"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" Review

The more I think about it, the more I’m beginning to understand just how much I love the work of Edgar Wright. Honestly, I’m about one good movie away from building a shrine in his honor and sacrificing virgins on a bi-weekly basis right after my World of Warcraft Raids. Edgar Wright is after all a director who speaks unswervingly to an audience like me, and he has a fantastic and detailed comprehension on film making that few directors can surpass.

Like most of you, I first became aware of Edgar Wright about half a decade ago when he released the astonishing “Shaun of the Dead”, and for what it’s worth “Shaun of the Dead” is and probably will remain the most impressive zombie movie of the current era of cinema. What made the movie so spectacular was its context. Here was a, movie that is ostensibly a romantic comedy wedged into a zombie apocalypse title. Throw in the ever funny stylings of British comedy, and you have pure cinematic gold.

Wright followed up “Shaun of the Dead” with the highly anticipated “Hot Fuzz”, a bizarre tribute film to all the buddy action flicks of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s that inspired the now unbearable works of Michael Bay and Doug Liman. Similar to “Shaun of the Dead” the strength of “Hot Fuzz” came from the composition; this was an erudite study of the action comedy crammed within the banal setting of a suburban back waters British community with a healthy dash of conspiracy/cultist mystery. For what it’s worth, I will always point to this film as being the most impressive comedy of the past decade. As a matter of fact, I would even go as far as to say this ranks pretty high on the laugh-o-meter when I look at the entire canon of motion picture history.

The reason “Hot Fuzz” and to a lesser (but in no ways insulting) extent “Shaun of the Dead” are some of the best comedies to be released in recent memory is because Edgar Wright is first and foremost of student of film. He gets it. This is a man who will take the time to study a particular genre of film/pop culture and find the most precise and poignant way to both satirize and embrace his subject matter. “Shaun of the Dead” at its heart is a zombie movie, and a good one I might add, that plays the laughs well because it understands what it is that keeps people coming back to zombie films in the first place. “Hot Fuzz” completely lampoons buddy action flicks but also has the time to compile some of the most over the top sequences that other directors can only dream of. Truly, Edgar Wright is a man after my own heart, and when I heard that he would be adapting a comic book based on geek pop culture all I could say was that I was sold.

Based on the increasingly popular comic book of the same name, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is a off-set scanner darkly view into the world of nerds and hipsters as only Edgar Wright can tell us. Following the adventure of the titular character the story in a nut shell is about a directionless douche bag that’s too afraid to latch onto reality and would rather spend his time master the battle theme to Final fantasy II on his bass guitar. Stuck with a group of high school friends in a dead end band, dating an underage Asian school girl, and being so broke that he has to sleep in the same bed as his homo sexual roommate, Scott is not exactly the image of the Renaissance man. Life or rather fate decides to throw him a bone when he encounters the ever mysterious Ramona Flowers, an enigmatic girl with a bit of a cold shoulder. Once the chemistry between the two begins to flow, Scott quickly discovers that in order to make this relationship work he’s going to have to battle Ramona’s 7 evil Exes.

Now if you were following me up until that last sentence then congratulations, you are about as confused as the vast majority of the people who attended the same screening as I did. It’s also at this time you have to ask yourself a quick question. How much do you know about modern geek culture? Do you know what The Legend of Zelda is? Nah, that’s too easy. Do you know what The Warriors is? How about a bob-omb? Ever heard of balloon text or onomatopoeia? How about hammer space? Do you know anything about Flash Gordon? Confused yet, well this movie may not be your cup of tea but I would still encourage you to see it anyway. Why? Because it’s that good.

Edgar Wright is in full form with this movie as he snatches up every bit of nerd pop culture from video games, indie music, and anime and throws them together in a large crock pot and let’s them stew together until you get one of the tastiest eye pleasing experiences you’re bound to see for years. Again, what works here is the complete inundation of knowledge Wright has for the subject matter. Rather than take the easy way out and simply reference something that is popular in the manner that the incredibly untalented and unfunny Friedberg and Seltzer, Wright takes that reference and does something clever and fresh. You are bound to be barraged with so many references, some extremely subtle that you may miss a few, that I would argue it’s impossible to catch all of them even after multiple viewings as you’d have to be some sort of historian on the past 30 years of pop culture to make all the connections. This isn’t a bad thing though, in fact it’s one of the things I really like about Wright’s style of direction. The subtly. He never feels the need to throw a joke in your face and is actually quite comfortable with letting jokes fall in the background for people to scavenge for later. To me this demonstrates a great level of control in regards to the film making process and results in a much more enjoyable comedy.

“Scott Pilgrim” also has the unfortunate task of cramming several years’ worth of comic material into the length of a 2 hour movie and as we’ve seen in the past, this can cause lots of complications. Unlike the aborted messes that were “The Last Airbender” and “Watchmen”, “Scott Pilgrim” instead of mashing every conceivable plot thread into the narrative no matter how uncomfortably it sits, instead does some major surgery on the source material by removing all the parts that are unnecessary in a film translation and keeps the bare essentials. At first glance this may sound dangerous, but the leftovers are then reconstituted into a shape that works well within the movie and simultaneously manages to be radically different and yet completely faithful to the comic. Purists may poo poo this notion, but I can assure you that it has to be done.

