Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. It’s past one in the morning as I start his review and I got to sleep right now I could have 7 hours of sleep… but after having been privileged enough to be in attendance at the big sneak peak Comic-Con screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World I had to get some words down on the flick. I love Comic-Con because I can explain away a shoddy review to exhaustion and time crunches! Oh, and I also love it because I can have a day like today… where I saw 8 minutes from Tron, randomly bump in to Robert Kirkman while on my way to a sit down interview with Bruce Willis (WalterB himself!) before going to the first ever public screening of the finished Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. For all the hassle and hustle and ass-pains of the Con (and there are a ton… they sell about 25,000 more tickets than they have room for, as an example) it’s still an experience like no other. So, that was my day leading up to the screening. After I found my seat at the Balboa theater, I noticed Peter Serafinowicz two rows in front of me. I didn’t intend to bug the poor the dude, but the route to get refreshments was literally through his row and I stumbled across him talking to Beaks. Turns out he’s an AICN fan… the feeling was mutual. On my way out to grab something to drink I brushed past Superman (since it’s Comic-Con, I have to clarify that to mean Brandon Routh because it could have just as easily been a dude in a Superman costume) and on my way back in I was nestled amongst the core of the Scott Pilgrim cast. From the moment the 8-bit Universal logo popped up along with a midi version of the Universal opening music to the cartoon THE END letters breaking of in chunks as a video game Scott Pilgrim (in full Bryan Lee O’Malley design) jumped up and hit it all Mario style the movie had me. The easiest thing to say about the movie is that it’s a quick watch. It flows, it has a lot of laughs that I have a feeling are going to live past the first viewing. And it’s just flat out fun. Not silly fun, although it does get pretty silly, but real deal imaginative filmmaking driving pure entertainment. That’s a whole lot of hyperbole and I acknowledge that. No denying I was caught up in the moment, in a perfect geek crowd that cheered for every video game reference, no matter how subtle, but I’d hope after nearly 15 years of doing this I could spot a stinker hiding under a super warm reception. There’s too much at work here for it just be a few geek jokes that work on the audience. Wright’s assured and kinetic filmmaking is first and foremost to be admired, but so is the cast he gathered, particularly his spot-on perfect casting of Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, the love interest. He had leverage with every other character, but if you don’t want to see Scott get this girl, if for one moment you feel like she’s not worth the baggage thent he whole thing falls apart. Not only is Winstead gorgeous and perfectly pixie purty, but she does a ton of subtle work with her eyes in this movie, revealing a much deeper character than I expected. Because when you get down to it, Scott and Ramona are pretty fatally flawed people. Scott is kind of a prick to those that love him and Ramona has so many commitment issues that she’s almost like going out with a loaded gun. They’re both fun to behold, but that added layer of depth, originating from O’Malley and translated by Wright, his co-screenwriter Michael Bacall and, finally, Michael Cera and Winstead, is what gives the movie just enough genuine heart that the experience doesn’t feel hollow. Cera plays a convincing Scott and I think he's as sharp as he's ever been with his comic timing and the likability he oozes. Again, Scott's actions are pretty screwed in this story. He treats some really sweet people like a complete bastard and doesn't feel badly about it, but it's not out of some menace or villainy... Pilgrim has the innocence of a child, wide-eyed at the world and constantly falling in and out of love. I'm going to bet that Cera doesn't get much credit on this first pass by viewers, who will think he's putting too much of himself in every role (So did Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Marilyn Monroe, but people don't seem to mind it with them), but he does some really great work here. Lots of credit is due for the great supporting cast, especially Kieran Culkin as Scott’s gay roommate Wallace (he’s very close to being my favorite character in the movie with his dry timing). Alison Pill, Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons and Ellen Wong round out Scott’s group and each work great in the group. The evil exes are also a blast of fun, as each bring their own unique dynamic. Again, a lot of credit goes to O’Malley for the core of those characters, but when you see super-powered Vegan Brandon Routh levitating and beating the shit out of Michael Cera while fumbling poorly thought-out witticisms you see how one tip in the wrong direction could have made it just plain stupid. That’s probably the real success of this movie. It’s constantly riding that fine line between ground-breaking and fucking stupid and it does it with such an effortless flair that it made me a big fan. I’m really curious to see Ebert’s take on this, especially knowing his stance on videogames. The whole flick is a love-letter to gaming, but since I could tell you what 1-up means and the reason why people turn into coins when they’re killed I can’t really tell if it’s too much inside baseball or not. I’d suspect the love story and sheer, unadulterated fun of the movie will prove to win over non-gamers and non-ubernerds, but you never can tell. Alright, that’s enough from this tired nerd. More geek shit tomorrow. Stay tuned! -Quint quint@aintitcool.com Follow Me On Twitter
