Scott Pilgrim Sneak Preview Thoughts or A Raise!
To begin with, I received a raise at my least favourite of jobs. I now make nearly as much as Greyhound, which almost makes me hate it there less... almost. Oh well, at least I will have more cash kicking around...which will be promptly used up by the arrival of the baby. Such is life I suppose.
Now to the meat and potatoes of the thing.
Wednesday night I saw an advanced screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World at the Empire Cinemas at Grant Park. Having only recently been introduced to the comic (but having voraciously devoured them all in no time) I was fairly pumped to see Edgar Wright's adaptation. We arrived as early as possible fearing a massive line (like when we saw a sneak preview for 9) but were able to get quite near the front of the queue and get great seats. The movie starts off great, with an 8-bit version of the Universal logo and theme and doesn't let up from there. The screen is constantly filled with words, visual jokes, flair, references, and the editing is top notch. The timing on this movie is off the charts. So much of good comedy is based around timing and not only were the jokes well timed, but the editing cuts were as well. Yes you could argue that it is borderline ADD inspired but for the source material, it works wonders. You are constantly moving forward in the story and forced to pay attention in order to not miss the small asides and breakneck pace. I had my doubts that Michael Cera would be right for the role, but they were soon abated and he did a great job. Maybe not all that different from everything else he has done, but here it worked. The crowd was really into the whole thing as well, but I'm not sure how good of an indicator that is as the room was filled with obvious nerds and even people in Scott Pilgrim merchandise.
Now this movie was made before the comic ended so there were bound to be differences in the story. In some cases they worked and in others they skipped over some of the emotional subtlety and impact of the books. The thing is, you need to judge the movie on what it is, not what it isn't. It's not so much about growing up and moving on as the books, at least in terms of Scott's character arc, but more about about coming to terms with the past and trusting yourself to someone new. At least that's what it seemed to me. By losing the arc with Nega-Scott, they didn't get into the facet of Scott wherein we learned that he was in fact a jerk and was not owning up to his past. I thought that would have been worthwhile to explore, but I can see why they dropped it as you would have had to do a lot of other scenes to get to a meaningful revelation, that stuff would have easily added another 20-30 minutes of running time. Also, I don't think that Ramona came across as interesting a character in the movie, she was more mysterious, and seemed to be more with Scott for the same reasons that he was with Knives ie) a simple relationship without drama rather than an actually meaningful partnership. The extent that they grow together was a little rushed, but again this is the price you must pay when adapting 6 books into one movie.
They drastically changed up the final 3 fights, especially the twins battle. The entire sub plot with Kim and Scott's past was ignored but you didn't really notice. I actually thought the twins battle was more visually interesting in the movie because it focused more on the Sex Bob-omb band, but you could argue that it makes the journey less a personal one for Scott when he gets help to win the battles. If you are looking at the whole defeating 7 evil exes thing as a metaphor for getting over someone's past, then it makes sense that someone may require help to come to terms with something especially strange or off-putting.
The character of Knives was much more sympathetic in this movie and it almost seemed to be leading to an ending where Scott ends up with her (which is what they originally shot from my understanding). I could see people actually rooting for her to win as Ramona was kept kind of on a pedestal.
This is pretty much the ultimate 80's child (nerdy ones) movie as the classic video game references get dropped a mile a minute. From the faint use of the zelda theme, Scott playing the bass line from Final Fantasy II, the pixelated 1-UP, Clash at Demonhead band name, there were many a shout out to the gaming of yesteryear. The one reference from the comic I missed was the Shatterhand one... that game is amazing and all too forgotten. Sometimes this current use of pop-culture referencing can be a little much, especially when it is not organically integrated into the story, but here they made sure to make it not only part of the content, but also the form. Nowhere near as annoying as it could have been.
What should really be mentioned about this movie was that it was a fun time through and through. An amazing visual style, breakneck pace, outstanding editing, great use of pop-culture references in service of story, and something that can feel personal to people if they choose to let it. It's not for everyone and I can see a lot of people hating it, but sometimes things don't have to be Citizen Kane... as long as they are don't fall to the level of Transformers 2... so final verdict: If you want a fun and fresh movie to see this summer check out Scott Pilgrim. If you like it, go and read the comics you will be in for a good time.
This wasn't so much a formal review or anything, more of a stream of consciousness capturing of my thoughts on the movie. I will definitely go see it again, as I find that to really "get" a movie you need to see it more than once. The first time you are more interested in letting the story flow and not as likely to notice all the subtlety. Once you've gotten over that, then the real analysis can begin. At least that's usually how I watch a movie (unless it was for a course or something).
Final score: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World 4.5 Stars out of 5. SEE IN THEATRES!