Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Review
by Sean Lynch
If ever there was a film to summarise
Generation Y - like The
Breakfast Club and Wayne's
World did for Gen X and The Graduate for
the Baby Boomers - Scott
Pilgrim Vs The World is it.
And not only is it a generation defining film... it's as cool as f**k
as well.
Based on the cult comic book series of the same name, the set up for Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
is a simple one : Indie Nerd (Michael Cera, in the
role his whole career has been leading up to) finds girl, realises he
likes another girl, forgets to dump old girl, has to face the seven
evil ex-boyfriends of his new girl in battles to the death.
You know, that old cinematic-plot chestnut.
To be honest, no amount of wordplay could ever convey the visual feast
that Edgar Wright (director of Shaun
of the Dead and Spaced)
delivers with such quick edited precision in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.
It's the A.D.D ridden mind of every video game playing, comic book
reading, music loving, 1985 - 1997 born child, perfectly constructed on
the silver screen.
It's the perfect bookend to a generation which has been defined by
nostalgia - where we see, think and talk with the soundtrack to our
lives being the 8-bit theme tune to Nintendo's Super Mario, an era
where we are just as familiar with the meaning of gold coins being
collected from a squashed mushroom as we are of the teachings of The
Bible.
The success of Scott
Pilgrim Vs The World is no simple feat either, because in
the hands on anyone else besides Edgar Wright (whose unique visual
style is up there with David Fincher, Wes Anderson and Tim Burton), the
film would be shown up for what it is - fairly lightly scripted and
kind of stupid.
It's Edgar Wright's keen visual eye that ensures that Scott Pilgrim is
an ironic and loving homage to something like the woeful 90s Super Mario Bros.
movie... and not being the actual Super
Mario Bros. movie.
The cast is stellar too, with Kieran Culkin picking up where he left
off with Igby Goes Down
and almost stealing the show as Scott's gay roommate (another reviewer
quite accurately described it as "a Robert Downey Jr level of scene
stealing").
The likes of Michael Cera, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman
also contribute to what will no doubt become a time capsule of youth
for the 2000s.
Yes, the jokes are cheesy. Yes, the soundtrack is one big advertisement
for distorted baselines. Yes, anyone outside of the specific generation
gap won't understand a single thing going on. Yes, it's little more
than a comedic Mortal
Kombat...
But those are the exact reasons why Scott
Pilgrim Vs The World works so damn well.
If Kick-Ass
blew your mind because it did all the naughty things you didn't think
movies were allowed to do - Scott
Pilgrim Vs The World will blow your mind because of all
the things it does that you didn't even realise movies could do... and
more.
4.5 out
of 5
Scott
Pilgrim vs The World
Australian release: 12th August,
2010
Official
Site: Scott
Pilgrim vs The World
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth
Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick
Director: Edgar Wright
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