Scott Pilgrim Movie Review

The lead role is played by Michael Cera and yet again his part is the awkwardly charming and somewhat clueless underdog. However this time he’s flawed, he’s self-centered, can be a jerk at times and doesn't always make the right call, but you can’t help but root for him, even if it’s because things never seem to be going his way.  Although he is seen as loser by most people Scott can still kick some serious butt when things get hot.

The world of Scott Pilgrim is based on an alternate world Toronto which runs on video game rules, which goes blissfully unexplained. As the story begins Scott (22) has just started dating a 17 year old high school student, but his affections quickly change when he meets the girl of his dreams: Ramona Flowers, a rollerblading delivery girl.  She is quite literally from his dreams, as she uses an inter-dimensional highway which runs through Scott’s head, when he finally meets her in the real world he is instantly smitten.  The good news, Ramona kind of likes him too. The bad news, to date her he must defeat all seven of her evil exes (each one representing a boss fight at the end of a video game level, complete with power-ups and the loser bursting into coins), needless to say they all have superpowers. These powers make sure now to battles are the same, so Scott is left figuring thing out on the fly.

Being largely based on the comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, there are a lot of graphic call-outs like sound animations when music is playing or the statistics of each character that appear throughout the film. The best lines and entire scenes have also been pulled directly from the books.  Even though it was O’Malley who came up with the concepts and the characters it’s Edgar Wright that makes them really work in live action.  The problems that do arise are from the fact that all six books are crammed into one film leave some things seeming rushed, especially the ending, but also that you want to see more of the supporting characters because of how good those characters are.  The other problem is that the final third differentiates somewhat as the books were still coming out as the film was being shot.

This is one of those movies where you can walk into the theater and see one of two versions: one being a romantic comedy which doesn't take itself too seriously, with lots of jokes, cool action and plenty of eye candy and pop-culture references. The second being a smart romantic comedy that once you look past all of the above has a lot to say about  young adult relationships in this modern era, love and the human condition.

 Overall the film is great, with really clever editing where conversations take place over multiple locations and times, and even smarter directing where subtle hints will leave you wondering what happens after the credits roll, and the only fatal flaw being that all of the pop-culture might leave some people feeling overwhelmed and take away from the experience.