'Scott Pilgrim, prepare to feel the wrath of the league of evil exes!'
If this movie sucked, I would have been disappointed beyond belief, because it literally had everything going for it to make it an instant classic: based on a fun comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, directed by nerd hero Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Spaced) and sporting a cast spearheaded by Michael Cera as the titular Scott and featuring other cred-worthy names like Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman. Thankfully, for my faith in pretty much everything, it didn’t. Not in the slightest. It was in fact the most fun I’ve had at the movies in a long time.
Right from the opening credits, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World forces the viewer to check your adult at the door and enter a world that’s part childhood fantasy come to life, part acid trip bizzaro land. It’s all neon colours and fuzzed-out rock’ n ’roll as we’re transported to snowy Toronto and introduced to lovable slacker Scott, his wickedly named teenage sort of-girlfriend Knives Chau, his band Sex Bob-Omb, his gay roommate Wallace and a host of other totally relatable yet totally entertaining friends and associates. To nick the title of the first book, Scott does indeed have a ‘precious little life’. That is, until he meets ‘that one girl, with hair like this’ Ramona Flowers, a rollerblading Amazon.ca delivery girl who manages to be cool despite being a carbon copy of every post-Daria deadpanning punk chick. Boy meets girl, they take romantic walks in the snow, they eat garlic bread, and everything is peachy. Except for the fact that he may have to defeat her seven evil exes if they are to have a relationship.
Now, in a fight your money would probably be on one of the six badass dudes/one badass girl and not the slightly built, dopey hat wearing bass player. But this is where Scott Pilgrim takes the biggest risk, and pays off in the biggest way. Scott can fight like Jackie Chan gone Tekken and fuelled by Red Bull and sugar. This is neither explained to the audience nor met with any surprise by anyone who witnesses these fights, and is basically the film’s way of saying ‘Leave reality now and don’t look back til this is done.’ This is escapist entertainment at it’s most exhilarating. As a movie it’s a classic tale of life in the young adult years and a more innocent take on young relationships - all filtered through an old school kung-fu film. But it’s also like watching a comic book come to life, running amok in an amusement park, spending a day at the arcade and attending the world’s loudest, most futuristic concert all at the same time.
It’s stylistically and visually innovative (with touches of Wright’s previously favoured seamless editing techniques) and sure to be ripped off in every comic book movie to come. There are many moments that are as close as you’ll get to stepping into a video game, and this creativity and sheer willingness to go there makes it a more interactive experience than any pointlessly converted to 3D action movie. And speaking of lackluster action movies, they’re going to be put to shame even more, because the fight scenes here are simply spectacular. Snubbing Hollywood brawling and slugging to be inspired by martial arts classics and Asian kung-fu films, it’s all fast as lightning hand combat, spinning and flying kicks you thought could only exist in Street Fighter and insane wire work, and it is AWESOME. The music is also first rate, with the film’s many fictional bands performing original songs and a soundtrack that’s equal parts scuzzy rock and glitchy synthesisers (that are exactly like something out of, yes, and old school video game). There are key scenes where visuals, action and music are combined in such mind melting ways that they truly have to be seen and heard to be believed.
Even amidst this kinetic sensory experience of colour, speed and sound, characters and story are not made to suffer. The young cast, many of who are unknown and playing what are essentially stereotypes, still do a great job, the beauty of it being that this could easily be any group of young friends in any city. Of the previously mentioned more established names, Evans and Routh are both highly entertaining as two of the more cocky of Ramona’s exes, and Schwartzman’s main bad guy Gideon Graves is a suitably ridiculous take on the supervillian. The ending is of course predictable, but ensures you’ll walk out of the cinema with the same goofy grin that was plastered to your face for the last two hours.
Edgar Wright’s filmography is still unblemished, the ante has been well and truly upped in the action/adventure/superhero field, and Michael Cera can stop being typecast as an awkward geek. He can now be a less awkward geek who can beat your ass Chuck Norris-style, and wield a Samurai sword to boot. Indulge both your inner nerd and your inner child and escape to Scott’s world. Just try not to be too disappointed when you have to get back to your own precious little life.
9/10.
