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Vibrant, hilarious and relentlessly creative, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD is nothing but a ceaselessly joyful cinematic experience. Some have already branded it as the type of film that can only be enjoyed by gamers, members of the Nintendo generation or people who are familiar with the comics, and while those people may get one or two of the inside jokes more easily, the truth is that this is a film that can easily be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone who's open enough to the wittily frenetic piece of work that is Edgar Wright's latest offering. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD is blessed with one of the year's funniest scripts and with some of the most creative, well-choreographed action/fight sequences I've seen in a long time.
Scott (Michael Cera) is a 22-year-old guy who's "sort of between jobs" (as he explains), which means he doesn't have much money for a place of his own, so he shares a room (and bed) with Wallace (Kieran Culkin), who serves as a sort of confidante for Scott, as he listens to him talk about all his toils and troubles... except that the information isn't really confidential, because Wallace usually relays it by text immediately to Scott's sister, Stacy (Anna Kendrick), who then calls Scott to nag him about whatever it was she just found out about. The latest "outrageous" development in Scott's life is that he's dating a high school girl, Knives (Ellen Wong). Things start to get complicated, though, when Scott loses interest in Knives when he meets the pink-haired Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who has that "I'm too cool for you" look and seems to be totally out of Scott's league. Surprisingly, Ramona gives in to Scott's geeky charms, but the bliss doesn't last too long, as Scott soon discovers that, if he wants to continue the relationship with Ramona, he has to physically defeat all SEVEN (!) of her ex-boyfriends. The film's dramatic core focuses on the relationship between Scott and Ramona and on each of the two characters' emotional demons, while the action-based scenes feature Scott battling with all the guys (and the inevitable lesbian) that Ramona previously dated, with all the fights being choreographed in the style of a video game.
It has to be admitted that the premise sounds totally ridiculous and that I would've had serious doubts about seeing this were it not for the director and cast. Silly as the synopsis might seem, the truth is that SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD is a delightfully colorful, nimble piece of film-making, and on top of that, it's got a spree of immensely hilarious lines. Scott is in a band, and there's a guy whom people refer to as Young Neil (Johnny Simmons), who is not really a member of the band, but he's there to fill in for Scott whenever Scott can't be available. The movie relishes how dumb and simple-minded this character is (there are some soft-spoken lines you have to pay attention to, like his repetition of the word "sucks," and the way he gets the lyrics wrong at one point when he's singing along with the band). A lot of the hilarity in this film comes from unabashed sarcasm which at times makes some of the characters seem insensitive... but let's be honest, niceness isn't very funny, and a sarcastic/insensitive personality is what led to the success of excellent works of comedy like the TV show Seinfeld, which director Edgar Wright happily pays tribute to during the film (in a brilliant sequence that starts out with the show's theme music and even features a laugh track).
One of the ways in which comedies succeed most often is in poking fun at little things through pop culture references that everyone in the audience will understand. There's a line that indirectly ridicules the Uma Thurman film MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND and it is delivered pitch-perfectly. Later, there's a sequence in which a character says "fuck" repeatedly during a conversation, but it gets bleeped out (and her mouth is covered with a black square, a la EYES WIDE SHUT)... but the movie goes further than that in its knowing brilliance, by having a character ask her, "Why are you doing that with your mouth?" The film also constantly features title cards that are "supposed" to be helpful to understanding the plot, yet are really just ways of further tickling the funny bone. Oh, and a word of caution to vegans: you may be offended by one of the sequences in which satirical jabs are aimed at your, um, "lifestyle" (if it can be called that), but I'm confident that you'll be open-minded enough to take the joke (plus, it's freaking hilarious, and the punchline features a cameo by two actors you'd never expect to see in this movie).
If there's a problem that sticks out in SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, it's the number of ex-boyfriends that Ramona has. I realize that the number 7 is frequently used for purposes of symbolism and whatnot (and the movie has a witty quip about this, in relation to a phone number), but the problem is that, as expertly-choreographed and delightfully frenetic as the fight sequences are, it's impossible for a sense of repetitiveness not to kick in during the last act (a feeling of "ugh, why won't Jason Schwartzman's character just die already" isn't unwarranted). The film is definitely about 15 minutes too long. In addition, the subplot of Knives' jealous rage in wanting to get Scott back is initially effective, but gets too played out during the final act (and it's resolved a little too easily at the very end).
After the misfires that were both YEAR ONE and YOUTH IN REVOLT, Michael Cera is finally back to giving yet another delightfully sweet and endearing performance. I'll never get tired of saying this, so I'll repeat it here yet again: it's not correct to criticize an actor for playing basically the same role in every movie, AS LONG as he/she does it WELL. In the case of Michael Cera, he can play dorky/awkward/adorable better than a lot of people, and he deserves much credit for it, unlike other actors, who play the same character in every movie and always do a bad job at it ::cough:: Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl ::cough:: The rest of the cast is equally good, with Kieran Culkin, Alison Pill and Johnny Simmons having the most scene-stealing moments. My beloved celebrity crush Chris Evans has a few minutes in the film as one of the ex-boyfriends, in a role that was tailor-made for him, as he plays a smug, quintessentially American action movie star, and gets to kick Michael Cera's ass for a little while.
This year has seen two films that have accomplished the amazing feat of both glorifying and satirizing a genre (with the balance never tipping in favor of one approach over the other), while also being relentlessly entertaining. The first one was KICK-ASS, and now we've gotten SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. I could easily make a comment here about how it probably means something that neither of the two films was directed by an American... but it'd make me sound prejudiced, so I guess I won't do it. :) The fact remains, though, that they are two of the year's most well-crafted films. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, in particular, deserves an immense amount of praise for its savagely clever writing and for its incredible visual creativity.
7/10
