'Bread makes you fat?!'Based on a series of graphic novels by Korean-Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley, with the first being released in 2004, Scott Pilgrim vs The World is the latest in the nerdy-teen-becomes-hero-action-comedy genre after the success of Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass. Whether this lives up to the quite fantastic Kick-Ass is a matter of opinion (for me, not quite, but close) but it does represent another terrific addition to a young film nerd's collection. It doesn't aim for a typical blockbuster audience or for Academy Awards or an attempt to be artsy. It is a film made by a geek, for geeks. In the most awesome way possible. That geek being, of course, British director Edgar Wright, the man behind Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the cult TV series Spaced. Finally provided with the scale and scope and finances necessary to fully render his immense talents on the big screen. This is by far his best work so far, and a loud announcement of his arrival in Hollywood. Aged just 36, the man should have quite a film-making future. And Scott Pilgrim is classic Edgar Wright, littered with pop-cultural references of various film, music and gaming items and capably mixing entertaining action sequences with humour-led character interaction. The film plays almost like a big-budget Spaced, which is of course very much a compliment.
In that respect the film is very much a mash-up. It's an action film, a comedy, a romance, and much more besides. It's bursting with ideas, making it the sort of movie you immediately want to see again, knowing just how many references and minor jokes you must've missed out on first time around. There's almost a little too much going on, as though Wright has somewhat overdone the sheer number of ideas he has stuffed into Scott Pilgrim's make-up. It's just fortunate really that the ideas that it has are largely inspired. Visually the film is superb, evidence of what Wright is capable of with a larger budget and a story that calls for such flamboyant and innovative flourishes. The film is at times a comic book- brightly coloured 'thwaaaacks' eminate from punches within the fight scenes, a similar 'bring-bringgg' from a ringing telephone, and one sequence is rendered, Kill Bill-style, in a cartoonish animation based upon that of the original graphic novels. It is also at times a video game- main character Pilgrim (Michael Cera) gains extra 'lifes', enemies are dispatched by exploding into coins. The film is literally full of such moments; it is, for the most part, very intelligent in its silliness. Some of these moments work better than others, of course, and some take the silly levels that little bit too far. But in that way, you can't help but commend Wright and all the other people involved in Scott Pilgrim; it is, if nothing else, experimental. And I'm all for that.
Prior to the film's release there were some doubts voiced about Michael Cera's ability to pull off the lead role in an 'action' film, but his part in the action scenes is probably less important than that of the awkward group and romantic scenes for which we know Cera best. In this way he is perfectly cast as Pilgrim; he does little in this film to prevent the critics who describe him as 'one-note' and 'lacking range' but he does tick the majority of boxes required for such a character. No one can do romantic awkwardness or a humourous social ineptitude like Cera. And, in fairness to him, he takes on the fight scenes gamely. Cera is given solid support from Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the girl of his dreams Ramona Flowers, Winstead managing to portray well the character's aloof nature and her perceived 'coolness'. I think, to paraphrase the film itself, that I may well be in lesbians with Ramona Flowers. She can form my new film crush until the next Ellen Page film comes out. The seven evil exes are brought to life well by humourous turns by Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman, amongst others, and there is a scene-stealing performance from Kieran Culkin as Pilgrim's gay roommate Wallace Wells. The music in the film was put in the hands of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, and is often hilarious, nearly always fantastic- I strongly recommend the soundtrack. Beck and Broken Social Scene were both involved in creating the tunes for the various bands in the film.
'You punched the highlights out of her hair!'
Thus far Scott Pilgrim vs The World has, confusingly to everyone, performed very disappointingly at the US box office. Trying to grasp why, particularly after the film has received a very positive critical reception, is rather tricky, but this article on the Vanity Fair website looks into it and urges people to pay to see the film in the cinema- http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/08/go-and-pay-to-see-scott-pilgrim-right-now.html. I can certainly recommend this film to everyone- Edgar Wright deserves wide audiences paying for Pilgrim tickets after putting a huge amount of work and talent into the film's production and post-production. The film certainly isn't perfect, and certainly isn't for everyone (there will be many who simply won't 'get it'), but give it a go, because there's worse things you could spend a few quid on.
'I want to pee on her' 4/5
Here is a quite awesome Scott Pilgrim/The Matrix mash-up trailer that someone on YouTube has cleverly made and which has gained a fair bit of internet buzz- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RsZErYEXz8&feature=player_embedded
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of posts ago I mentioned Danny Boyle's latest, 127 Hours. The trailer for the film has just been released and is worth a look, though it holds back on much of the horror of the story it tells- http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi298255897/
No comments:
Post a Comment