Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

It seems that you wait for two uber-nerdy comic book adaptation movies to arrive then two come along at once. Earlier in the year, Kick-Ass wowed audiences with its fairly original style and subject matter and now we have Scott Pilgrim Vs The World a comic book adaptation which sees a normal Canadian lad having to defeat the seven evil exes of the girl of his dreams. The film sees Scott meet the mysteirous Ramona Flowers while still dating Asian schoolgirl Knives, he tries to woo Ramona which eventually happens but then he struggles to let Knives down gently. Scott soon discovers that he will have to defeat Ramona's various exes if he wants to be with them. They include an egotistic movie star, a vegan guitarist, a pair of Chinese twins and a rather agressive girl that Ramona went out with during an 'experimental stage'. Scott also has to concentrate on the band in which he plays bass who have a battle of the bands contest to think about as well as being sound. The end of the film sees Scott trying to figure out what and who he should be fighting for and re-evaluating his life.

Visually Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is an amazing film using computer game graphics as its main inspiration. Each character is introduced with their own caption featuring their age and occupation while there is a lot of cartoonish moments. The script is extremly well written and very funny indeed with some very quotable lines and hilarious segments. Although the formulaic nature of Scott Vs The Exes, should seem repetitive but instead each fight is distinctive with each ex given their own style of fight and special power. The film features a lot of stand-out support performances including Chris Evans and Brandon Routh as two of the exes, Kieran Culkin as Scott's gay roomate, Anna Kendrick as his sister and Alison Pill as the band's drummer and Scott's former flame. As Ramona, Mary Elizabeth Winstead manages to pull of the air of mystery quite well but it is 17 year old Ellen Wong who is the film's stand-out female making us really empathise with Knives and willing Scott to realise that she's a much more suitable choice. Michael Cera's performance perfectly anchors all the more zany aspects of the film and gives it the realistic edge that it needs. I did feel the film did start to flag towards the very end and when Scott started to 'learn about himself' the pace started to slow and some of the unique style left the film. But overall this was a fun, well written, well directed piece of cinema that will appeal to any dorks who have ever had to fight for that unattainable girl or guy.