At the risk of turning this place into a Scott Pilgrim blog, I feel like I owe the world my review of the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which I was lucky enough to catch an advanced screening of last Wednesday!
My gut reaction right after I saw the movie was memorialized with the tweet: "...WOW. My brain asplode," as well as the next day's, "My eyes are still jangling from last night..." And that holds, because the Director of Photography is Bill Pope, and he did The Matrix and the live-action Speed Racer, which should tell you a thing or two about the visuals (especially if you saw Speed Racer). Namely, that they were perfect for the material. Scott Pilgrim is a romantic comedy video game, which means that skimping on the visuals would spell disaster, but the film delivered. If you've ever played an old-school NES game, you will have a nerdgasm when Scott "gets a life" and when Gideon, Ramona's 7th evil ex, pulls a pixelated sword out of thin air. And I believe this is the first movie in history where when a bad guy is defeated, they explode into a pile of coins (even if it's not always enough to even pay for the bus).
Combining all six volumes of the comic into one movie meant that there was never a dull moment, whether Scott is practicing with his band or fighting Ramona's evil exes or ordering coffee from his barista sister (the marvelous Anna Kendrick who didn't get enough screentime but had some of the best lines). I loved that they preserved the comics' intro captions whenever a new character is introduced-- it was not only a nice nod to the comics, but it also helped to keep track of the many characters. Obviously some changes were made to the plot to keep it under 5 hours, but the bulk of the story was kept and it was a perfectly coherent story in its own right.
All of the actors were perfectly cast for their characters-- even my initial doubts about Brandon Routh as the vegan-mystic Todd Ingram (Evil Ex #3) and Kieran Culkin as Scott's snarky gay roommate Wallace Wells were completely demolished. Wallace, who is my favorite character in the comics, remained so for the movie-- nothing's funnier than watching him text gossip about Scott all around Toronto in his sleep. And as an Arrested Development fan, there was a particular glee in watching Michael Cera and Mae Whitman (Evil Ex #4!) battle it out.
Do yourself a big favor and see this movie. It's funny and quirky and possibly the first film really of our "Millennial" generation. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will be released in theaters in the US on August 13th.
