Scott Pilgrim vs. Who-The-Hell-Cares?

Friday, September 3, 2010

There aren’t many reasons to love Scott Pilgrim. The 22-year-old guitarist (played by Michael Cera) dates a high schooler, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), mooches off of his gay roommate (Kieran Culkin) and is Canadian. And on top of it, his band’s called “Sex Bomb-Omb.” But maybe what’s redeemable about Scott — and this movie — is the music and the bold visuals, inspired by Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels.

“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is awkward — for the most part, Michael Cera looks like an awkward turtle. And geeky. And loooong. Set in Canada, the film tracks Scott Pilgrim as he battles his second girlfriend’s (Ramona Flowers — Mary Elizabeth Winstead) exes.

The movie elements that derive from the graphic novel are strikingly well done. Onomatopoeic exclamations (BRRRR or DING DONG) stream across the frame, hearts appear when people kiss, cuts between scenes are quick and screen splits really work. The quality of the fight choreography and sequences — reminiscent of “Kill Bill” cum “Sin City” cum manga/anime — blows you away for a movie you can’t, and shouldn’t, take too seriously. Video gamers will love the gaming touches, where everyday actions get you points, be it professing one’s love, getting a password right or defeating an ex.

Yet the movie starts slow and lacks editing finesse. It’s also too gimmicky, with dream sequences, weird inserts into one’s brain and the ability to replay the ending when things don’t go as planned. Scott even has to battle himself at the film’s end. The movie leaves you wanting more Anna Kendrick (Scott’s sister) and Ellen Wong, who was by far the cutest chick in the movie. The movie’s overreliance on stereotypes is also unsavory. The first ex, for example, Matthew Patel, breaks into a Bollywood-style number and has mystical powers.

At the end of the day, though, this flick is about what most flicks are about: getting the girl. Scott’s roommate tells him, “If you want something bad, you have to fight for it.”

And Scott’s coming of age (even at 22) is coupled with the realization that self-respect may be bigger than love and that it sometimes is about yourself and not the girl.

This punchline is a long time coming. I can’t help but agree with Ramona when she says, “I don’t enjoy all of this. I’m sick of it.”

Did she really have to have seven exes? Could she not have had two fewer? I mean, how high were the writers when this movie was made? And why is this not ending?

Scott is essentially living a video game, with redoes, flying leaps to doors and the ability to emerge unscathed from fantastic fight sequences. But, however optimistic the message, life isn’t a video game. There aren’t redoes, we don’t get coins when we defeat our biggest fears and we don’t always get the girl if we try our hardest. But, hey, Scott, we did learn something. We never want to see this movie again.

dicoy 1 year, 8 months ago

Hey, what's wrong with you. You go on and on about how good the movie was, then you say 2 bad things about it and end up with "we never want to see it again". Who's "we"? I loved the movie and know a lot of people who have as well. Ok so there aren't any rings that make you invisible, no religion which gives you teleknetic powers, no lightsabes, but those are still awesome movies. Ever hear of the term fiction. Beside, defeating you fears does reward you enormously, It's sad if you don't see that.

I hope you don't delete this right away, just because I don't agree with you.

Sebastian

Raiku_Xander 1 year, 8 months ago

I can tell you just started writing, me two. He's a bassist not a guitarist and its Sex Bob Om, with out the 'm' before the 'b' on Bob. Good Scott Pilgrim review, I suppose, you 'read' like a bit of a 'Rooster'.

flameblade13 1 year, 8 months ago

The whole "life as a video game thing" is the theme, because its how a boy scott pilgrim's age and most of this new generation might contextualize our world. There are "seven" evil exes because in the standard old-fashioned videogames, there would be seven main boss fights. His band is Sex Bomb-Om because Bomb-Oms are characters in the Mario games. And self respect is ALWAYS bigger than the love interest, thank you very much. Scott Pilgrim may be masked as a goofy game-like movie, but it has more to say about the hurtles young people face in relationships today, as well as the human condition than any of those generic chick flicks out there do. Geez, even if you just read over your own review, you'll see that there are A LOT of good things about Scott Pilgrim. Do a little research on what you're reviewing before you bash something, because you clearly missed the point of this kickass film.

jayman13 1 year, 8 months ago

I gotta say, this review is far from good if you're looking at the movie as a complete work. You already stated that you knew this was derived from Bryan Lee O'Malley's series of graphic novels and if you took a couple hours to actually read some and give them the chance, you would see that the resemblance the movie has to the novels is uncanny. Everything in the graphic novels influenced the movie. From the editing which you thought lacking to the way the story started slow, everything took place how it was in the novels. Even the amount of involvement from Knives and Stacey in the novels was brought in perfectly.

Even if you're reviewing it as just a movie and not including the other mediums for Scott Pilgrim, it is still better than how you described it. It was made to appeal to the gamers, the teenagers and young adults who thrive on this kind of film, myself included. The editing, for true video editing, was actually well done for all that had to be added to give the movie it's game feel. Granted, not every transition was the greatest, but that also goes back to how the novels transition from chapter to chapter. Even how songs by the band, Sex Bob-Omb, had their chords and lyrics integrated into the novels, which was actually pretty funny.

I believe Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was a great movie for the group it was aimed to reach and, granted, it will not appeal to everyone. As a movie on it's own, I would give it a B+, but knowing the background, reading the novels and appreciating it in its entirety, A+.

Scorpio 1 year, 8 months ago

The review sucks, the film however is awesome. It follows the plot of the comic with only one or two small changes which are barely noticable to the comic fans.

It really sucks that such a great film gets such bad reviews by idiots who would barely know a good film if it bit them in the ass.

All in all Scott Pilgrim Vs The world is awesome, epic and worth every penny of your savings.

Or login with:

OpenID

Scott Pilgrim vs. Who-The-Hell-Cares?