Scott Pilgrim Review: Heroes and Villains
by cloudcaptainIs it an action movie? Perhaps it’s a love story or maybe even a comedy? Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is thankfully all of the above as our eyeballs are constantly entertained by nerd fantasies come to life. Zelda tunes play in the background as a “Pee Bar” empties out and Michael Cera proceeds to own the role and the various evil exes that stand between him and true love.
The storyline from the comic book is almost frame-for-frame in all the best places and different from the book in ways that best serve the film. Director Edgar Wright manages to distill six – sometimes uneven – volumes about a rock-‘em-sock-‘em 22-year-old who battles ex-boyfriends, his past and an often vacant mind for the love of one Ramona Flowers. Along the way, viewers are treated to a hilarious cast of characters – Kieren Culkin’s take on gay-roommate Wallace is quite the highlight – and more video game/geek references than you can shake a flaming katana at. Nerdvana if you will.
From the moment you witness the 8-bit take on the Universal opening, you know you’re in for a different kind of movie. It’s also definitely not for everyone. The logic behind everything ranging from a giant hammer-wielding Ramona to the fighting game aesthetics may appear alien to those who haven’t been sung to sleep by the tunes of Zelda or have duked it out in Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Those components serve the movie well however, and much of the geeky source material carries over intact and is even further celebrated in the new visual medium.
