Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Set in Toronto, Michael Cera plays the title 22 year-old who is dating a clingy (but cute) 17 year-old named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), and is in a band called Sex Bob-omb. Despite this, he’s an awkward geek, so that when he sees his dream girl, an American named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), he doesn’t like his chances of getting anywhere with her. Besides, he’s still getting over a break-up with his previous girlfriend, who has since gone on to front a successful band of her own. After talking to Ramona for a bit at a party, Scott finds out that Ramona works for Amazon.ca (the Canadian branch of Amazon.com), and arranges to have a package delivered by her to his house. He asks her to hang out, and surprisingly, they kinda hit it off. This presents a couple of problems. Firstly, he’s still dating Knives, and secondly, Ramona (who changes hair colour on a whim, ala Clementine from the excellent “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) has seven ex’s, who have banded together to form the League of Evil Ex’s. In order to win Ramona, Scott must defeat all seven in a series of battles. Did I mention that all of the Evil Ex’s come equipped with super powers? Well, they do (and they include Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, the Saitou twins, and a particularly oily Jason Schwartzman among them). Kieran Culkin plays Scott’s gay roommate whom he unfortunately has to share a bed with (Culkin is a perfect blend of dickishness and a lack of giveashit to Scott’s dilemma). Alison Pill plays Sex Bob-omb’s kick-arse drummer, whom Scott had a bad break-up with. Anna Kendrick is Scott’s sister who is horrified about him dating a schoolgirl, Aubrey Plaza plays the antagonistic, acerbic and profane Julie, who loathes Scott, while Mark Webber and Johnny Simmons play the other members of Sex Bob-omb. Brie Larson (who you might not even recognise) plays Scott’s ex-girlfriend Envy Adams, who is the lead singer of a more successful band than Scott’s.

This 2010 flick from Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz”) is one of those films you will either get or you won’t, and if you’ve never played a computer game in your life, I reckon you have about an 80% chance of not getting this one. I’m no gamer (one of the main audiences for the material), but I definitely got it. That’s probably because the film is also aimed at a Gen-Y audience, and I, being born in 1980, scrape in as a Gen-Y by one year (at least by my understanding of how the generations are divided up) and thus could get both the 80s references and some of the newer ones. In fact, I think it’s Wright’s best and funniest film by a country mile (I was never a “Shaun of the Dead” fan, and “Hot Fuzz” was only a slight improvement). Dare I say it’s John Hughes for Gen-Y?

I know it didn’t set the box-office alight, but I reckon this is the perfect Gen-Y flick. It’s a really ingenious idea (based on a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley), taking a basic idea of doing a romantic comedy with main characters who are in the teen-to-early-20s age bracket, but doing something absolutely different with it. The film is not only choc-full of pop culture references (particularly from video games), but the standard youth romcom plot ends up playing like a video game, as Cera has to battle each of Winstead’s evil exes, like ‘boss fights’ in a video game. Sure, that makes things a little repetitive as Cera tries to make it to the big ‘boss fight’ (with a perfectly slimy Schwartzman), but given the nature of computer games, that’s just the way it is. Besides, the fights are all pretty unique and weirdly entertaining (featuring 60s “Batman”-style action scenes mixed with amusing computer game mechanics like power-ups and coins for every victory). I’m not terribly well-versed in the video game world these days. I lost interest in games right around the time “Sims 2” came out and haven’t bought or played any computer games since, though I’m somewhat familiar with many games by name and reputation at least. However, I still found this an extremely clever, unique, imaginative, and often very funny film. This one had me from the moment the crudely pixelated Universal logo (in 8-bit graphic form, circa the 1980s) showed up, with cheap music cue to boot. That was a great way to set you into the right frame of mind for the rest of the film (So long as you’re familiar enough with 8-bit computer games I guess). The visual dynamism and computer game motif are infectious without being superficial. The game motif befits the characters (and the target audience), whilst the visuals and media references also help you to understand that this is a reality that is a little askew of the ‘real’ one. When a phone rings, we get an onomatopoeic representation of it, for instance (as one would in a comic book or graphic novel). We even get visual references to Facebook, and audio cues lifted from “Seinfeld” (laugh track included).

