Spoiler end.
As for the visual style, this movie was certainly taking a leap with its comic book effects on top of live-action shots. Very postmodern, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World looked like a hybrid video game/comic book presented in the form of a movie. I thought it was a novel idea, actually having the sound effects come out of various objects (phone, doorbell, a fist punching someone) but then again rather unnecessary given we can actually hear things in a movie. I’m now starting to wonder how this movie would go over if it were muted… Many other sounds included were borrowed from video games, most obviously Mario and Zelda. Then there were the info boxes for the main cast and some of the secondary characters, stating the name and age and whatever title Scott deemed for them. Titles were added between scenes to note the progression of the story (and I see now that some are borrowed from the titles of the graphic novels). The graphics were really only there to add laughs, but they completely nailed it every time. The theater was often roaring with laughter; I personally could not stop laughing over the pee bar.
I loved the bright colors and the high paced action, and really I wish all action sequences would look like this, minus the flashy-ness. If sword fights looked this epic and this fluid in every other movie, I would just be tickled to death. (Though not all of them need swords on fire or imitation lightsabers, mind you.)
But. THE PIXILATED UNIVERSAL LOGO AND 8-BIT MUSIC WAS BY FAR MY MOST FAVORITE THING.
I liked the movie. 3 outta 4 stars in my book. And its not to be taken so seriously. Seriously, people. It was something different, which is something to always remember! Being different is to be memorable, and taking risks like this is important when being creative.
Also, let it be known that we got one preview for a movie called Devil that seemed interesting, but when the words “from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan” appeared, the entire theater gave a collective “ohhh.” I’d read about this happening on Inception and couldn’t believe it.
P.S. I need to stop doing such giant posts and actually write for my own projects. I just have lots to say on lots of subjects.
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