Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the movie, reviewed

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

Scott Pilgrim Volume 6 reviewed

At last, the final volume of Scott Pilgrim is here.  The saga is now complete and I can be free to review other things again!  But that's not to say that this wasn't a fun ride because it was.  I saw this series evolved from a very funny and cute, albeit highly stylized, story into a story that had real characters talking about some heavy themes like fidelity and the like but it was still highly stylized and it never abandoned its fun even if it came close a few times.  So now we are at Volume 6 where everything comes to a head...so enough of this stalling as we dive into Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour.

Well, it's been some time after the fallout of Volume 5.  Scott and Ramona are still not together and Scott's all mopey.  He attempts to stop his moping with demanding previous ex-girlfriends into having sex with him...CASUAL SEX!  That fails most spectacularly, obviously, and Scott still has the last of Ramona's evil exes, Gideon Gordon Graves!  So he runs away to hide forever, but after getting some inspiration and knowledge in nature, he's back WITH A VENGEANCE!  Now questions will be answered, asses will be kicked, people make shocking returns and blood will be spilled!

Now after the transformation of the characters into real people and all the weighty themes in Volume 5, it's about time that this series goes back to what it was known for: hilarious jokes, fourth-wall breaking, video-game references and awesome fights.  And yet, it finds a way to make those things Darker and Edgier!  The casual sex jokes are extremely creepy and the fourth-wall just reinforces the fact that it's very creepy with the CASUAL SEX jokes.  But what makes all that work is how it's presented.  It's just there with no winking or being too jokey, it's like "Here it is, laugh or not.  I don't care!"  Anything other than that attitude was probably going to be doomed to failure.

And then I wasn't kidding when I said blood was going to be spilled since now the fights are bloodier and gorier than ever.  But somehow it totally fits with the most evil of all the evil exes in this volume, Gideon Gordon Graves! He is by far my favorite character out of the series, including previous favorite Lucas Lee from Volume 2.  He's everything an evil final boss should be: he's brutal, powerful, charismatic, friendly and extremely crazy prepared.  He has a sword hidden in a dress!  That's just the kind of guy he is!  If any of the other evil exes showed those qualities and spilled as much blood as Gideon did, it would have been too depressing to see since the previous exes all had light-hearted qualities to them.  But not Gideon, this comic is right to say What a Dick.

So when I was finished with this volume, I was unsure if this was the best or the worst out of the series.  The plot is extremely herky-jerky.  A lot of minor plot threads don't really get resolved except that the one strategy Ramona has when things get a teensy bit difficult is to run away.  Then there's the fact that most of the big reveals in Scott's past is basically one panel brush-offs that are not given the attention that something of that magnitude requires.  However, despite all that it is the most entertaining volume of the series because of Gideon.  The artwork has fully evolved to give something like this justice.  It's been a fun ride and these comics tell a great story.  Now it's finally time to move on to other things.

10/10

Scott Pilgrim volume 5 reviewed

I know, I know it's another review of the Scott Pilgrim saga but fear not, the end is near!  There's only one more volume to review before I'm done and I can go back to reviewing other things. But this doesn't mean I feel bad for reviewing Scott Pilgrim since it's been one of the most inventive and hilarious comic series I've read, granted I don't read that many comics.  But I was warned that in Volume 5, the mood was actually going to change into something darker but I dismissed those warnings.  Now where those people right?  We'll see as we dive into Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe.

Our recently turned 24 hero, Scott Pilgrim, has beat up and defeated four of his girlfriend's, Ramona Flowers, evil-exes...out of seven.  In the meantime, Scott has realized he truly loves Ramona and has a cool sword of true love.  Now their life is full of ultra-togetherness since they live together but things are about to change.  The next Evil-Exes show up and this time, they're Japanese Twins who do everything in tandem since Ramona played them against each other, plus they keep sending robots to fight Scott.  But none of that matters since things are getting rocky with Ramona when the fact that Scott dated her and Knives Chau at the same time which can't be fixed by saying "I'M HARDCORE, I'LL TAKE 'EM BOTH!" which culminates in Ramona leaving Scott.


I got to admit that writing in this volume is, by far, the most mature the series has ever become.  There's no time for sissy stuff like video games and rocking out but only time for who gets hurt in cheating and how much can one take of someone babbling about X-Men storylines.  Now don't get me wrong, there is some light-hearted stuff with the many robot fights and the evil Japanese twins but like Roxanne in the last volume they're presence is fairly minimal even if they have more screen-time.  The meat of this is pretty much the fall-out of Scott and Ramona's relationship and how it affects Scott's friends...even if it minimally affects. them.

