Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
By Charlotte Dekle
I used to thoroughly dislike properties based off of graphic novels. Not thoroughly dislike, more in the realm of ignorance of their existence. This was the case when I first saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I was mindlessly scrolling through Netflix, as a normal teenager does, and I came across this gem of a movie. I saw the thumbnail with Michael Cera from Arrested Development and I was intrigued. From the thumbnail, I assumed that he would be playing his normal awkward pubescent teenage boy self. But then I watched it to discover that I was kind of right. But he wasn’t just an awkward teenage boy, he was an awkward adult man who was in a band. Which is so much better than the basic Michael Cera-esque characters he usually plays. The movie was a relatively quick watch, less than 2 hours, and I was enthralled in every second of it. I had never seen anything like it. It was directed by Edgar Wright, who I thought only exclusively did Simon Pegg British comedies (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, etc.). But this was my first introduction to these types of graphic novel movies and it got me hooked. It was one of the most creative and most enjoyable film experiences I have ever had. It was a ride that I never wanted to end. Each character gave it their all, even in bit parts. This stellar cast includes: Michael Cera, Chris Evans (Captain America, anyone?), Brie Larson (Captain Marvel, anyone?), Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, and so many more. They all give deadpan performances that gave me serious hearty belly laughs. On that note, the humor is phenomenal. It’s dry, it’s witty, it’s exactly the kind that I love. There are jokes for everyone. Jokes about the lunacy of veganism and battle of the bands. It also strikes the perfect balance of never taking itself too seriously, but 100% believing that the story they’re telling could exist in this real world and that’s the way movies should be done. Movies usually either don’t take themselves too seriously and end up on one end of a parody spectrum where they poke fun at tropes, or take themselves too seriously and make everything sound like insanity. This movie is right in the middle, it gives a certain amount of plausibility to everything going on which makes you think that these highly stylized fight sequences could really happen. On a different note, Edgar Wright is a criminally underrated director, screenwriter, a jack of all trades. In this particular film, he captured the essence of what a graphic novel looks like. He has mastered the different ways to use direction to make comedy, a skill that is so often underused. The comedic weight that a whip pan or a zoom could have is cleverly showcased in this delightful masterpiece. This movie has perfectly been identified as a transmedia narrative. It’s telling a single story across multiple platforms and formats using current technology. The visual effects in this movie are also wonderful. The film is described as having an "inimitable look" of manga and video game (particularly 16-bit) iconography with bright colors and graphics mixed into the live action. It’s woven together so carefully and seamlessly that you just accept it as part of this world. This beautiful, wonderful, glorious, world of Toronto, Canada.
logline: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil exes in order to win her heart.
Source: IMDb
My Favorite Characters:
Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells - I love Wallace. He is the pinnacle of the gay best friend/roommate stereotype. But he’s so much more than that. He gives wisdom to Scott whenever he’s acting like an idiot, which is all the time. He is constantly stealing Stacey’s boyfriend. He has a witticism for every occasion and he’s just all around the best character. Culkin gives a sardonic and witty approach to a character that could’ve just been the gay best friend but he is just a fully formed human that you wish was your best friend.
Ellen Wong as Knives Chau - I love Knives too. She is the opposite of what her name will suggest. She is the sweetest person in the movie who just wants to love Scott. But Scott doesn’t seem to love her. She is exactly the fangirl archetype that we see in plenty of movies and television shows but Ellen Wong makes her so likeable that you want them together, however mismatched they are. She’s just hopelessly in love with him and wants him to be happy. By sacrificing her own happiness.
Chris Evans as Lucas Lee - okay, I couldn’t not include Chris Evans pre-Captain America. In this movie, he plays this big time action star who used to date Ramona. He is one of the seven evil exes. He is probably my favorite of the evil exes. Not just because he’s Chris Evans but also because his character is a complete douchebag that you can’t help but love. Evans plays this to perfection. You love to hate him, but you can’t stay mad at him. He also gets defeated in the best possible way.
This movie is rated PG-13. Here’s why:
Stylized Violence
Sexual Content
Language
Drug References
Favorite Part: It can also be described as a musical, but instead of songs, there are highly stylized fight sequences. They’re at big turning moments in the movie, just like in musicals. Like the inciting incident, Scott’s first fight. Fighting is a lot like dancing. It expresses emotions when they become too large for words. It’s not so different from the choreographed scenes in West Side Story or other musical movies. Edgar Wright even said “We thought it should play out like a musical in a way in terms of the fights are not dissimilar to the songs. I always thought there were a lot of martial arts films that were like musicals, so we wanted to take that further. Ya know, in a Gene Kelly film when he performs an amazing routine, at the end of the scene no one goes, 'Oh my god, that was f***ing amazing!' The song is about something, and then there might be some dialogue at the end that is also about that theme. And that's kind of how this works where people have these huge fights – and it's kind of like how it is in the books – where everything goes back to normal, and there's a little reaction to what just happened, but there's no sort of mourn the dead.”
Where to Watch: Netflix or for rent or purchase on all major platforms
Image Source: IMDb