Movie Review - 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World'

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Kieran Culkin Directed by Edgar Wright Rated PG-13

Scott Pilgrim is a comic book series of which the appropriated film title Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is but one installment. The movie version of the story, by Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright, is a combination of those two elements, video games, angst, and Mountain Dew. To accurately portray Pilgrim's little universe, Wright has to make this a truly ADHD experience, with scenes literally interrupting other scenes, none of them seemingly longer than a few accelerated heartbeats. As an exercise, Scott Pilgrim is a breathless showcase for its filmmaker; if Wright took it easy for any extended period of time, it would be very hard to buy the rest of it. As it is, the movie's pacing is young, energetic, and all over the place. For Gran Torino, that would be completely inappropriate, but knowing the characters and the audience equally well, Wright doesn't waste a lot of time on development of secondary characters, only goes for jokes that work, and may have invented some kind of hybrid subgenre in the process. Pilgrim (Michael Cera) describes himself as between jobs. He plays bass in Toronto's own Sex Bob-omb, a band he describes to one Ramona Flowers as "terrible." It's a strange adjective to use given how much he'd like to impress Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). She gives off a vibe that defiantly exclaims "I'm not from around here," and she's not. She's a New York transplant, running from something. But the moment Scott sees her - in a dream - it's all he can do to stop thinking about her. Until he learns she's real, and then all hope is lost. There is a complication with Ramona Flowers, however. She has seven evil exes. From our own perspective, don't we all? Perhaps, but not like this. Ramona's exes all come after poor Scott and if he wants to date this pink-haired New Yorker, he's going to have to "defeat" each of the exes. "Defeat" has different meanings, and part of the fun of this film is seeing them all unfold in such familiar ways, but unique to each other here in the film. Without spoiling too much, it must be said that the homages to video game battles are obvious as are other geek-driven duels that aren't typically part of traditional courtships. She must be special, this Ramona Flowers. Michael Cera has become, admittedly, an acquired taste for some. But he's less like the Cera that emerged in the films following Superbad and is, more than usual, in the act of creating a character here. Obviously, there is still a genetic bond between Pilgrim and Cera, and that's why Wright used him in the first place and not Zac Efron or somebody. There's not much time for introductions in this film, and you kind of have to believe Scott Pilgrim straight away. Less impressive is Winstead as the woman of Scott's dreams. That is one thing that should have more introduction. It's not even love at first sight; it's love at first dream. And while Ramona is more symbolic than anything, what's so special about her? It's really hard to say. Certainly, it's not her poor taste in lovers. That ought to be driven home more than it is generally accepted. It's not just here, however; movie romances are generally drawn too thin. The seven evil exes, which might as well be The Seven Evil Exes since they are used as a single character, more or less, add a lot more to the proceedings than you might expect. From Chris Evans' action movie star to Jason Schwartzman's slimy music producer, the exes are a terrific subplot, that thing that keeps the young lovers apart, a tool all romances employ, most less joyfully than this. Scott Pilgrim is an imperfect film, but it may well have been designed that way. Not that there's intentional laziness or anything like that, but Scott Pilgrim is loud, loose, and darting. It goes from point A to point D without always stopping at those points in between...then jumps back to point C for a little bit. Given the herky-jerky nature of the film - without warning, dialogue from one scene kicks off a completely separate scene to save time - there's not a long acclimation process. Edgar Wright has managed to make a terrific, irreverent, smart, and thoroughly enjoyable film for a disaffected generation out of a mountain of spare parts.

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