Film Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Story by Andrew Johnson | August 12, 2010 | Tags: arts, Film, News

Review by Andrew Johnson for CaryCitizen

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the best video game movie since Crank: High Voltage, and far less likely to offend.  Not since that over-the-top and satirical look at pop-culture morality has a film so successfully captured the spirit and tone of something you might pop into your Playstation or Xbox.

Now, before you start sending in letters complaining that Scott Pilgrim is based on a graphic novel and Crank is an original property, I should clarify: by “video game movie” I don’t mean video game adaptation.  After all, there has yet to be a truly good film adapted from a video game. Despite Hollywood’s desperate attempts to turn every successful property, including games, into profitable film franchises, the sad fact of the matter is that adaptations are hard to do properly, and what works well for a video game won’t necessarily (and usually doesn’t) work in a feature film.  Scott Pilgrim, however, may as well have been adapted from one, because never before have the over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek “rules” of video games been recreated on the big screen so accurately.  It opens with an 8-bit Universal logo and from then on it’s perfectly clear: this is not a film set in the real world, but in some sort of parallel universe in which video game sensibilities have overtaken real-world physics and anything – yes, anything - is possible.

Our hero is Scott Pilgram (Michael Cera), an unemployed 22-year-old who finds solace for a broken heart in the adoring arms of Knives Chau (Ellen Wong in a brilliant debut performance), a high school girl who can’t get enough of him and his rock band.  Things get complicated when he falls for Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a rollerblading delivery girl who isn’t impressed by his charms, or lack thereof.  After she reluctantly goes on a few dates with him, he realizes that he’ll literally be forced to fight through her emotional baggage by battling her seven evil ex-boyfriends.

Director Edgar Wright has shown tremendous talent in his past projects, demonstrating a knack for crafting fun action sequences punctuated by spurts of comedy.  However, while Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are admirable genre spoofs, they’re brought down by poor pacing and tonal inconsistencies.  This is, without a doubt, his most accomplished film yet.  With Scott Pilgrim, Wright has channeled all of his stylistic impulses into a tight two-hour foray into madcap video game insanity.  Colors are oversaturated.  Characters explode into arcade tokens.  The supernatural is… well, natural.  From the huge letters that pop up in action scenes ala the original Batman television series, to the sound effects ripped straight from sitcoms and Super Mario Bros., Wright has crafted a uniquely stylized universe that miraculously doesn’t feel overstuffed.  This film aims to do for our eyes what Inception achieved for our brains, prodding the audience to wake up and pay attention lest it miss a quirky reference or sight gag.  Each shot feels meticulously designed, with camera angles and cinematography that could work just as well as an old-school video game cutscene or frames in a graphic novel.  Some viewers may find its quirky barrage of the senses overwhelming; others will feel right at home amidst the hypnotizing visual orgy on display.

Cera is the perfect casting choice for the lead role, proving he has acting chops that go beyond playing the awkward, wimpy types of films like Superbad and Juno.  While it would be easy to dismiss his wide-eyed stare and blank expression as more of the same, there is a key difference between Scott and the other characters Cera is known for: he’s a douchebag.  He might not realize he’s a douchebag, but he is, so self-absorbed and desperate for attention that he’ll frequently pursue his own interests at the expense of those around him. Cera takes lines that appear innocent on the surface and adds just the right amount of dismissal or feigned interest to reveal Scott’s true immaturity.  He’s a boyfriend to Knives not because he genuinely cares about her, but because she was a good rebound – someone who thinks he’s perfect and whose constant adoration might help mend his broken heart.  He pines for Ramona not because he knows anything about her, but because she is quite literally the girl of his dreams.  What better way to boost your self-esteem than by conquering the heart of someone so many others have failed to tame?

The decision to structure the film around multiple “boss battles” could have been the kind of simplistic narrative device that wears out its welcome in the first half and dooms the rest to feel repetitive and unimaginative.  Though at times the film comes dangerously close to doing just that, Wright wisely uses each fight scene to serve the story rather than just provide mindless distractions for the audience. Each evil ex represents either a part of Scott’s personality he must overcome – vanity, for example – or provides insight into the kind of men Ramona was attracted to at various points in her life.  Though it would have been easy to take the video game theme too far and slide into simple archetypes of “good” versus “evil,” instead we’re given a genuinely honest presentation of relationships in which no one is fully right or wrong, and what appears relatively harmless on the surface might actually be a symptom of more insidious problems underneath.  Nobody in Scott Pilgrim is who they first appear.  Each character has their own baggage to work through, their own sins for which to atone.  For a film that relies so heavily on over-the-top antics, the emotional core is surprisingly down-to-earth.

As a result, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World isn’t just an enjoyable movie, it’s an important one.  It is the final punctuation mark on the idea that what’s “geeky” is now considered “cool,” and that what used to appeal only to a niche audience is now the accepted mainstream norm.  It’s a fast-paced 112-minute foray into the tropes and stereotypes of comic-book and video game fantasies, built using the same stylistic tools and devices those mediums employ.

It is, in essence, a culmination of current social and cultural attitudes.  Perhaps as a reaction to real-life frustrations about global conflicts, the current trend in mainstream media is to present violence as cartoonish and robbed of realistic consequences.  The vast increase in technological capabilities over the past decade has led to debates on whether or not video games are a genuine new art form.  The rise of the internet has created a generation of computer users that can process massive amounts of information in milliseconds.  Twenty-first century cynicism about marriage and relationships has resulted in the popularity of reality television and shows in which ordinary occurrences are portrayed as life-altering events.  Scott Pilgrim recognizes all of this, and more, tapping into the mindset of Generations X, Y and Z like a cultural leech.  It is the offspring of an age in which geekdom is worshiped, flash and style matter just as much as substance, and it’s cool to be uncool.  If cinema reflects the culture that produces it, then on the map of the U.S. cultural landscape, Scott Pilgrim is the little dot marked “You Are Here.”

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will probably be a very polarizing film.  There will be people that walk out after five minutes feeling its ADD-fueled lunacy is random and soulless.  There will be others – anyone who has ever played a video game, for example – who adore it.  This is the kind of film that could very well become a cult classic or cinematic milestone.  It is the embodiment of all things 2010. Edgar Wright has put his finger on the pulse of a generation and turned all of its attitudes and social malaise into a kinetic and visceral experience that emerges as one of the most uniquely stylized films, well, ever.  Its few flaws are not enough to detract from the overall scope of its imagination; it is, for all intents and purposes, nearly perfect.  That there’s a heart beneath the spectacle is icing on the cake.

Andrew Johnson is the host of MovieChatter, a weekly film discussion podcast.  He also occasionally blogs about film at The Kuleshov Effect.  Of all the opinions out there about the current state of cinema, he swears that his are the right ones.