Scott PIlgrim vs. the World

I’m not sure a simple review can show anyone just how amazingly epic Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is, but here goes nothing. It was a fantastic movie, and one of the most fun times I’ve had at the theaters in ages. Everything, down to the absurd plot, was flowing with artistic creativity. The only “negative” aspect of the film is that you really have to understand gaming culture. If you don’t, many of the film’s jokes won’t make any sense. For this reason, it’s a very hard movie to review.

The basic plot of the movie is this. Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is madly in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Edward) and wants to date her. Normally this would sound like a romantic comedy, but there’s one small catch. In order to win her heart, Scott must fight and defeat her seven evil exes.

It’s hard to touch on every single actor in the film individually, but they all did great jobs. I’ve never been a Michael Cera fan, but he did a fantastic job here as Scott Pilgrim. The standout would have to be Kieran Culkin as Scott’s gay roommate, Wallace. He stole the scene every time he was on screen.

It’s literally impossible to talk about this movie without mentioning the sound effects and visuals. The moment the Universal theme and logo appear in 8-bit, you know you’re in for a treat. The movie was filmed like it was a video game. During fight scenes, everyone would have health bars and they would flash red when “low” on health. The best effect, however, was “vs.” sliding onto the screen right before a fight would begin. When a character died, they would explode into coins and numbers would appear in their place, symbolizing points. The fights were also very stylized and fast paced, like a fighting game.

The music was also very stylized and “gamelike” in nature. Nigel Godrich has made the perfect score for this movie. He did a remix of the “Fairy Fountain” theme from Zelda for the dream sequences. The “boss battle” music is great as well. It uses a mix between 8-bit and 16-bit style music mixed with fast paced drum and violin scores.

All in all, this movie was amazing and it’s an easy recommendation. It's just pure, unadulterated fun.