SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD... 'Nuff Said, Says The Enemy!!!

Hey there people, Last week I had the opportunity to take in an early screening of this film. Instead of calling myself "press" and showing up about an hour and a half early, bypassing the folks who've been waiting all day, I switched things up. I joined a friend who'd invited me to wait nearly eleven hours for a free showing of the movie. The last movie for which I did such a thing? Spending the night waiting for THE PHANTOM MENACE when I was 5 years old. I despised that movie and asked my dad to take me home during the first Jedi Council sequence (he didn't). Though I didn't spend the night outside of the legendary Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar (in Austin), an 8:30 AM arrival for a 7:30 PM screening of a movie I knew little about (not having read the comics) was still a daunting a notion . Here I'll cut to the chase and say that every second of SCOTT PILGRIM was worth the eleven hour wait. It was one of the most unexpected and completely satisfactory films I've seen in a while. Even at its worst, PILGRIM is filled with cinematic artistry and is brilliantly executed. Its smooth combination of romantic comedy, action/adventure, American/Japanese comic style, and its themes and story telling make for one hellava experience. The closet comparison would be KICK-ASS, if it were Asian made. Disappointingly enough, like KICK-ASS, this is a hard idea to sell to an audience. Both films are fantastic, but the trailers just don't do the deed; thus making it hard for either to succeed at the box office. That is why I fully encourage everyone who is going to see this movie to tell your friends, family, colleagues even your neighbor's dog. At its heart, SCOTT PILGRIM is a romantic comedy - there's no denying it. Boy (Michael Cera) meets girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and, as in many movies, boy attempts to get the girl. As shown in the commercials, she has "seven evil exes" who challenge the guy from Superbad to fights - action and adventure come into play during their frequent battles. These scenes vary from Street Fighter like combat to Scott Pilgrim's band fighting a two man DJ group (the soundwaves from their music makes animals that brawl with one another). All of these fights are unique in their own way, there's little repetition and a constant sense of organic-ness and freshness. Much of the movie is heavily influenced by the style we'd see in video games, comics and television from both North American and Asia. Characters are introduced with different graphical pieces of information - i.e. social statistics, personal rating, and skill level. Depending on the scene, even small things like knocking on a door will show up on-screen in word form. During intense battles, characters run towards each other amidst huge, flash like graphics. Other times you'll see 'life meters' and 'side scrolling' shots with the words "KO", "FIGHT", or "SUDDEN DEATH". If you're epileptic, I would avoid watching this - there are many bright colors and a lot of fast flashing throughout the film. But it's little details like this that allow director Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ) to really immerse you in his style and vision - you feel you're in a video game or comic book for the duration of the movie. I counted a little less than two dozen characters in SCOTT PILGRIM, all of whom have some amount of dialogue. Obviously, some of them speak more than others, but all of the cast is at the top of its game - they feel as believable as they can considering the craziness surrounding them. Even Michael Cera, who doesn't stray too far from the 'nerdy kid trying to get a chick' gag, is still enjoyable to watch. What he does with his Scott Pilgrim character helps him to stand out more here than in his previous films. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is exceptional as Ramona Flowers - she's a very intimate, mysterious, yet comedic person with connections to many of the other characters. The score is one of coolest in recent memory, and is as badass the movie itself (the Universal Studios logo has an 8-bit introduction for example). Small things like the baseline from SEINFELD make a musical cameo, and Scott Pilgrim's band "Sex Bob-Omb" plays a vital and entertaining roll in the movie - you'll hear their original work, and (as mentioned above) the group is critical in Scott's smackdown against Evil Exes. The skillful use of (and understanding of) music in this film is as important as the movie's propulsive visual style. Creatively, this movie worships many, many of the things that are cool about being young, or being tuned in to pop culture in general. It does this well, and makes Geekiness not only something to be proud of…it makes it seem exciting. So there you have it. An eleven hour wait in the Texas Summer heat, through about five or six rain showers and a disastrous donut run. Absolutely worth it. This is definitely worth seeing several times over. With THE EXPENDABLES releasing on the same day, it'll be a decidedly rare and awesome weekend at the movies. In a cinematic abyss of cookie cutter unoriginality, SCOTT PILGRIM truly does stand out from the crowd, amidst only a small handful of other noteworthy titles this year (TOY STORY, KICK-ASS, INCEPTION, and hopeful TRON LEGACY and EXPENDABLES). I've said this several times before in this review and I'll end by saying it again: go see this film.
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