This is a reprint of my review which
was first published on Three Men on a Blog about 2 years ago, with a number of minor revisions. My original review can be found here. Also be sure to check out the Movie Hour podcast on the film from November 2011 here.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (USA, 2010)
Directed by Edgar Wright
Starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Brandon Routh
When I reviewed Gregory's Girl, I argued that coming-of-age movies are
both thin on substance and have a limited lifespan. Films as varied as
American Graffiti and Dirty Dancing revolve around the same old stories
of young love and heartbreak; the ones that last are not just those that
evoke their period, but which contain some form of deeper truth about
the process of growing up.
Being a young man still very much
within the coming-of-age bracket, it is hard to me to say how good Scott
Pilgrim vs. the World will look in ten years' time, when the gaming
world has moved on and young people no longer talk like extras from
Juno. All that can be said right now, two years on, is that this is one
of the best coming-of-age comedies in a long, long time.
For
starters, Wright has managed to make a film about video games which
doesn't feel like a video game adaptation. The plot on paper does seem
like a video game: defeat a series of bosses to win points and get the
girl. But unlike, for instance, Tomb Raider, the film doesn't feel like
you are watching someone else playing a game and expecting you to be
interested. The fight sequences feel like natural continuations of the
story, and the character development in-between is a damn sight more
complex and insightful than the swathes of exposition in something like
Silent Hill.
The film has an extraordinary visual style which is
somewhere between Tron and Sin City. Like Tron, you feel at moments like
you are inside a video game rather than just a spectator. And as in Sin
City, the film retains a very literal comic book structure, albeit
without the dull pomposity of Robert Rodriguez' film. The video game
elements in both the design and the content of the battles are used to
complement and enhance the conflict; the powers gained and used by Scott
and his foes do not become distracting goals unto themselves.
Like
the comic it is based upon, Scott Pilgrim jumps from one form of
reality to another without warning. There are many flights of fantasy
which are either poignant or hilarious, and the film explores issues of
love and death with a fascinating alacrity. It makes no bones about its
comic book violence, shooting the battles in a playful and entertaining
manner with minimal focus on any lingering amount of pain. We still
believe the characters are in danger, but as in Christopher Nolan's
Batman movies there is no real need to demonstrate their danger beyond
stylised forms of suggestion.
Several moments in the film really
stick in one's mind. Towards the end, Pilgrim is 'killed' by Gideon, the
last of the evil exes played brilliantly by Jason Schwartzman. He finds
himself in some kind of desert, identical to the dream in which he
first saw Ramona. He then uses the 'life' he had gained before to replay
all the previous events and finally defeat Gideon. Having the exes
shatter into piles of coins when defeated is ingenious, as is the
spectacle of sound waves forming into two dragons and taking on a giant
aural gorilla during the battle of the bands.
Despite its large
quantities of geeky references to video games and the like, the film
gets away with it for the simple reason that it doesn't take itself too
seriously. So many other films with video game elements fail as much
from being po-faced as they do from being plot-less. For all its visual
style, Silent Hill is not scary, and for all its seeming intensity, Max
Payne is not exciting. Scott Pilgrim, on the other hand, has an
incredible and knowing lightness of touch. It drifts like its central
character from one scene to another, paying enough attention to follow
what's going on while still finding time to escape into fantasy and have
fun.
The film is laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end,
with jokes coming so thick and fast that you struggle to keep up or
breathe. The humour comes in all shapes and sizes, from physical
slapstick to witty one-liners. We have Wallace, Scott's gay roommate,
who hits on everyone's boyfriends and can seemingly text Scott's
overprotective sister even whilst slipping into unconsciousness. We have
Todd, the third evil ex, whose status as an arrogant vegan has given
him psychic powers. We have the Japanese twins, who look like a bizarre
marriage between Kraftwerk and Siegfried & Roy. And we have all of
Scott's embarrassing verbal slip-ups, such as confusing 'love' for
'lesbians' and asking Ramona if she's into drugs.
Jokes like this
drift very close to the more putrid adolescent comedies, like National Lampoon's Animal House, Porky's or Superbad. But despite all the moments
where we cringe at the characters' actions, Scott Pilgrim is not out to
make us wriggle uncomfortably in our seats. The more intimate scenes,
including those of Ramona in her underwear, are shot with an underlying
sense of respect. The film treats its female characters on a level
playing field, not just by demonstrating they can fight as well as the
men, but by refusing to fall into the trap of laughing at their
misfortune during the break-up scenes.
In the midst of all the
belly laughs and eye-popping visuals, Scott Pilgrim is a very tender
treatment of young love, demonstrating not just how to get the girl but
how to deal with the baggage that goes with all relationships. Both
Scott and Ramona have issues with commitment, with the latter admitting
that she went through a phase of being a total bitch. And like in
Gregory's Girl, there is the faint suggestion that the girl Scott falls
for may not be the one he is destined to be with. In the original draft
of the screenplay, which preceded the final comics, he ends up with
Knives instead.
In defeating the evil exes, Pilgrim is not just
standing up to other people's demons but also confronting his own
insecurities, and in going so gaining self-respect. The film genuinely
conveys the sense of heartbreak on both sides which comes at the end of a
relationship, and it doesn't pretend that our heroes are perfectly
compatible and therefore destined to be together. Ramona's changing hair
colour and tendency to withdraw both represents the fragile nature of
love and encapsulates the modern age of complicated relationships and
how hard communication can be despite (or perhaps because of) new
technology.
The performances in Scott Pilgrim are all of a high
calibre. Michael Cera, who can often be annoying, puts in his best
performance since Juno, taking his familiar dweeby character and
refining it to make Scott genuinely empathetic rather than simply
pitiful. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is terrific as Ramona, possessing a
sense of mystery while being completely natural and down-to-earth.
Kieran Cullin is hilarious as Wallace, and Brandon Routh is very good as
Todd, turning in a performance which is a million times more
charismatic than his work in Superman Returns.
Rating: 4.5/5
Verdict: One of the best films of 2010
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