Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.  Normally I don’t write movie reviews here, however, this movie lands squarely in my domain of all things gaming.  If you ever had an NES as a child, this movie demands your attention.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a film about a young geek who is a wanna-be ladies man.  He’s the bass player in Sex Bob-omb (see? the video game references begin already), and he’s about to fall hard for the new girl in town, Ramona.  What he doesn’t realize, is that there is a “League of Evil Ex’s” he must battle his way through to get to her.  But that’s OK, he plays a lot of DDR, so he’s got the moves.

The visual style of the movie is very polarizing.  Upon first seeing it, you will either love it or hate it.  The film lives up to that first impression thoroughly.  There is enough onomatopoeia in this movie to choke a mule, and for some that’s a problem.  For me, it appealed to my comic-book and video game-fueled childhood, and drew me even deeper into the world.  Every line of dialogue, every sound effect, and every piece of background imagery is deliberately placed, and offers a thousand things to see and hear while you fall deeper into the geeky rabbit hole of this film.

As you might expect, each encounter with one of the members of the League is played out like a level in a fighting game.  All the staples are there from 64 hit combos to special moves.  It’s all there for you to take in.  Many people in the theater were laughing at the ridiculous events on-screen.  Me?  I was wishing that the world would allow for such things as extra lives and mystical powers derived from dietary choices (you would have to see it to get that one, because I’m not ruining it).  The visuals are just outstanding, whether you like them or not.  You can’t fault this movie for its quality.  It delivers an extremely well-crafted audio-visual treat.

My only qualms with the movie lie in the casting.  Namely, Michael Cera as Scott.  Scott is supposed to be a semi-confident wanna-be ladies man.  Michael Cera delivers on none of those levels.  He just happened to be the most well-known geeky actor that fit the age criteria.  That’s unfortunate and I think I would rather have seen it with a no-name actor who actually fit the role.  It really detracts from many of the scenes where he is supposed to be a badass, because that’s just not a quality you could ever attribute to Michael.   Ramona is serviceable in her role as the “aloof hot girl”, and a real surprise was Kieran Culkin (Macaulay’s bro!).  The rest of the cast is also well-done, especially the League.  Every one of them was just epic.  It also gave me some renewed hope for Chris Evans upcoming role as Captain America, since I have never seen him act as anything but a jackass.

The soundtrack is also remarkable.  The songs done in-movie by Sex Bob-omb are awesome, and the Bass Fights that Scott has are suitably epic.  The fact that a large portion of the plot revolves around the fact that Sex Bob-omb is competing in a battle of the bands really provides a lot of room for awesome music and amazing interaction with the actors and special effects.  One fight has a giant gorilla versus a double-dragon.  That alone is worth points in my book.

I really can’t say enough about this film.  Every scene is so well done.  Nothing drags, nothing is wasted.  Everything is, as I said before, very deliberate, very focused and very awesome.  I will also reiterate that this film is very polarizing.  There is no one out there who will think that this film is “all right”.  They will either think it’s the greatest film of all time, or hate it.  It’s my favorite movie that I have ever seen, and that’s the truth.  It even beats out Star Wars.  I guess Lucas ruined that just enough for a movie this awesome to come along and snatch the title.  I would go watch this movie a hundred times, and so should you.

Prax