Did everyone have a good Christmas? I know I did. One of my gifts was a copy of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book. I haven't gone through the whole thing yet, but, looking through the index of movies, I'm surprised to find that movies that were released in 2016 (like Arrival and The Jungle Book) are a part of it. It's a pretty good book so far. I'm definitely gonna use it going forward with my movie reviews. But, anyway. Another day, another favorite movie reveal. My sixth favorite movie is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Directed by Edgar Wright, written by both Wright and Michael Bacall, and starring such people as Michael Cera, Alison Pill, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Anna Kendrick, and many others, Scott Pilgrim is an awesome movie from beginning to end. The movie was based on the Scott Pilgrim comic series (which I have not read, but I want to now). If you haven't seen this movie, it's on Netflix. I really recommend that you watch it, considering the fact that I'm gonna spoil all of it here.
Firstly, the acting. Michael Cera plays Scott Pilgrim, a Canadian bassist who is also apparently a master martial artist for some unexplained reason. He's in a band called Sex Bob-omb with drummer Kim Pine (played by Alison Pill) and lead singer Stephen Stills (played by Mark Webber). The acting among these three is very good. Cera plays the jerkish, yet sympathetic, dork exceptionally, Alison shines as the deadpan snarker with a heart of gold, and Webber was impressive as the paranoid, yet hopeful, goofball. The story revolves around Scott meeting and falling in love with Ramona Flowers (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and then having to battle her seven evil exes in order to actually be with her, but the heart of the movie lies within Scott. He is not a good person. After getting dumped by someone who is not a world-famous rockstar, he starts dating a 17-year-old as a rebound (Knives Chau, played by Ellen Wong in her first movie role). He then immediately cheats on, and then dumps, her as soon as Ramona skates into her life. He bails on his bandmates at a near constant rate and snaps on Ramona in the middle of the film, saying some very harsh things to her. The reason why I say that Scott is the heart of the film is the fact that this is just as much a redemption story as it is a love story. He learns from his behavior as the film goes along and grows a person, which ultimately culminates with the moment when he earns the Power of Self-Respect Blade during the final battle against Gideon. Scott is a very well-developed character, which is all because of Wright's writing and Cera's performance.
It goes without saying that the fight scenes are insanely epic! As I mentioned before, Scott has to take down a gauntlet of Ramona's exes one after the other in order to see if he's truly worthy of dating Ramona. After receiving an Email explaining the situation (and promptly skimming then deleting it), the first fight seemingly comes out of nowhere when Matthew Patel (played in a delightfully hammy manner by Staya Bhabha) flies through one of the walls during the Battle of the Bands scene. The fighting is intense, the choreography is outstanding, and the cinematography of those scenes is off the charts. I'm not sure how much of the fighting is actually Cera (obviously not including moments when his face is on-screen) and how much of it is his stunt double, Chris Mark, but the fact that I can't tell which is which is a testament to how well put together the action scenes are. My favorite of the fight scenes are: Sex Bob-omb vs The Katayanagi Twins, Scott and Ramona vs Roxy Richter, and both rounds of Scott, Knives, and Ramona vs Gideon Graves. All of the fights are insanely good, but those three stood out to me the most. Scott by himself is a great fighter, I just have a soft spot for teamwork. And the acting from the Evil Exes was very good across the board. Special mentions go to Chris Evans as Lucas Lee and Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram. That's right: Scott Pilgrim, after getting dumped by Captain Marvel, outsmarted Captain America and then murdered Superman! What a legend.
