AAACKKKK!!! Jealousy thy name is Harry Knowles because that is what I am. This just sounds like such a great experience. The other day I got to see HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON in 3D and that was pretty cool. To see a rough print of a film in 3D no less... well, it's pretty damn cool, but to see a balls out crazy awesome Edgar Wright comedy action adventure romance early... to see Edgar's use of a whole host of new trickery... what a great experience, because in August when they see it again, they'll appreciate fully how far the film has come and how much work was put in... but they'll have the appreciation of seeing the film work, without all the expensive magic in place. Based more solidly on performances before everything is polished just so. This is our second look at tonight's screening and again... it is Gold!
My wife and I were lucky enough to attend the Las Vegas screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World tonight. She got passes through her work, and we made time to get down there in the pouring rain (WTF VEGAS!) and get great seats. When we signed in, we were told it was a mix between Juno and Mortal Kombat. Yes...that's right. Confused, a few attendees in my section thought it was either Scott Pilgrim, or Kick-Ass. Both exciting prospects. Finally, 7pm rolled around and some lady with a microphone went to the front and announced that it was Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Exciting! She then proceeded to give us the usual 'test audience' disclaimers...early sound, FX work still not done, etc...but then we were sent away to the film. Right off the bat, I knew I was going to love it. The Universal Logo was rendered in 8 bit with the Universal theme a MIDI version. Awesome. I knew I was again going to love it when the familiar opening from The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past (triforce spinning) cued the opening shot, a tilt down to an exterior of a house. Awesome. From there, it was a mixture of Edgar Wright's usual frenetic camerawork with some unbelievably slick transitions, and while I knew nothing about the story behind the comics, I knew from the start it would be a fun ride. For those of you not in the know (like I was), I won't spill out each plot point in detail, but I will point out that Wright did some incredibly unique things to capture the spirit of a comic book. The film is a very well thought out mix of video game and comic books. Plot points about getting an 'extra life' and a 'Pee meter' as Michael Cera relieves himself add so much to the story. Now, usually we'd see Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the screen, but neither of those two made this film. Instead we get Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim) and his band and many girlfriends behind him. For starters, Cera is Michael Cera. He's always cute, charming, and you know exactly what you're going to get from him. That's not taking anything away from him, he's great in this...but still, he's Michael Cera. His gay room mate Kieran Culkin is hilarious in this, he steals virtually every scene he's in. Then we have his band, Kim (Alison Pill), Stills (Mark Webber) and Young Neil (Johnny Simmons), they are all a lot of fun to watch, if not a little under-utilized. I think the real show stoppers are the '7 exes', who Cera has to battle in order to win the heart of the always-coloring-her-hair-differently Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Cera always goes from girl to girl, but thinks Ms. Flowers is the girl of his dreams (technically, she is). She has a unique past with a series of ex boyfriends that are all, I guess, the jealous type. And while the film is usually based in reality (as much as most comic books are), when these 'exes' take the screen, everything changes. Starting with Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), we get to see just why Edgar Wright is, IMO, one of the most talented filmmakers out there. The fight scenes in this film are ludicrous. They are incredibly high energy, completely unique from one another, and a total riot. He has to fight through the aforementioned Patel, Lucas Lee (Played by Chris Evans who looks kind of like Wolverine, if Wolverine were hilarious), Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh, the metrosexual vegan), Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman, or as Arrested Development fans would know her as…"Her?"), twin asian keyboardists (sorry, can't remember their names) and finally Gideon (Jason Schwartzman). I know it doesn't come out until August 17th, but what they have right now (other than some rough audio patches and a lot of unfinished effects) is pretty damn remarkable. Edgar Wright has once again knocked it out of the park. I don't know how commercial this film can be, due to it's subject matter (it's basically for nerds only, my wife liked it, but not nearly as much as I did), but Goddamnit it's awesome. On a side note, the woman in front of me had her Blackberry out and was reading some e-mails about The Fast And The Furious 5's crew list, she had a link to the NEW ending of The Wolfman (which she responded, she would "watch it tomorrow", and a couple of other things that I can't remember). If you use this, call me ocelittle.
