Movie of the Week: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Alexa: Words cannot adequately describe how much I love “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” I’ve seen it so many times I’ve lost count, and every time I watch it, I laugh just as hard and have just as much fun as the first viewing. “Scott Pilgrim” is Edgar Wright at his best. The jokes are as fast and furious as his signature editing style. The script is immensely clever. The vibrant production design captures the energy of the comic books and video games the film draws so much inspiration from. Wright has made a host of truly great films, but I think “Scott Pilgrim” is his best and most underrated. It’s developed a bit of a cult following since tanking at the box office, but I still don’t think it gets the recognition it deserves. Granted, its offbeat humor is pretty niche, but that doesn’t make it any less brilliant. “Scott Pilgrim” is also one of the best cast films in recent memory. It was a who’s who of talented young up-and-comers like Kieran Culkin, Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Aubrey Plaza and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, many of whom exploded in popularity in subsequent years. Every actor is a perfect fit for their role, including Michael Cera. He’s often been typecast as some variation of George Michael from “Arrested Development,” and while Scott may hit some of those notes, he has so much more room to spread his wings here. His timing is impeccable and demonstrates what a skilled comic actor he really is.

Joel: Edgar Wright usually makes original movies. He’s most famous for his “Cornetto Trilogy” that he created with Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End) and in fact Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is his only movie that’s based on an existing work. That being said, this still might be the most “Edgar Wright” feeling movie he’s ever made. You can feel his hand working in every frame of this movie. Wright has creates an incredible fun, fast paced, bizzare world in this movie, one that is simultaneously a comic book that exists in the fantasy world of Canda, and a video game adaptation. Scott Pilgrim isn’t even really an adaptation of a certain video game, it’s almost as if’ the movie is an adaptation of the concept of video games themselves.
You can easily see how a different director approaching the material could cause the whole thing to break down. Is this the real world or some fantastical version of it? Does Scott have superpowers? How is he this good at fighting? Is that part of his backstory? Yet, Edgar Wright takes a very confident, straightforward approach to the material. He pulls off an incredibly fun movie, that feels like it’s flying from storybeat to storybeat. We touched on Kubrick’s obsessive attention to detail in last week’s movie, and Wright displays a similar attention to detail here. You’ve got information crammed into every shot of this movie. Every Evil Ex is surrounded by their number. You might have noticed that Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) has a number “2” tattoo and that he was in trailer #2. You probably noticed that facing Gideon was Level 7 and that Scott got “7 billion” points for beating Gideon. But Gideon was also referred to as G-Man throughout the movie because G is the 7th letter of the alphabet. And the twins (Evil Exes 5 and 6) turned there music up to 11, which was simultaneously a Spinal Tap reference and due to the fact that 5 + 6 = 11. Even Scott has a number associated with him throughout the movie being called a Zero by Gideon, wearing a shirt that has “Zero” on it and drinking Coke Zero at the party. (By the way none of these examples is me reaching for anything. Edgar Wright has confirmed that each and every one of these number references I mentioned was completely intentional plus literally dozens of additional examples.) With so much thought put into every single frame of this movie, I’ve seen something new every time I’ve watched it and I’m sure that the next time I watch this movie I’ll see something else new.

Chris: I assumed our reviews would just be a freight train of love for Scott Pilgrim vs The World and I will not be the one breaking up said freight train. Everything about the movie is so well thought out and executed by Edgar Wright and the cast. It’s a relatively simple story that could have just ended with “the good guy gets the girl” but instead, we get Scott Pilgrim, a flawed character that realizes his personal growth is more important than simply getting the girl. I considered focusing my review on Jason picking a safe movie that we all will love but I’m throwing that out the window because Scott Pilgrim is too good to gripe about anything else. There’s so many missteps that movies can take when they’re based on graphic novels and this was during that graphic novel boom and a lot of them took those missteps. However, Scott Pilgrim found its groove, it’s amazing cast and found the tone that fit perfectly with the story without feeling forced or campy.

Jason: No joke, this is one of the best films made in the last 30 years. The production is so tight, the elements fit so well. There are so many layers to dig into for this one and I don’t have time to write a dissertation. Edgar Wright took a big risk in tackling this material. It wasn’t a very well known property, the video game elements mixed with the comic style storytelling in a movie format would all have to be mixed together flawlessly, and the comic book wasn’t even completed when the movie released! And although it had so much stacked against it, this came out as a masterpiece.

There is so much to love. I’ll only hit a couple of points. First of all, the music. Music is such an integral part of the Scott Pilgrim story in the comics that it would have to be something special to translate to the screen. All of Sex Bob-Om’s songs were written by Beck and actually performed by the actors. This added so much realism to their on-screen performances and gave them the background into how the music should be played. I love these songs. I regularly listen to the soundtrack. And all of the music throughout the film, both performed by the characters and played in the background is completely intertwined with the story. Every song has a purpose and none of it is out of place.

Next, the comic style. Even for a comic book, “Scott Pilgrim” is  stylized. The way the story is told in the books has a peculiar flow that is unique. The movie captures that flow perfectly. Wright’s style of quick cuts, fast dialog, and charming humor mixed with the storyboard feel of the comic is a match made in heaven. There are shots in the film that are literally real-life remakes of panels from the book but with the addition of being able to use movement to infuse the scene with comedic timing.

Speaking of comedy, the humor. Wright is known for his fast-paced, witty dialog and this movie might just be his best in that category. There are so many little quips packed into each conversation that it is impossible to pick up on all of them in just one viewing.

The whole movie is about subverting expectation. From the overall picture of the film right down to tiny details within a single frame, nothing is how we think it will be. We expect the main character of a comic book/movie in this genre to be charming and likable but Scott is kind of a douche to everyone right up to the end. That is a broad example but it happens so often that sometimes it’s hard to keep track. And even the ending. Originally, Scott ends up getting back together with Knives and letting Ramona go on her way. Of course, that ending didn’t play well with test audiences so we got the more conventional ending but I think it would have fit better with the theme of the rest of the story.

I watch this movie about every other month or so. It’s that one that I can watch on a whim no matter my mood. When I saw it pop up on Netflix, I knew it would have to be added to the list. If I could erase one movie from my brain just so I could watch it for the first time again, it would be this movie. As I said, one of the best films of modern time.