The film follows the titular character of Scott Pilgrim, 22 year old bass player of three piece rock band Sex Bob-omb. He's you're average slacker who's between jobs and between girlfriends living in the frozen tundra of Toronto Canada. The story kicks off as he falls for the girl of his dreams, who in fact is the girl of his dreams, Romona Flowers and must defeat her Seven Evil Exes. He does this and learns some stuff too along the way in this highly kinetic coming of age story.
This movie freaking rocked. Here is everything that is awesome about in no particular order.
The Characters: A lot of people criticize Michael Cera for playing the same character in ever film. He's a 22 year old skinny white kid from Canada. What more do you want? The next team member of The Expendables? No. For better or worst he is essentially the face of a generation of shy awkward nerds across this land. But as Scott Pilgrim he really isn't that character. On the surface he looks at sounds the same as ever but most importantly he's not the same on the inside, he's not shy around girls, is proactive and can rock. Scott's love interests are played quite well by Ellen Wong who plays his initial 17 year old girl friend Knives Chau and Mary Elisabeth Winstead as the girl of his dreams Ramona Flowers. Both do a really good job at two completely different female characters. A big highlight of the film is the fantastic supporting cast. Some of the shining stars are Jason Schwartszman as the delightfully smarmy Gideon Gordon Graves, Kieren Culkin as Scott's sardonic roommate Wallace Wells, Aubrey Plaza as the "girl with issues" Julie Powers, Alison Pill as the deadpan drummer of Sex Bob-omb Kim Pine, Brandon Routh as the vegan bassist Todd Ingram, and honestly I could list everyone else in this cast as they all did a rocking job.
The Story: What really made this film work was that It would still be fully entertaining and interesting to watch all these characters in this story without all the fights. The fights are just icing on the cake, very excellent funfetti icing. The core of the film is about a guy falling in love and taking over whatever obstacles outward and inward which involve defeating Ramona's seven evil Exes in your typical progression into the ultimate boss fight at the end. It's really one of the oldest stories in the book: Boy Meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy must do "x" to attain girl. But what makes Scott Pilgrim special is the video game presentation of it all with the spot on characterization of today's youth and culture.
The Writing: Insanely quotable.
The Fights: This was a huge step in the right direction for fights on film. Some of the most pure fun fight scenes to watch in any film. They were vivid, excellently choreographed, and most importantly inventive. Too often you see the same old stuff over and over again, for a recent example The Expendables. Yes, they were well done and fun to watch. But really, how many different ways can you punch a dude. Well Dan you can punch a dude that's on fire. Yeah but what I'm trying to say is this film cranked it up to a level not scene before using heavy video game influences infused throughout. It reminds me of this Jim Jarmusch quote (well it's kinda a quote within a quote):
"...don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”"
This really applies to everything about this film. It's a celebration of video games and garage band rock and roll. The other great thing about the fights in this film is that they are all different. It's similar to Bruce Lee's Game of Death and Tony Jaa's Tom Yung Goong where each of the hero's opponents throughout the film fight in a different style of martial arts. Here we have the Seven Evil Exes who are all have their different strengths and weaknesses. One of the most inventive fights is when Scott must defeat Ramona's only woman Ex. As like most guys he does not feel comfortable fighting a girl thus the fight that ensues is something truly original.
The Music: The soundtrack of both diegetic and non-diegetic songs are fantastic. What has the most resonance in my head and was the most enthralling to listen to was the songs played by Scott Pilgrim's band Sex Bob-omb. It was really cool and well done how the band performing was such an integral part of the story and Scott's development. The band even "battles" one of Ramona's Exes with its sound (you'll see) which was radtastic. Definitely see the film in a theatre with a good sound system. I didn't even find this out until after I saw the film but Beck wrote all the songs for Sex Bob-omb, so it's really no wonder why they are so awesome.
The Cinematography: Excellent job by Director of Photography Bill Pope who's known for such big films as The Matrix, Spider Man 2 and Team America: World Police. The world created for this film visually is really quite stunning.
The Editing: The transitions in this film are some of the best I've seen in any film. They move the film along at a really great pace. Some of the cuts were very jarring and totally disoriented me in time and space of the film, in a good way though as they drew me more into the world of the film.
The Directing: Simply put, Edgar Wright is the man. I have not read the graphic novel's by Bryan Lee O'Malley so cannot say if he did a good job adapting them or not. Nevertheless on a purely cinematic level this film worked on hyperdrive on all levels as described above. An amazing job from everyone on the film. High Fives to all.
I had an awesome time watching the film and am now very interested in checking out the graphic novels. If you have ever been in love, played video games, or like to rock and roll you'll love this film. This is a must see. It's amazing and by far my favorite film of the year.
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