SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD [Review 1]

This was my final film at this year’s MIFF and it was a spectacular way to end.  “Scott Pilgrim” was one of the films I was most looking forward to at the festival, because I am a huge fan of director Edgar Wright’s work.  From TV show “Spaced” to his two British films “Shaun Of The Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”, and his brilliant fake-trailer for the made-up film “Don’t!” in “Grindhouse”, he is always very creative, but most of all he is cinema-literate.  He knows how to make a great film.  He also has a problem of sometimes trying to cramp too much in, which “Scott Pilgrim” is a victim of, but for the majority, it is a fun and amazing film to watch. 

The cinema was a sold-out session, which was perfect for a comedy this good.  The only problem was missing a couple of lines of dialogue due to all the belly laughs.  The story of “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” is that Scott is a slacker who falls in love with Ramona Flowers (a girl who changes her hair colour weekly), but to prove his love for her, he must defeat her seven evil-exes.  Not just battle, but defeat.  All this is done in a comic book/video-game/anime-inspired mayhem that needs to be seen to be believed, with things like sound effects being spelt on-screen and then shattered with the next punch (Edgar Wright really is at the top of his game here). 

What surprised me the most was just how good the fights are in this film.  Scott Pilgrim is played by Michael Cera, who is not really known as a martial artist, so I wasn’t expecting much.  The opposite is true because they are fantastic and very fast (especially the first one, which also hilariously gets interrupted by a Bollywood style dance number).  It is obvious that Edgar Wright is a fan of Hong Kong movies, because he has taken the time to shoot these great action scenes properly (apparently the first fight scene took two weeks to shoot which is very like Hong Kong).  He also hired Brad Allen as stunt co-ordinator on the film, who has worked in Hong Kong cinema in the past, including playing the main villain in Jackie Chan’s “Gorgeous”.  

The cast are all magnificent, from the aforementioned Cera, to the likes of Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzman, Brandon Routh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (as Ramona Flowers) and Chris Evans.  Everyone is suited perfectly to their roles with the exception of Kieran Culkin, who plays Scott’s gay roommate, which I never really believed.  As mentioned earlier, the film does have a few problems with the main one being Edgar Wright not knowing when to quit.  Because the film is a laugh-a-minute with heaps of sight gags, you need to be careful not to lose the audience by overloading their senses.  I felt he could have pulled back just a little which would have made the perfect film. 

The film is also a little long and a bit repetitive, and reducing the number of evil exes may have helped this (I know that there are seven in the comic book, but sometimes what works on paper, doesn’t work as well on film).  Overall, these are minor complaints, as this really could be the most fun you have in the cinema this year and it is safe to say that I lesbians this film.  Oh, and it has probably the funniest “Seinfeld” joke that I’ve ever seen and it just comes out of the blue.  Hilarious!

4 Stars - Viewed at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival.