Comic-book films have become quite popular in this past decade with some examples being "Spider-Man", "X-Men", "Iron Man", and "Batman." But at the start of 2009, we started to see what I call "the next generation" of comic book movies ("The Book of Eli," "Watchmen," "Kick Ass"). The films I speak of are more unique, much different, and they show us heroes aren't the perfect people that some movies make them out to be. "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," which stars the both funny and geeky Michael Cera is a good example.
Meet Scott Pilgrim (Cera), the 22 year old who is in a band named the Sex Bob-ombs (ode to Super Mario Bros) that isn't getting anywhere, is dating a 17 year old high school girl, and has to share a mattress with his gay roommate who most of the time has company. All around Scott doesn't have the best life...that is until he meets the magenta haired girl of his dreams. Say good-bye to the 17 year old and say hello to Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). When her and Scott begin to hang out, she seems to be pretty up tight about who she is and her past. That's because Ramona happens to have seven evil exes and soon Scott realizes that in order for him to date Ramona, he must defeat all of them. Most of the exes have some sort of power, while Scott just has his love for Ramona, but that just might be all he needs to win his battle (plus he has some awesome karate skills)
Being a lover of video games, my favorite thing in "Scott Pilgrim" and what makes it even more unique than probably any comic book film I've seen (almost all of them) is that it is made to look like you are watching a video game. This is demonstrated in popular music from video games, health bars on characters, extra lives, and even a pee bar when Scott uses the restroom. A fun example was at the start of the film where, instead of the traditional Universal Studios introduction, the intro moved and sounded as if it were in a Donkey-Kong game back from the 80's.
Along with the many video game references, my other favorite thing about "Scott Pilgrim" is the fight scenes. Like in video games, each fight begins with the camera panning out on each character and a "VS." shown in between them. "FIGHT! " is shown and each character dives into wonderful choreography of martial arts, sword fights, or just a classic fist fight. Of course the fights would not be complete without the many pows, crashs, and bams that are shown literally every time someone gets hit. Don't worry, "Scott Pilgrim" is not a bloody film; instead the bad guys explode into coins that give Scott bonus points.
Now don't think "Scott Pilgrim" is all about video games and fighting. The film also has plenty of laughs caused by the humorous Michael Cera who can never seem to get out of his usual funny/nerdy roles that he is famous for. It's almost seemed like anything he said made the crowd laugh but that can be attributed to his good timing and line delivery.
The single problem I found with "Scott Pilgrim" is that it is at times hard to follow because of it's very fast paced. Scenes flew by very quickly and I found it hard to process all that I was watching, The good thing was that this was only a problem at the start of the film. Besides that, the combination of video-game connections, comic-book style, action, laughs, and romance made "Scott Pilgrim" a very unique film that sets the standard for the new kind comic-book movie.
"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" has a running time of 112 minutes and is rated PG-13 for stylized violence, sexual content, language and drug references.
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