Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright, Bryan Lee O'Malley (graphic novel)
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong

For a movie that prides itself on staying as far away from real life as possible, this movie sure does feel truer to me than a lot of other ones do. It's an achievement, to say the least, that it feels so specifically geared towards me and my generation when it remains accessible and fun to everyone else. Usually in movies, the way high school and college age people are portrayed is very obviously from the adult point of view where they're vapid, self-absorbed and don't yet understand how the world works. Sure, it's true, but they miss the thing that Scott Pilgrim gets so right, that to them they're the star of their own thing and everything is just that fuckin' important.

I've never read the book, specifically so that I could appreciate the movie that much more and avoid comparisons. I can't imagine it strayed very far, and if it did, it was definitely in the spirit of the book more than anything else. It's what the movie has in spades - feeling, energy and spirit. Half of the shit doesn't make any sense whatsoever, because it isn't supposed to. It's not arbitrary, either, because the psychedelia and jump cuts bring you into Scott Pilgrim's head.

When the movie started, it was kind of like a Pixies album. It would go loud and quiet, then loud again, but the pace was like a freight train and always kept moving along. So much of it was entertaining that I would overlook clunky parts, until the end. I don't know if it was specific to the way it was written or if it was due to how it was the end of the movie, but I grew tired of the video game references and just felt like it had gone on too long. It lost that momentum from earlier.

Still though, I can't say enough good things about it. The movie is awesome fun and the soundtrack is even better. Go out and see it! Stop pirating it. It's better on the big screen than a camera or screener version from a torrent.