Darkmatters Review: Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Scott Pilgrim vs the World (12a)

Dir. Edgar Wright

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Prepare for an epic epic of epic epicness…

Meet Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) a 22 year old slacker, he’s trying to
get over a major broken heart, find a job, get his fairly sucky band
together and not pay rent to his cool gay roommate (Kieran Culkin). His
precious little life is fairly un-incredible, on the plus side he does
have a 17year old rebound girlfriend - a high school girl named Knives
Chau (Ellen Wong) who thinks he’s the greatest guy ever. But one day
Scott meets the literal girl of his dreams – the foxy Ramona Flowers
(Mary Elizabeth ‘Die Hard 4.0’ Winstead) roller blading through his
head and from then on he’s absolutely smitten.

So far, so much like so many slacker rom-coms but Scott Pilgrim vs The
World is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Adapted from the
cutting edge cool series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley by Edgar
‘Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead’ Wright, probably the greatest working
British director of our time, this is a super powered mixture of romance,
comic book violence and video game cool. You see, in order to date Ramona,
Scott Pilgrim must fight and defeat her seven evil exes in mortal combat
– each of whom packs a unique super power.

Director Wright makes films that bring a pop culture overload to the
masses, what he did for zombie films with Shaun of the Dead and police
action buddy films with Hot Fuzz, he does here for video games and super
heroes. Anyone who has ever played Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter or
Super Mario Bros. will be tripping from the theme tunes, sound and visual
effects seamlessly incorporated into the film, but you don’t have to be
a gaming geek to enjoy the megaton thrill of such a wonderfully produced
homage to super powered thrills.

The arcade game style battles against the seven evil exes are realised in
hyper real fight scenes - think The Matrix 2.0 mixed with animé
influences such as Dragonball Z or Naruto. The exes themselves are
memorable adversaries, Lucas is an action movie star / skateboard dude
(Chris Evans), Todd (Brandon Routh) is a vegan powered telekinetic badass
and final boss fight Gideon (Jason Schwartzman) is a slimy music producer
who wants Ramona back.

Everything works so well that you’ll be lost in an endorphin buzz of
pure fun, action and self-discovery. Oh, and music, because Scott’s band
‘Sex Bob-omb’ are a wannabe punk outfit (whose tracks are supplied by
Beck) and you don’t need to have played ‘Guitar Hero’ to love their
spiky band contests.

"Scott Pilgrim is a lover and a fighter!"

Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are brilliant in the lead roles
and are ably supported by their cool support cast of friends and rivals.
The special effects are awesome and the central metaphor about the need to
fight for your true love is a universal one that makes Scott Pilgrim vs
The World a text book for dating in the 21st century.

From the moment that an 8-bit version of the Universal logo chugs onto
screen to a MIDI Zelda-esq theme you know that you’re in for a geek’s
paradise of tech enhanced thrills. Scott Pilgrim vs The World is an
un-missable burst of perfect cinematic joy, repeated viewings recommended!

UNSEEN DELETED SCENE:

Scott Pilgrim gets sucked into a PlayStation 3 remake of Final Fantasy VII and has to battle Cloud Strife who has taken a fancy to Ramona! Huge swords at the ready!!

Darkmatters rating: öööööööööö (10 epic scenes of epicness out of 10)

Darkmatters quick reference guide: Action 9 / Style 9 / Babes 8 / Comedy 10 / Horror 5 / Spiritual Enlightenment 13