Scott Pilgrim vs the World
by: J.D. Cook
The most underrated film of the last five years has to be Scott Pilgrim. Not only does it speak to my generation in a way few movies before have but it is completely unlike any movie to come before it. The humor comes from video games, comic books and pop culture and it’s fantastic! Want some examples?! Scott Pilgrim wears an X on his jacket; that is from the X-Men. He has a pee bar and music from Zelda plays when he sees Ramona for the first time. When Scott bursts into his apartment after a night with Ramona it’s straight out of almost any sitcom but heavily draws on Seinfeld. Yes, yes the humor is good you say but what about the plot? Well…I loved it! It’s all about aimless Scott Pilgrim and his new gal pal Ramona dealing with their ex-relationship baggage, which we can all relate to, except their ex-boyfriends and girlfriends form leagues and fight to control their lovers future…er ok so maybe we can’t all relate to that but we can definitely relate to past loves popping up to sabotage our current happiness…even if it is sometimes in our minds. Although that’s mostly Ramona’s baggage, Scott’s baggage Knives
is much nicer and Envy Adams isn’t so bad in the end. Anyway the fighting scenes in this film are all spectacular and if you ever played a fighting video game you will love the way they are handled. The casting is also spectacular, especially the evil exes with standouts Brandon Routh, Chris Evans and Mae Whitman. Really every evil ex battle is fantastic but my favorite has to be the battle of music where rock and roll faces techno. I actually used that scene for a college class I loved it so much. That’s not all! Jason Schwartzman the king of hipster television and movies plays the actual king of hipsters in the film! Anyway I can’t write an objective review of this film and I acknowledge that. I love this movie wayyy too much. It’s hard to even sum up all the things I love in a Nutshell Review! I forgot the music! The music is also great as it perfectly fits every scene. This is a rare film where I downloaded the soundtrack. Kudos to Beck for the work he did on the it. Edgar Wright really is a masterful director who should be more widely regarded! Everything he does has been fantastic so far and I’m happy that he will return to comic book films with his upcoming Ant Man film. Oh and Wallace Wells! Kiernan Culkin really steals this movie anytime he appears in a scene. I guess the only problem this movie had was being released the same weekend as the first Expendables which was a death sentence since Scott Pilgrim vs the World was only drawing the young nerd crowd while the Expendables was drawing in anyone who loved action films from the last 20 years. I’m proud to say I went to see this opening night and didn’t see the Expendables until it was on Netfilx. Anyway this one is a must see if you like comics, video games, are in your 20s, early 30s, or just love seeing things you’ve never seen before. Really everyone should just go watch this and stop reading…now go…why are you still here?! GOOOO!
BONUS ROUND!
I think I’m in lesbians with this movie! As an adaptation this film works on a bunch of levels. It doesn’t directly try to imitate the comic books but it does stay very true to the spirit of them and manages to work in a ton of great moments from them. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s tale is certainly altered but it would take a film franchise to fully flesh out those awesome comics; which I admittedly read after the film released. It’s hard to find good indie comics before they become main stream…sorry world.
