'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.