Michael Cera is certainly typecast, but you’d be hard pressed to find a more suitable actor than he to play the geeky, yet almost hipster Scott. Winstead too is spot-on as the somewhat aloof, unattainable ‘dream girl’ come to life. She barely seems to care that her ex-spouses are beating up her new one, and yet...she’s got something about her that you can’t help being gravitated towards. Charisma, I guess. Or star quality, if we’re talking about the actress rather than the character. When I say she’s aloof, Winstead is a good enough actress to play that without losing the appeal of the character, which is important given she’s meant to be Scott’s dream girl. It helps that Winstead is stunning, and cinematographer Bill Pope (“Darkman”, “Bound”, “The Matrix”) photographs her accordingly. I actually fell for Winstead and Ramona in this film, and I think you will too. Maybe one of the main reasons why I was entertained by the film so much, is because I deep down connect with the idea of a nerdy guy punching a little above his weight and actually winning out in the end (Oh shut up, that’s not a spoiler!). Call it ‘fantasy booking’ if you will, but I like thinking that the little guy can get his dream girl every once in a while, before waking up and returning to dull reality. I also enjoyed that each of Ramona’s evil ex’s seemed to occupy a different kind of douchy-ness (Hypocritical vegan, egomaniacal action star, arrogant rich schmuck, etc.) The film has an interesting view of women, with them either being almost unattainable like Ramona, or antagonistic/humourless like the characters played by Pill (whose acerbic, borderline hostile ex is almost cooler than Winstead’s Ramona), Plaza, and Kendrick. Yet, that isn’t a sign of misogyny so much as it represents and accentuates Scott’s wimpdom, having all these chicks screaming at him and deriding him. He’s a bit of a loser, but through defeating the Evil Ex’s he can win the heart of the unattainable Ramona, and grow a set of balls in the process. All this without even having to get a day job! Awesome slacker stuff, and the fact that Scott’s kind of a douche who is dating a high-schooler who he tries to worm his way out of dumping for Ramona, is priceless. The amazing thing is that his complete lack of a spine is, through Cera, somewhat endearing and you actually root for the guy against your better judgement. It’s the damndest thing. By the way, look out for Scott’s ‘secret lair’…across the street from his parents’ house. Superhero fans will delight that Superman (Brandon Routh), Captain America (Chris Evans, who also played one of the “Fantastic Four”), and The Punisher (Thomas Jane, who appears unbilled as one of the ‘Vegan Police’) are all given roles here, in ‘Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge’ fashion. Looking back on it now in 2017, you can add Brie Larson, playing another of Scott’s ex’s, who will be playing “Captain Marvel”).

I guess that one of the film’s potential drawbacks is that it is all so quick-paced that the gags fly thick and fast. Yet that is kind of a strength too. Whilst there’s too many gags coming in too damn fast to recall them all, the overall effect is like a cinematic sugar rush (The colour scheme sure is a virtual confectionary store). And that’s probably intentional, as this is the ADHD generation we’re talking about, and Wright (in bringing O’Malley’s material to the screen) seems to have tapped into that. It’s for Gen-Y, about Gen-Y characters, and cinematically encapsulates Gen-Y in just about every way possible, including vacuous but lively indie punk-pop songs that are somewhere in between The Ramones and Josie and the Pussycats (Throw in a little White Stripes for good measure).

I really, really dug this. It’s somehow both nerdy and cool at the same time. Yes it’s a little shallow, but weren’t you shallow and self-absorbed in your early 20s? This film gets it just right. One of 2010’s best films for sure. The screenplay is by Wright and Michael Bacall, adapting O’Malley’s graphic novels.

Rating: B+