When Scott Pilgrim isn't blowing your mind with it's awesome fights or melting your heart with it's charm, it's making you fall out of your seat from laughing too hard. This movie is hilarious, full stop. Lucas Lee stepping out of his trailer while the Universal theme blares in the background (and cracking his knuckles in sync with the drum part), every lines that comes out of Roxy's mouth, the caption gags, Julie's usages of the F word being censored by a black box and a record scratch-esque noise (which is expertly used against her by Envy in a later scene). My favorite joke is when Knives goes to Scott's house after their breakup, and his roommate says "He just left" seconds after we see Scott jumping out the window. The comedy here is great. It adds a lot to the charm. The funniest characters are Scott (of course), Kim, Stacey Pilgrim (played by Anna Kendrick), and Wallace (played by Kieran Culkin). The comedic chemistry between the actors is awesome. Scott saying "Bread makes you fat!?" in a genuinely shocked tone will always be funny.
Another thing I adore about this movie is the soundtrack. Naturally, given the fact that the three leads are a band, they perform a lot. When they do, it's awesome. All the songs that Sex Bob-omb performs rock, as does the material by the other bands in the film. Special mention goes to The Clash at Demonhead. Who knew Brie Larson was such a good singer? Michael Cera gets some singing scenes, too, as does Webber and Pill. They do good jobs. By far, the best (and funniest) song number is Matel's Bollywood villain song. It comes out of nowhere, lasts for all of thirty seconds, and is never mentioned again, but it steals the entire movie. I also have to mention the fact that Cera, Pill, and Webber actually spent months practicing together as a legitimate band. Pill and Webber learned how to play their respective instruments, where as Cera was already a skilled bassist. They work together as a band incredibly. And I'd also like to talk about Edgar Wright's style of directing. I think he's a brilliant director! His way of creating scene transitions is just insane. Certain characters will pop their head into frame in one environment, then they'll pull back and bring us to a new environment. Plain black backgrounds will pop up out of nowhere in emotional scenes, liken when Scott dumps knives or when Scott dies. Edgar was the perfect choice for this movie. Go watch Shaun of the Dead.
The video game aesthetics in Scott Pilgrim are out of this world! The opening Universal logo being in 8-Bit, the fact that the fights don't start until someone yells "FIGHT!", all the Zelda music cues, the points Scott earns after defeating the Exes, the fact that collecting a 1-up in an earlier brings Scott back into the action after Gideon kills him at the end. It's great stuff, and it does the most in terms of adding to the charm of the film. I know I've been saying that a lot, but can you blame me? The amount of effort, love, and care that was put into making this film is extremely commendable. And the comic book allusions are great, too. The sound effects getting 60's Batman style word bubbles was both awesome and funny. And, of course, the flashbacks being told through comic panels that come directly out of the original comic book was so cool to see translated to the big screen. That is how you do an adaptation. The mixture of comic and game effects was perfect. Nicely done, to everyone that was involved with bring it to life.
The video game aesthetics in Scott Pilgrim are out of this world! The opening Universal logo being in 8-Bit, the fact that the fights don't start until someone yells "FIGHT!", all the Zelda music cues, the points Scott earns after defeating the Exes, the fact that collecting a 1-up in an earlier brings Scott back into the action after Gideon kills him at the end. It's great stuff, and it does the most in terms of adding to the charm of the film. I know I've been saying that a lot, but can you blame me? The amount of effort, love, and care that was put into making this film is extremely commendable. And the comic book allusions are great, too. The sound effects getting 60's Batman style word bubbles was both awesome and funny. And, of course, the flashbacks being told through comic panels that come directly out of the original comic book was so cool to see translated to the big screen. That is how you do an adaptation. The mixture of comic and game effects was perfect. Nicely done, to everyone that was involved with bring it to life.
I perfectly understand why this movie flopped at the box office when it was first released. I get it. It can be pretentious, Scott is a jerk for 80% of the movie, and Edgar Wright's style isn't for everybody. I can understand why people wouldn't like it. That being said, I am not one of the people that doesn't like Scott Pilgrim. I love this movie. It's a thrilling joyride from beginning to end. You might not think so, but I do. Kevin Smith does, too, so that's a plus. Stay tuned for tomorrow, when we reach the halfway point of this list. You might be pleasantly surprised as to what it is.
