Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Scott Pilgrim is a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed, award-winning series of graphic novels of the same name by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley. Scott Pilgrim is a 23 year old Canadian slacker and wannabe rockstar who falls in love with an American delivery girl, Ramona V. Flowers, and must defeat her seven "evil exes" to be able to date her.
It's really sad when good quality movies like this are bombs, and shitty movies like "Grown Ups" end up number one. It's a shame.
I loved this movie completely, it was full of lovable characters that made me just want to see again and again. The beginning was slightly confusing, and the fact that the theme of the movie was a video game was hard to catch onto until the first fight scene. However, once I understood what was going on then it made me really enjoy the movie and laugh out loud at the absurdity of it. I highly recommend it.
It has been along time since I enjoyed a movie from start to finish. This was that movie. This film was jam packed with action, laughs and just lovable characters you want to see more and more of. Michael Cera was a pretty good choice for Scott. I mean usually Cera only has one type of way to act and somehow it really did fit for Pilgrim. It will take me forever to explain how much I liked the cast, so I will only pick a choice few. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was great as Ramona. She had the look you could picture from the comic itself. Then you have Ellen Wong as Knives. The way Ellen acted in this film really brought out have Knives really was in the comic. Out of the evil Ex's, I really enjoyed Jason Schwartzman. He just had an overall cool yet kept feeling and at a point you really wanted him to fight more against Pilgrim. The other Ex would have to be Brandon Routh. I really cannot stand him as Superman, but this role he got to act more like his personality. I mean every actor has a dream to act as a crazy character, because then they can be more comfortable. I think Brandon was very comfortable in the role. The movie had a beautiful look to it with great nerdy CG throughout. The movie did have two problems though. The fight scenes were not long enough. This is because the movie was almost two hours and it is hard to fit seven fight scenes in to seven Ex's. But even though they were short, the look, feel and graphics to them still really made them exciting. The other problem is that I know this film will never has a perfect rating overall because it really only fits to a certain type of people. Luckily there is a lot of people who will love this movie like I did, but in the world today, this film will probably not win an academy award; and that is sad.
We caught a midnight show of this, and it was the most original and enjoyable movie I've seen in a very long time. For those not familiar with the general plot: Scott falls for a cute girl named Ramona, and later learns that he can only date her if he defeats her "seven evil exes" in battle.
The movie effortlessly and playfully moves between reality, video-game surrealism, dream surrealism, and media-based effects (e.g., mimicking a sitcom or a "Pop-Up Video" effect). One moment the characters are walking, the next they're passing through a metaphorical door into their conversation, and as they return there's a clearly-labeled video-game leveled challenge. This is ballsy -- if done poorly, it would've come across as gimmicky and stupid, but Wright pulls it off brilliantly, transitioning seamlessly between styles as if he were merely recording alternating lines of dialogue.
The movie is absolutely hilarious, with plenty of internal self-reference, tons of classic tropes and cliches (with "lampshades hung" on them to make it clear that the homage is out of love), and some of the best deadpan deliveries I've seen (though, oddly enough, not from Cera). Wright's expert sense of comic timing shines through here -- I never thought I'd hear an entire audience laughing so hard at a guy pausing to tie his shoe.
The comedy only pauses for the fights, which are SO insanely over-the-top that you can't even attempt to take them seriously. Seriously, even for a video game, these are pretty crazy! Just sit back and accept that keyboard riffs can become dragons, that veganism gives you super powers, and that you can hit a guy hard enough to turn him into shiny coins. (Ooh, neat! Power-up!)
This movie definitely isn't for everyone, but if the above sounds like a good time to you, you will LOVE it. I already want to see it about a half-dozen more times.
