“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”
Written by Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall based on the graphic novels by Brian Lee O’Malley; Directed by Edgar Wright; Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Ellen Wong, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick and Jason Schwartzman. Story: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes in order to win her heart.
Seen by Adam and Lars August 15, 2010
LARS:
I discovered the Scott Pilgrim comic books a few years ago and enjoyed them immensely. The writer Brian Lee O’Malley has created an immediately recognizable group of Toronto slackers, who happen to live in a world where their daily discourse about love and life gets interrupted by spectacular fights and other videogame elements. It being a comic book, it was sometimes hard to discern whether the more fanciful flights of the imagination were how Scott Pilgrim wished the world worked or an actual event. When I heard that the books were being turned into a movie, my first reaction was disbelief that anyone would ever manage to capture the mood of the comic books, the second an a good dose of skepticism that anything this geeky would actually get produced.
The British director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) actually pulls off the task of recreating the unique world of Scott Pilgrim and his friends. So huge kudos to him for managing to ensure that O’Malley’s world didn’t get bastardized and dumbed down on it’s journey through the vagaries of Hollywood. All of which makes it even sadder that it’s not a particularly good movie.
A huge part of the problem for me lies with the casting of Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. Let’s forget about the fact that Cera basically either can’t or won’t act. He shows up and is himself in front of the camera and has somehow managed to make a career out of that. Good for him. The main problem is that his portrayal of Scott Pilgrim basically makes Scott an unsympathetic character. He’s a bit of a douche and it’s very hard to root for him to get together with Ramona Flowers for that very reason. Which brings me to my second issue; why would anyone go to such lengths for Ramona Flowers? Sure, as played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, she’s pretty and somewhat mysterious, but she never gives the audience any reason to root for her or for her and Scott to get together. Other than perhaps that they deserve each other, as they are both pretty vapid people.
Additionally, there’s little to no chemistry between the two leads, so it’s hard to get too excited about the 6 big fights Scott has to go through to defeat Ramona’s 7 evil ex-lovers. Sure, they are executed using every special effect and comic book trick in the world, but it gets repetitive after a while: Yakking about nothing in particular/fight/more yakking/fight etc. This worked much better in the books, where each book held one big fight. Here it’s overload. Oh, and I don’t for one second believe that Cera could beat even a six-year-old armed with a wooden spoon.
That said, it’s worth celebrating “Scott Pilgrim” for it’s many small moments of genius. The 8-bit version of the Universal Pictures theme music that opens the movie, the enemies that turn into coins when defeated, the music Sex Bob-Omb plays, the comic book cut-aways and the great cast of supporting players.
The supporting players are so much better and more fun than the leads. Ellen Wong completely captures Knives Chau, the high school girl that has a mad crush on Scott Pilgrim, making her charming, a little pathetic and fully loveable. Kieran Culkin has enormous fun as Scott’s gay roommate Wallace Wells, the master of the snarky comment. I could go on. I really do wish I’d liked the movie better as it’s one of the few originals, alongside “Inception” and “Kick-Ass” to hit the theatres this summer. As such it deserves to do well, so please go see it.
ADAM:
Different isn’t always a good thing. That’s true for people as well as products and services. You’ll have an uphill battle if you try to convince the masses to experience something completely different from what they expect. The key is to include an element at the core that is relatable — a principle, a recognizable and familiar thought or belief to cling to. It’s also how people who are different get along; they find common ground, and go from there. I think this is a big reason why “Scott Pilgrim Versus the World” works, at least on the surface.
Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) has taken the teen-angst slash doomed teen romantic comedy that at its core has elements we can all relate to and given it a flashy, unique wrapper. Now, it’s not really Wright, or Michael Bacall (who co-wrote the script with Wright) that are responsible for this wrapper, but rather Brian Lee O’Malley, who penned the graphic novels on which the film was based.
What we’re presented with, is the idea that we live in a moderately disposable, quick sound bite, somehow innocuous violence-ridden, 8-bit video game world. And for both the young crowd who has embraced the retro 8-bit movement, to older people who enjoyed 8-bit when it was new, it’s a fun and refreshing way to experience a movie. And like film itself, characters Pilgrim(Michael Cera) and Ramona Flowers(Mary Elizabeth Winstead) find common ground in the way they float through life, which brings them together as a couple.
The performances are fairly strong all around, though I’m still not sure I’m okay with Michael Cera being the poster child for today’s misunderstood youth. Maybe it’s because I’m not part of his generation. But he feels so one-dimensional to me, I would think there must be better candidates. Cera seems to play himself in every role; in fact, I’ve seen him on Letterman and he’s still the same guy.
Not having read the graphic novels, I can’t speak to authenticity or attention to detail in the film. What I can say is that I found the character development a little weak, though to be fair, further development of secondary characters would’ve undermined the “visual catalog” and “disposable” titles given to everyone in such a fleeting and fun way. What bothered me more was how repetitive the action was as Scott Pilgrim is confronted by ex-es. Veiled threat, big punch, over the top action, bodies flying and damaged scenery. After two fights, I knew what to expect. I didn’t need to see it again. Or again and again and again.
The final showdown and moral turn were exactly as expected, even not having read the script or novels. But the way Wright (again, surely the graphic novel) used the video game metaphor to allow Pilgrim to set things right really worked for me and let the film land on it feet as the credits ran.
Nowhere near perfect, and I wouldn’t put it on the top of list as a film of the year, but a good time and a original vision on how to tell a story and how to adapt it to film. I hope that rather than inspire copycats, it inspires studios to allow other audacious filmmakers the room to get unique fare to the theater. Boy, do we need it.
