Scott Pilgrim Vs the World was one movie that took me a few days to decide if I liked it or not. I was confused and needed to think about it as it was unlike any other movie I had seen in a while. Here is the rundown of the movie and at the end of the review I will let you know my outcome, (but you should be able to make up your mind what I thought half way through).
Scott Pilgrim played by Michael (Superbad fame) Cera, is a 22 year old guy living in Toronto Canada with his gay best friend/roommate Wallace played by Kieran Culken (who will always be Fuller to me from Home Alone). Every week he plays with his band the Sex- a-Bomb-Bombs and enjoys the world of Toronto and the women in it. He is dating once again a young 17 year old high school student named Knives. After being dumped beforehand by one of his band members who has gone onto bigger and better things with her new band. One day while dreaming he has a vision of a beautiful (and her every changing hair colours) girl named Ramona played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. His sister played by the hilarious Anna Kendrick believes he is getting himself into trouble with this new friend. What he doesn’t know is that Ramona has 7 exes who just happen to have superhero powers and each vying to destroy Scott Pilgrim if he continues seeing here. Here is where the director lets the imagination of his mind go wild and transforms the whole movie into a video game pitting Scott against everyone of Ramona’s ex’s until his final battle with the ex who will not let her get away, Gideon Graves. There is more to this movie as well and this is where I had the problem lies. Let me tell you why I thought it was a difficult decision if I enjoyed it or not.
I give major praise to the director Edgar Wright for his vision. I have not seen anything like this in ages. The director uses so many visual styles and CG for the fight scenes that they engage the viewer to get excited about what is going to happen to Scott and his next fight scene. (You will get what I mean when you see the movie). It is pure fantasy for any video game addict who wanted to see a real life Street Fighter game. The supporting actors were the stand out in this movie. Anna Kendrick who proved such a talent in Twilight (yes I have seen them all don’t laugh) once again cracked me up and made me want to see more of her in this movie. Even though she has limited screen time she upstaged the rest of the cast when she was on the screen. Kieran Culken as Wallace was a standout. This kid coming from a talented family (you all know who his brother is if you were lived through the 90’s I don’t need to go into it) knows how to handle the material. He brings Wallace to life with sarcasm and wit and every minute you are waiting for his next line to come out of his mouth because you know you will be cracking up. Mae Whitman (wow hasn’t she grown up since One Fine Day) as Roxy, Chris Evans (when is this guy going to get the breakout role he deserves he is talented) as Lucas and Brendan Routh (where have you been since Superman?) as Todd steal the scenes away from Michael Cera in their battle scenes. Their comedic timing is a standout and the director lets them shine even if most of them are only on screen for a limited time (I won’t spoil why).
Now, here is where my problems lie. Michael Cera. I have not got a problem with this kid, but its time to breakout. I feel I have seen him be this character in every movie he has every been in. Don’t get me wrong, I thought he was necessary in Superbad to balance out Jonah Hill’s character and in Juno he was the perfect match for Ellen Page, but for some reason I feel like this is Michael Cera the person and not Michael Cera the actor. And for some reason this annoyed me. I feel like the geek chick is starting to get a bit outdated now. But I can’t blame Cera for why I had problems with this movie.
To me there were too many subplots and not enough character back story to understand many of the characters relations. These include Scott’s ex girlfriends, current girlfriends, band mates and even Ramona. I know that this Scott Pilgrim is based on comic books and that they used many stories in them to write the screenplay but it shows. I wanted to know these back stories. I wanted to know why they gave Scott attitude and why they were all part of his clique still. Plus some of the actors were so engaging I wanted to keep them on screen more than I wanted to see anymore of Scott. The last problem I had was with Jason Schwartzman. I can never understand his appeal. I mean I have nothing against him, I mean the guy can act (even though I can’t remember one role I liked him in except when I didn’t see his face and only heard his voice in Fantastic Mr Fox worth the rental peoples) but I never felt the connection of his appeal and what Ramona found so attractive about him in the first place.
Lastly, I know I have a problem with a movie when I am look at my watch. I know that I know longer want to experience the world that I am watching and would rather get back to my own. This was the problem with Scott. I felt it was way too long, (about 20 minutes in fact) and wanted to leave. Even my friend who I saw it with who enjoyed the movie said the same thing (a big shout out to my friend you know who you are) By the last 20 minutes I didn’t really care if Scott got the girl as I felt the novelty of what the director was trying to bring to the screen wore off.
By now I think you know where I am going with this review. I liked parts of it, but not enough for me to rave about it. I don’t think I am the only one with people avoiding it in America and Australia as it didn’t exactly light the box office on fire. I know box office isn’t a sign that a movie is a failure if it doesn’t make $100 million, but this just doesn’t have much appeal for me. I mean I have an open mind about movies and like a bit of kooky crazy different filmmaking but if it’s not enough to sustain my attention it ain’t worth the price of my ticket (I would rather wait for cheap Tuesday). I applaud the director for his vision, but to me there was too much going on, that I had no time to actually know what was going on. There were parts I liked, and I did love the supporting cast but Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, really didn’t set my movie experience on fire. 5/10
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