Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman-Three and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.
In “Shaun of the Dead” Edgar Wright and company gave us their hilarious homage to zombie films. When “Hot Fuzz” hit theaters, we got another hilarious take on a different genre, action films. Now, Edgar Wright gives us his first film, not co-written by Simon Pegg or starring Pegg and the other 3rd of the hit BBC television show, “Spaced”, Nick Frost. With “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”, Wright this time, goes a little more outside the box and give us his take on; video games.
Now, before I get into the movie, I should mention that I have not read the Graphic Novel(s), the film is based on. So I cannot comment on how similar or dissimilar the two are from each other, or if someone may think the movie was trash because they cast a blond-haired kid to play a character with brown hair. That being said, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” was straight out a pleasure to watch.
There is nothing new about the plot of the film I could tell you that the previews have not. To be with the girl of his dreams, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) must defeat her 7 evil exes. While the complete explanation as to why this is the case is given to the audience, it never really makes much sense, story wise, but it is only needed to fuel the story and can be overlooked.
The movie is bright, flashy and I guess could be disarming to someone with sensitive vision. Just like when you start-up a Nintendo game as you get a warning that if you suffer from seizures, you might not want to play that game; I would say if that applies to you, you may want to skip the movie as well. The only problem is you will be robbing yourself of one hilarious film. The jokes also come fast and leave you wanting more. There is a fair amount of what can be considered, “sight gags” and if you don’t pay attention, you will miss some gems. The style of the film may turn off some viewers as will the steady stream of subtle video game references; watch out for the easily recognizable Legend of Zelda music early on and a reference to the theme from Final Fantasy II. But even if you do not have any understanding or interest in these references or the medium of video games, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” still has something to offer everyone, for instance, two of Scott’s friends happen to be named, Stephen Stills and Young Neil. Now I understand even that reference is not built for everyone, but it certainly was not aimed at the typical, video game audience.
Just like any good comedy should, it is packed full of gut busting, laugh out loud jokes, especially from a random cameo by Thomas Jane that left me laughing for a good 2 minutes straight. However, I couldn’t help but notice that I had a smile on my face for the entire movie, and that means just as much as having to have my sides stitched up from laughter. It is easy to make me burst out laughing every 20 minutes or so, but it takes a lot more to keep me entertained those 19 minutes in between.
Aside from the video game style and tone of the film, I know some people may be wary of seeing the film, because of its star, Michael Cera. Plenty of people say they are sick of him playing the same role over and over again or just couldn’t take him from the start in “Arrested Development”. Yes, this role is another take on what we have seen him do before, something he is pretty much built for, but he does take some new turns in the film and frankly, some of the jokes just wouldn’t have been nearly as funny, if not for his patented comedic delivery; the kid has got some great timing and you can’t deny him that.
It was obvious from his early work in TV and from his first two films that Edgar Wright had a knack for story telling, but I was starting to fear that he was all about style and not enough substance. I even entertained the thought that maybe his work would suffer without having Pegg and Frost around, but either of these could not be further from the truth. It would be easy to say just from seeing the trailer for the film, that “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”, listened to a little too much Meatloaf and that you will come out of the film thinking, you should do anything for love, and yes, even THAT. But really, and not all that hidden from the audience, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” is here to tell us that we all have issues from our past that we have to handle and if we work to fix ourselves, everything else will just fall into place. That and you need the Silver Arrow to pierce Gannon’s eye at the end of The Legend of Zelda.
If you want to be entertained and have a great time at the movies, do yourself a favor and check out, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”, when it opens up nation wide on August 13th, you will not be disappointed and if you are, pick up a few more heart containers, because something is wrong.
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