Motion pictures and comic books are completely separate mediums; and while we’re at it, so are novels. For all the purists out there, no, it’s not possible to do a directly translation in MOST cases, and you’d have to be out of your mind to think otherwise. Novels are written as novels for a reason, same thing with comic book and movies. If you are going to do a port you need to make revisions to prevent it from being a complete garbled mess. Again, take a look at “The Last Airbender” if you doubt me.

Sadly, there’s also a rather large fringe group of nay sayers and nose turners who are going to dismiss this movie as being nothing more than a hipster flick featuring Michael Cera. Look, I’m not the biggest fan of hipster films either or Michael Cera for that matter, but you can’t let any sort of pre existing biases distort your opinions on a film you haven’t even seen yet. I find it strange that the same people who object to this sort of thing are the same group who three years ago came out of theaters rolling with laughter at “Superbad” and thought “Juno” was really deep. This isn’t anything new, but I’ve always thought it funny how you have the group of non conformists who unite against the popular opinions of the rest of society just so they can be different all while being the same.

Besides, similar to Wright’s previous outings this movie is in love with hipster culture just as much as it is poking fun at it. Regardless of whether or not you love or hate these people and this lifestyle, you’re bound to find something here that you’ll like.

Going back to Michael Cera’s performance I must admit I was surprised. Yes, on the surface he is playing an archetype that he has regurgitated over and over again, but there’s a surprising amount of emotion and depth that we haven’t seen from him in a long time. What makes the character of Scott Pilgrim work is that unlike the traditional nerd romantic comedy where the socially weird and shy guy convinces the attractive female lead to stop dating jerks and awakens her to the nice guy stereotype, we instead are treated to the shy, socially awkward, ass hole. On the surface Scott Pilgrim seems like a nice innocent guy, and deep in his heart he is trying to be that person, but in reality he is a self-centered, delusional kid who cheats on women and complains about everything. Still there is an honest effort at play here and the audience relates to Scott because we all went through that unusual period of our lives when we rejected the world.

In fact, that’s what the movie is really about. Forget the awesome action sequences and comedic timing for one moment and let’s focus on the two leads. This is a movie about emotional discovery; about kids who are becoming adults and essentially being faced with the challenges of “The World”. Scott’s adventure is one where he learns who he really is and what it is that he wants from life. Ramona is a woman who comes across as an ice queen while at the same time is emotionally torn with herself because she realizes that all of her evil Exes are justified in their revenge because she wronged them. This is something that may go over a handful of people’s heads’, but when you have kick ass comedy and visuals, who cares anyways?

The supporting cast needs some credit as well. All of the Evil Exes are spot on and are a lot of fun. When you have both Superman and Captain America playing a pretty boy who gets his powers from being a vegan and a completely self absorbed movie star respectively, you know you’re in for some great times. Scott’s high school friends and band mates are also quite funny, although their roles are extremely reserved and may not pop out at the audience as they are supposed to be a parody of the 20-something kids with an unhealthy malaise. Jason Swartzman, who gets a criminally short amount of time in this film, is phenomenal as the villain and having him be the king baddy of the ultimate hipster movie is perhaps one of the most poetic and sound decision any casting director has made in years.

The show stealer of the second tier actors has to be the girl playing Knives Chao. Her performance is so convincing that she eerily mirrors that real life fangirl that we all know and love/hate. What’s shocking about her character is that this sort of blind devotion and adolescent stupidity could really come across as annoying, but instead she becomes really endearing to the point that you actually hope she gets exactly what she wants out of life or at least goes through some sort of self reflection or metamorphosis along with Scott and Ramona.

Actors aside, the real treat here as I’ve been saying all along is Edgar Wright. His visual flare and complete command over every single frame of this film speaks miles for his skill as a director. In some strange alternate reality sort of way, this is the best video game, comic book, AND anime movie rolled into one. When you watch the fight scenes its astonishing how well they are framed and choreographed. There aren’t any kinds of frenetic edits that call into question how the shot was compiled; instead we are given glorious full framed battles that do a great job of hiding the fact that we are not actually watching Michael Cera engage in combat. The addition of all the video game and anime visuals woven directly into the film’s visual style help compliment the zaniness and cooky feel of the story we are being served.

I know it’s still a little early but I’ll go ahead and make the argument that this will probably be my favorite movie of the year. Not only is this yet another Edgar Wright movie made with the highest level of care, but it also happens to be focusing on several subjects that I hold dear to my heart. Never would I have imagined seeing such a perfect interpretation of a comic book that pays homage to the video games and anime that I grew up on. If you have a healthy love of music, games, and all things geek go see this movie now, you won’t have much time left as this movie was a commercial bomb opening at 5th place on its debut weekend. Sad times when a movie of this caliber is spurned, but you can make a difference; help support geeks and their ever rising global empire! Watch “Scott pilgrim vs. The World” now (and buy me a ticket too because I really want to see it again)!