I came to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Blu-ray with no prior knowledge of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s 6-volume digest-sized graphic novel and while it appears the second volume of the series shares the title the film’s writer/director Edgar Wright worked with O ‘Malley to incorporate the key elements contained in the 6 volumes into the script. I’m not an avid reader of graphic novels, in fact the only time I’ve been forced to read them is after seeing film adaptations, namely Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, this is not a prejudice against comics. per se, I find I have less time to enjoy recreational reading than I did before the pressures of work and parenthood, shame on me!
However, I am predisposed to admire graphic novels and their film counterparts, as I enjoy telling fantastic stories primarily through the use of imagery. This is why my favorite movies tend to be predominantly from visual directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, David Lynch, Terry Gilliam, and indeed Edgar Wright, who directed the groundbreaking TV comedy series Spaced and the feature films later Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. which, by breaking the structured norms of the genre, have helped revitalize the British film landscape.
Scott Pilgrim is a slacker and bassist for the local Toronto band Sex Bob-omb, the first obvious nod to the video games of my youth, the Bob-ombs were the little snakey bombs that stumbled upon Mario in various editions of Nintendo Mario Bros. franchise. Scott is bouncing from one band practice to another and dating Knives Chau, a 17-year-old Chinese-Canadian high school girl whom he has yet to kiss; he’s been in shock ever since his ex-girlfriend Natalie ‘Envy’ Adams dumped him and became lead singer for Sex Bob-omb’s biggest rivals, the Clash at Demonhead, who have been on a successful tour for New York.
Scott has a dream vision of a roller-skating delivery girl who literally thinks she’s the ‘girl of his dreams’ when she wakes up. When she shows up in real life to deliver her Amazon order for her, he instantly falls for her and loses interest in Knives and the up-and-coming Battle of the Bands contest Sex Bob-omb had entered. Ramona Flowers, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, recently moved to Toronto from New York. She is moody and mysterious, but she genuinely seems into Scott and continually surprises him by showing up on his dates. On the night of the first stage of the band competition, Ramona comes to see Scott play and while on stage he is attacked by Matthew Patel, the first of Ramona’s 7 Evil Exes, whom he must defeat his time if you want to be with her.
Edgar Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall have deftly combined elements of O’Malley’s original artwork, 8-bit jingles from classic console games, multiple popular movie and TV references (my favorite being Seinfeld’s musical sting). ) and extensive fight sequences ripped straight from Tekken or Street Fighter to create a completely unique visual style for this extremely surreal film.
It’s not a case of style over substance, though, as Michael Cera’s central performance as Scott is wholly convincing and audiences truly empathize with his hapless existence and the quest that drives him to exorcise his obsessions with Envy, end his Relationship with Knives maturely and avoid becoming another one of Ramona’s evil exes. Wright built on the success of his previous collaborations with Simon Pegg and created something deeply original and thought-provoking in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World placing him on the cusp of Hollywood’s A-list directing talent, I look forward to his next project and hope it’s just as exciting.