Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

If you like retro gaming and anime TV shows, then you might just enjoy Scott Pilgrim. Before watching the movie, I thought I wouldn’t like it because of the hipster vibe smell coming off the trailers. I generally hate the hipster culture because they have little knowledge of the things they supposedly like and their tight pants annoy me. After hearing the overhyping of the movie from the Internet and small box office draw, I thought I’d hate the movie. However, I really enjoyed Scott more than I thought I would. Actually, I really enjoyed it.

Scott Pilgrim is about a 20-something that discovers the love of his life in the form of an American girl. (Ramona Flowers) Ramona has a past history with seven ex-boyfriends that team up to fight Scott.

Right off the bat with the opening Universal theme, I fell in love with the movie. Basically, they turned the famous Jerry Goldsmith Universal theme into an 8-bit version. I always like when movies do something strange to the studio logos and this movie isn’t any different.

The movie has many old school references, but they work within the context of the goofiness of the story and concept. The writers segment the story with the various battles that all reference certain styles and movies/videogames. This brings a great deal of freshness to each scene, as you wonder what kind of battle will be next.

Each battle is a slice of geek-dom that someone will recognize. Plus, did I mention I enjoyed the Sonic Hedgehog bit with Scott’s enemies exploding into coins after each defeat. I also got a laugh out of Scott’s sister nearly breaking the fourth wall in the first battle because she doesn’t understand what’s going on.

Michael Cera fits into the role of Scott Pilgrim nicely. Sure, Cera doesn’t really break out of the awkward Cera character he plays in all his roles, but the script seems to love having him play off the stranger moments in the movie. And, it should be noted that the movie also makes fun of an earlier Cera movie that came out in 2010 with funny results.

The rest of the cast members are pretty good in their roles, especially the seven evil exes. I won’t get into all of them, but I enjoyed Brandon Routh’s role as a Dragon Ball Z type of villain. Jason Schwartzman fills the role of wormy super villain nicely, almost too nicely. I also enjoyed Chris Evans’ take on the Hollywood action star.

While the hipster aspect of the movie is a bit annoying, the crazy action makes up for that factor of the story. (Would 20-somethings know anything about Launch Pad McQuack or the theme to an older Final Fantasy game unless they were hipsters?) There are a few corny and boring moments that only vaguely distract from the overall story and bright visuals. However, the movie as a whole is very fast and fun. If you are a fan of movies and 90s videogames, you can’t go wrong with Scott Pilgrim.