Reeling: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Posted on 29. Jul, 2010 by Simon in Film, Reeling, Toronto
The crowd in the theatre was literally buzzing during a recent advance screening of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Everyone’s cell phones had been confiscated and nobody knew what time it actually was.
Impatience begat face-to-face conversation and, nerdy and self-indulgent as it was, the energy in the air built to a fever pitch as the lights finally dimmed — the crowd anticipating the moment Toronto the city, as well as its people (a.k.a. them! get it?), would get a turn in Hollywood’s spotlight.
Suffice to say, the crowd was not disappointed.
Now, let’s get one thing straight: nobody is going to confuse Wright’s intelligent, visual tour de force that is Scott Pilgrim with Christopher Nolan’s gimmicky summer action flick Inception. But upon closer examination, the two films have more in common than one might think.
For starters, not many, if any, movies have ever quite looked like Scott Pilgrim.
Translating a beloved comic book to the big screen has historically been fraught with peril, but Wright does an incredible and unique job in his version; often lifting frame-by-frame, line-by-line from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s original source material. Foibles right down to visual sound effects and 8-bit styled appendix points blanket the screen like pop-ups in an internet browser.
As a result, the movie captures the frenetic, chaotic, retro-video game / manga aesthetic of the graphic novels perhaps more than any movie goer could have imagined possible. Of course, having Michael Cera play Scott Pilgrim certainly helps in that regard.
Cera, for lack of a better cliche, was born to play this role. The dude literally is Scott Pilgrim, and if I had to punch any celebrity’s life in the face he would probably be near the top of my list. HE PLAYS THE SAME CHARACTER IN EVERY MOVIE.
And yet, in Scott Pilgrim, Cera manages to make his shtick feel fresh. Perhaps it’s the fighting, or perhaps it’s simply his comfort with the role. Either way, Cera is less grating in this movie, less of a self-parody than any of his movies since Superbad.
Similarly, Pilgrim’s supporting cast is excellent. Anna Kendrick, Kieran Culkin and Ellen Wong all steal scenes during the film and, indeed, the fact they have so few scenes to steal highlights the unfortunate flaws with Wright’s movie.
Simply put, the film can’t squeeze enough content into it’s run-time.
With graphic novels, pacing is elemental. It is with those quiet beats in between fights or big plot relevant scenes that characters develop, story lines are shaded and humorous throwaway details are inserted.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World simply couldn’t fit all those beats in and, as a result, it suffers.
This is particularly unfortunate because poignant, everyday little moments are what made the original graphic novel so great — they captured the idiosyncrasies of Toronto that you really need to live here to understand.
Sure, the movie features a lot of Second Cup coffee, seemed to be filmed entirely at Bathurst and Bloor and has the cleanest TTC interiors I’ve ever seen. Still, after an utterly enjoyable first half hour, the first fight scene hits and the film essentially snowballs into a non-stop action movie until the final credits roll. There is more to Scott Pilgrim’s life than crazy fight scenes, but you’re hard pressed to know that from simply watching the movie.
There is no time to really get into the backstories of who is fighting, or why, and what all the fighting really means. The movie tells us this is a tale of a boy fighting for the girl he loves, but frankly the graphic novel details how relationships are rarely that black and white.
The movie fails at translating such nuance.
As a result of the crunch, despite meticulous visual reproduction of beloved scenes from the book, the gravitas of Scott Pilgrim’s most iconic moments often fall flat. The ending is rushed as the film seems to shepherd the audience quickly from key plot point to key plot point, major fight to major conversation, before it simply runs out of time.
Caveat? Yes I am biased being a fan of the books. Those who have not read the comics will likely find these complaints largely idiotic and my points entirely irrelevant, because taken on its own, Scott Pilgrim is undoubtedly a wildly entertaining movie.
SPvW is a coming of age story hidden in a romantic action movie styled after Japanese manga and soundtracked by Toronto indie rock from the mid-nineties. The graphic novels beautifully captured Toronto’s zeitgeist, and while the movie don’t quite achieve the same, it still does a wonderful job of capturing the city and story’s superficial appeal.
And, for most, this will be enough. A killer soundtrack, a hilarious and unique story, outstanding direction and great performances by every member of the cast combine to make Scott Pilgrim an utterly enjoyable experience.
Huge fans of the books may find themselves a little unsure, but for the rest of the world — 65% of O’Malley’s graphic novel on screen is still more entertaining than 100% of this summer’s other cinema options.
