Saturday, August 14, 2010

Scott Pilgrim vs The World [2010]
Starring: Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick
Directed by: Edgar Wright
4/5

Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriends 7 evil exes in order to win her heart.

I haven't read the comics this film is based on, so i won't be doing any comparisons to it in my review. I am familiar with the artwork and general vibe of the comics though, so i can see how it does look like a loyal adaptation based on what little i know. From what fans have said, its a good translation from book to screen, so if you're worried about that, don't be.

As a stand alone movie, Scott Pilgrim is REALLY entertaining, in fact, it turned out a lot better than i expected. I thought i'd go in experiencing cool action and quirky scenery with not much else, but i was wrong. The characters themselves were really great, and the dialogue is odd, but funny. The movie is borderline pretentious with it's quirk factor, but not in an "i'm an asshole, punch me" way. It's nothing like 500 Days of Summer, which was so tedious to sit through with it's moronic characters and fuckified take on love. Scott is much more light hearted, and really doesn't take itself all that seriously. It does however take it's pop culture references and video game throwback visuals seriously, so that may rub some people up the wrong way, i didn't mind though, i liked how it was all put together.

Michael Cera who plays 'Scott' is an actor i'm starting to get a bit bored with, but in this, i thought he did an AMAZING job. I'm sure it's due more to the writing of the character, but still, he was matched perfectly with Scott and he was adorable and funny in the role. Everyone else was good too, with other standouts being Keiren Culkin as Scott's gay room-mate, and the female drummer from Scott's band, Sex Bom Omb [forgot her name].

Visually the movie is incredible, and when the action starts you won't ever get bored. The fight scenes are all creatively put together and each one is very different to the last. You may feel like you're on a sugar high watching the film, because it runs on A.D.D. from the very first scene,but that just adds to the fun of it all. The 8-bit soundtrack and other songs featured in the movie were great too.

The only couple of faults i can give the film are, the running time, which i felt was a tiny bit over long [thankfully the fantastic finale made up for any lagging], and one scene involving the theme music from Seinfeld with a laughing track thrown in, it just didn't make any sense and i wasn't getting the joke. Maybe there was nothing TO get, i'm not sure, but it felt so out of place.
There have also been a few comparisons between Kick Ass and Scott Pilgrim. As much as i liked Scott, i think it's Kick Ass that will hold up longer down the line. What Scott lacked that Kick Ass had was an emotional impact, Scott also didn't have 'Hit Girl'. Kick Ass also offered more with it's story, whereas Scott was entertaining, but lacked any sort of real point at the end of the day.

If you like video games and comics, you'll most likely love this. I thought it was one of the coolest things i've seen all year, and i can't wait to check out the 'making of' for the film once it hits blu-ray, i may even check out the comic at some point.

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