Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman
Released: 25/08/2010
Rating: 12A
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last month or so, you’ve probably heard the buzz surrounding Scott Pilgrim. Based on a series of graphic novels (created by Bryan Lee O’Malley), this movie can only be described as a cross between a video game and a comic book, told through the medium of film.
From the opening titles, with the Universal logo and music laid out as if it’s the starting sequence to an 80’s 8-bit computer game, Edgar Wright is quick to set out his stall. This movie is going to be heavily stylised, and it’s not going to compromise for anyone. If you don’t like it: we don’t care.
Scott Pilgrim (Cera) is a 20-something nerd come wannabe rock star, living with his gay room mate in a one bed (not one bedroom, one bed) apartment in Toronto, still mourning a huge break up which took place over a year ago. In an attempt to finally move on, the movie begins with him dating a 17-year-old Chinese girl by the name of Knives Chau. Despite constant ridicule from his friends, he maintains that the situation is for the best. That is until he meets new girl in town Ramona (Winstead), a bewitchingly beautiful girl who he falls for instantly, and who he is determined to make fall for him too.
“But wait” I hear you cry. “This is the same plot line as every other Michael Cera movie ever!!” And: you’d be wrong. Because I forgot to mention that Ramona has seven evil exes of her own, and that Scott must do battle (yes: battle, with swords and ninja moves and all sorts) with each in turn if he is going to win her heart.
With cameo roles from Brandon Routh, Chris Evans (of Fantastic Four fame, not the ginger off of Radio 2) and others for the exes, the fight scenes are without a doubt the best bits of this movie. It’s like watching Street Fighter, but live action.
Beck, and Broken Social Scene both wrote songs for the bands in the movie to play, and the sound track really is one of the defining features of this movie – the score too, with various video game soundtracks instantly recognisable in the background.
With “POW!” and “KABOOM” appearing on screen as they would in the graphic novels, this is exactly how it feels: like a comic book on screen, and the fights end with exes bursting into showers of coins, as if you’ve beaten a boss in an old video game.
But that is where some will take issue with this movie. It’s so unashamedly nerdy, that anyone who hasn’t grown up wanting to be able to play the bass-line to the theme from Final Fantasy 2 won’t get one of the jokes.
The movie was met with cheers when it screened at San Diego Comic Con a few weeks back, but the question is how it will translate to a more general cinema going audience?
As a self confessed nerd myself, I loved this movie – indeed it’s one of my favourites of 2010 so far, and I can’t wait to see it again soon. For the uninitiated though: you may very well find this to be a two hour snooze fest.
James Gordon
Tags: bryan lee omalley, comics, michael cera, scott pilgrim
