Movie Review : Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)
I'm sure you hate at least one film critic. That critic probably killed your enthusiasm for a movie before you could even form your own opinion by slandering it in the press. He might also feel a visceral hatred for your favorite film. He might also just be an asshole, looking for fights because he's bored of his own positive feelings. It's something you can't understand unless you start reviewing movies yourself : you have to step outside your comfort zone to gain perspective on your own work, even if it means thrashing a movie you knew you were going to hate anyway. I've sat through SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD with the firm intention of hating every second I would see Michael Cera's stupid face on screen, but...but...I didn't. It's probably the last thing I expected out of a graphic novel adaptation, but I had a wicked good time.
Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a 22 years old musician living in Toronto, Canada. He plays bass guitar for a band called Sex Bom-Omb. He is a little bit of an idealistic, directionless twat who blindly follows his heart's desires even if he changes his mind about it every few weeks or so *. As Sex Bomb-Omb is about to enter a battle of the bands that could very well make them, Scott falls madly in love with the new girl in town Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) She is SO cool and mysterious and SO coming with an emotional curse of seven exes trying to dictate her love life : The League of Evil Exes. Scott has to deal with this issue if he wants to keep dating Ramona, but the evil exes definitely have an issue if they believed they would keep running Ramona's love life forever.
Ladies and gentleman, I'll gladly admit it : SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD was a very good movie. It's the best comedy I've seen in God knows how long. The problem with your run-of-the-mill comedy is that it's trying to tell you the same joke over and over again, often out of context. Next time you watch a comedy, keep track of how much you actually laugh. It's usually about 20-30 minutes before you become completely exhausted of laughing at the same thing.
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD has, like all great comedies, a sense of humor about itself. It has a functioning storyline that could hold its own without the jokes and a terrific main character who confronts clichés. For example, Scott keeps juggling between a girlfriend he doesn't love and a future girlfriend he's madly in love with. It's a source of constant terror for Scott, who keeps wishing his current girlfriend Knives Chau will go away on her own. There is this borderline cliché situation and this powerful, realistic reaction by Scott, which is hilarious, more often than not.
The man behind this wonderful adaptation is Edgar Wright, who also directed timeless comedy SHAUN OF THE DEAD. Wright directed and co-wrote the screenplay of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD and it shows. He understands very well what makes a young person beautiful : the complete lack of perspective that changes a mundane love life into world-altering events of Biblical proportions. The most important scenes of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD are the exes battles and they are all funny, well-crafted and memorable. Also, kudos to Edgar Wright for trusting Michael Cera with the part of Scott Pilgrim. Moviegoers and critics alike considered Cera like a lost cause, a comically bad actor incapable of pulling any emotions, except stone-faced confusion. We were wrong, Cera is not exactly Al Pacino, but he's got a little range, especially in comedy.
Being agreeably surprised is one of the best things about being a critic/reviewer. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD was a blast. I'm not into comedies and I'm especially not into graphic novels, but a good story is a good story and good delivery will always be a hit, whatever is the genre of your story. The lesson here, I believe, is to trust Edgar Wright. I have yet to find a bad movie in his body of work. Even the trailer he made for Grindhouseis excruciatingly funny. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD stands on the edge of cinematic oblivion right now, lots of people haven't seen it and don't see the interest, I didn't either but I'm telling you: don't let this movie become a forgotten wonder. It deserves at least a small place in movie history, in the succesful comedies section.
* A medical condition known as : being 22.
