If you guys remember the summer of 2010, I was reading and reviewing the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels for the ungodly reasoning of preparing myself for the Scott Pilgrim movie. I say ungodly since I'm the type of guy who hates complaining that something is different when there's an adaptation. I hate it, it's not real criticism and it's not a real reason to hate something. But one thing lead to another and here I was with the whole series read. But, at the very least reading the series was the best thing and worst thing I could have done.
Like in the graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim is a 22-year old slacker who's unemployed and plays the bass in a garage band. He's also dating a 17-year old Chinese high school student. However, the mood is about to change when Ramona Flowers comes skating through his life and blah blah blah...seven evil exes...blah blah blah. The only people who are reading this either know the plot or just looking at the pretty pictures. It's safe to say that you know what's up and if you don't, educate yourself with my reviews of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels.
*Mick Foley cheap plug thumbs-up*
The movie plays out like you just asked some moron off the street what he knew of Scott Pilgrim he would probably be saying "DUDE! It's so awesome! It's filled with lots of references to video games and there's this awesome fighting! And I guess there's a love story but that's not important." And that is the movie Edgar Wright has decided to make which kinda sucks since it's so much more than just being really awesome and the movie barely scratches the surface on that. You get glimpses that something is wrong with Scott and that he isn't this totally awesome dude but the movie never follows through on them. Sure, he learns a lesson and becomes a better man but it's so totally obligatory and pointless it just may as well not be there at all.
But where the movie really excels at is the direction and visuals. Despite cutting out all the depth and good parts about truly changing for true love, it is still made with great care and even greater flair. Lots of people have called this a video-game movie come to life and they say that cause it's true. Everything is hyper-kinetic, the fights are filled with energy and excitement and all of the fights even a HUD so you know a fight's going to happen immediately and between the two combatants. It may not be engaging the heart as it should but it always engages the eyes.
But I expected the deeper things to be cut out of the movie, but at least I still had hope for the acting...and those hopes were mostly broken in a million pieces. I had hope for Michael Cera, sure he plays the same guy all the time but so do a lot of people and they do alright. Besides, Scott Pilgrim was a good fit for Cera. Too bad Cera underplays it so much that he's just more boring than cool. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is alright as Ramona Flowers, she doesn't sound right to me. The only real standouts here is Keiran Culkin as Wallace Wells and Chris Evans as Lucas Lee, both of them have a ball, both of them are a hoot to watch and I wish both of them had more screen time.
I may be sounding a bit harsh but I really do like it. It's a fair adaptation with many cute references and some of the good lines and moments intact, it just decides to go for surface thrills. I know how good this could be and see something that only pays lip service to the heavier themes and with an ending that is just fundamentally wrong is a bit disheartening. However, to deny the fact that it is entertaining, action-packed and at times hilarious is just as stupid. It's a good movie, I just wished it was better. But if Edgar Wright wants to adopt another graphic novel series, I'll let him. He fixed Shaun of the Dead's flaws with Hot Fuzz so masterfully that Shaun has become unwatchable to me.
7/10
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