I just saw this last night and my thoughts on it are, in a word: Yes.
Not YES. Not yes. But Yes.
The movie is based off a pretty successful comic book series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Canadian. In a nutshell: it’s a pretty hysterical, very attention-grabbing serving of geek candy that really turns out to be something special while also espousing the importance of indieship (that is, the act of wearing tight jeans, ironic clothing and not enjoying making money) and following your heart.
The plot, as some of you might know, revolves around the titular character, Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera), as he courts the enigmatic hipster chick Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and subsequently fights for her affections against her Seven Evil Exes. It is a pretty straightforward plot and it summarizes this movie’s greatest strength: the sheer surreality of it all.
Scott Pilgrim lives in Ontario, a place that is decidedly pretty normal and, indeed, for the first few moments of the movie, it’s portrayed as pretty normal. If you knew nothing about the plot or had never watched the trailers, you’d be justified in thinking this might be yet another passive aggressive indie film. It’s pretty clear once the movie settles into its own groove, however, that the film is part-superhero flick, part-comedy, part-love story and entirely awesome to watch.
The fights are completely over the top and littered with video game references. Health bars appear and disappear, combo scores count up off to the side of the screen, a gloriously 16-bit soundtrack plays in the background. Scott’s enemies explode into coins upon death, which he gleefully collects. It’s a pretty shameless grab for the nerdcore crowd, but it’s done so well that I found I didn’t mind it at all, sort of like how a very sappy love poem can still be considered pretty sweet, despite the fact that one stanza contains the word “throbbing” seven times.
A movie cannot stand on cultural references alone, though, as we have seen from every lame “_____ Movie” parody ever, and if Scott Pilgrim vs. The World tried to do that, I’d be pretty pissed off. Fortunately, the video game references are just the delicious geek icing on what is a very funny, very cool cake.
And this is where I want to stress the comedy and the surreality of it all. A lot of the humor is carried by the fact that no one seems at all surprised that any of this is happening. They watch the fantastically hyperactive fights with awe, but never does anyone stop think “wait, what?” And this is a good thing, because if they did, the effect would be ruined. Instead, the movie is carried very well by the fact that everything is taken at face value.
For example, at one point in the film, Scott is preparing to fight Todd Ingram (played by Brandon Routh), ex-boyfriend of Ramona and current boyfriend to Scott’s ex-girlfriend. He flies at Todd and is promptly suspended in mid-air by Todd’s telekinetic powers and hurled away. His ex looks on with a smug smirk and says: “Didn’t you know? Todd’s a vegan.”
And that’s it.
It’s elaborated on a little later and not by much, but it’s never questioned. Veganism just gives you psychic powers and everyone accepts this. It’s done with such a straight face by the rest of the cast that it’s just hysterical. If you can appreciate the surreality of that situation, you can appreciate everything about this movie and, when taken as what it is, it’s almost flawless.
That’s my chief criticism with it, though: taken as what it is, it’s impressive, but not really classic. The humor is great, the action is fantastic, but it sort of lacks that same character-driven humor that makes a truly classical comedy film. The overall message of the movie, however, is that they probably don’t really care about that and just want to have a good time. It does that in spades.
If I could have any further grievance, it would be with Michael Cera. I like him. I’ve liked him since Arrested Development. But he’s just never changed since then. In absolutely every film he’s ever been in, he’s always some awkward, passive, unstoppably indie kid. Sometimes it works (Arrested Development), sometimes it doesn’t (Year One), but I’m sort of waiting for something new to happen. Granted, it does work in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, because he’s energetic, active and…still pretty awkward. I like him as an actor and as a person a lot, which is why I kind of hope he evolves at some point and is able to do more stuff.
All told: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a very funny, very cool movie and well worth the price of admission. If you’re the kind of person that reads this blog and enjoys it, I’d definitely check it out.