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| Tuesday, August 31, 2010 03:27 PM |
| On the Viewer - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World |
 by Fëanor |
You would think, being the comic book fan I am, that I went to see this comic book movie because I read the comic book, and that I kept comparing it to the comic book while I was watching it, and that I'm preparing to say how much better the comic book is than the movie. But actually this is one of those comic books that everybody tells me to read but that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. So I got a chance to judge Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as a movie alone, and not as an adaptation of something else, and on that scale, it gets a rating of awesome.
Story-wise, the movie is essentially a romantic comedy: a young man named Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) - who shares a tiny apartment, and the tiny apartment's tiny bed, with his gay friend Wallace (Kieran Culkin), and plays for a band called Sex Bob-omb that seems to be going nowhere fast - falls head-over-heels in love with the new girl in town - the impossibly beautiful, impossibly cool Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) - and tosses his current girlfriend - the sweet, naive, slightly obsessive highschooler Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) - aside to pursue her. Wackiness and drama and heartbreak ensue. And hey - I even learned something.
Where the movie differs from other romantic comedies is the surreal, video game-inspired nature of the world it inhabits. It's not surprising that Scott would find himself in conflict with Ramona's exes, but in this movie, the conflict is literal and physical: multiple, super-powered duels to the death, in fact. When Scott wins a duel, he is awarded points, and his enemy explodes into a pile of coins. There's also plenty of video game music, sound effects, and clever video game metaphors. It's a smart, fast-paced, funny movie, sarcastic as anything, but with a big, mushy heart at the center. Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, and Jason Schwartzman all have great roles as Ramona's exes. Routh's character is particularly hilarious: his veganism gives him super powers. The action scenes in the movie, which involve lots of hand-to-hand and weapon combat, are surprisingly well done. It's a movie that's insightful, hilarious, and action-packed. That combo is hard to beat. |
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