Now with this maturity comes a great price for this volume, it's not as much fun.  Now I know that it's not supposed to be fun when all the heavy drama starts pouring in and that's fine.  Those bits are not supposed to be fun but when all the light-hearted trademarks of Scott Pilgrim come in and you're having fun, that's a problem.  Every fight and every video-game reference seems obligatory here since the contrast between that kind of light-heartedness and the heavy themes is too severe here for a proper marriage, so to speak.  The last volume got away this since it didn't become all THAT heavy to drown out the fun in Scott Pilgrim.


This is the worst of the Scott Pilgrim saga but it says something about the series when the worst is still good.  It's still readable and it's still entertaining.  All the trademarks are still there even if it's not as entertaining.  The heavy themes are actually a welcome change.  The characters are still likable and there's plenty of heartwarming situations.  The problem is that the light hearted stuff and the heavy stuff just don't mesh well together.  The ratio between light and heavy here is way too lop-sided with a bias towards the heavy stuff.  It's still a good read, it's just not as good.

7/10

Scott Pilgrim Volume 4 reviewed

It seems that with the passing of another week is another review of another installment of the Scott Pilgrim saga.  I have seen this saga from the first volume where it was basically little more than gags with an excuse plot to the third one where everything shifted into focus even if it was at the expense of gags.  So now we are at the fourth volume of Scott Pilgrim and once again the big question is will it follow the pattern of each volume being slightly worse than the previous one.  Well, we will find out as we dive into Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together.

It's the same old story by now, Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers are going out and very much in love and stuff.  Ramona's evil exes, that Scott must fight and defeat to win Ramona's love, hasn't come bothering him in a couple months and life is going good.  Then Ramona kinda sorta demands that Scott stops his slacking ways and get a job.  From there, things quickly go to hell as the next evil ex shows up and it's a half-ninja WOMAN!  And one of Scotts former high-school friends show up causing tension between Scott and Ramona!  And then there's Knives Chau, Scott's 17 year old ex high school girlfriend, father shows up with a sword ready to kill!

At first, I was a bit put off by how the writing evolved from a gag-a-page type of graphic novel into something that was being infused with a sense of maturity and character development.  I wanted to laugh, not feel emotions about Scott Pilgrim.  But like it or not, ever since the second volume the characters have been getting some good character development and I have been starting to care about them since the third volume. Now with this, the shift from characters to say funny things to real characters who say things that happen to be funny is complete.  Every action and dialogue has some weight to it and it makes everything that much richer and fuller to experience.

And boy do we need that substance since this volume's evil ex is the worst one yet with Roxanne.  I'm not saying she's the worst since she's the most evil but I'm saying she's the worst since she's horribly boring.  All she does is do half-assed ninja things, appropriate since she is half-ninja, and gets real pissy when Scott accidentally punches her in the boob.  There's no depth like Todd in volume 3 nor is she even endearing like Matthew Patel or Lucas Lee in the other two volumes.  Thankfully she's in like a tenth of the book and even Knives revenge-driven father has a slightly bigger part. 

This volume is the best one since the first volume and better than the previous two volumes.  It still has everything you want in Scott Pilgrim with hilarity and video game references but it's more real.  The characters, the situations and even the dialogue has substance to create this rich world.  The only flaw is how poorly done Roxanne is but in the grand scheme of this volume, she barely matters.  If you get this at this stage of the game, you'll know you'll like it.

9/10

Scott Pilgrim volume 3 reviewed

It seems that I could just rename this blog the Scott Pilgrim Reviews since I'm working my way towards the whole saga and then possibly watch the movie.  I could but there's still so many non-Scott Pilgrim things to review that I won't.  But anyone who's read my reviews of the first two volumes knows that I do find this saga to be one of the most entertaining comic books that I've read even though the Volume 2 was a step down from Volume 1.  And now we come to Volume 3, will it continue being a step down or will it remind me of the ultra-awesomeness of Volume 1.  Let's find out as we dive into Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness.

By now you should know that our slacker Canadian hero Scott Pilgrim is dating Ramona Flowers, who has baggage with seven evil ex-boyfriends that Scott must defeat.  This volume's evil ex-boyfriend is Todd Ingram, bassist for successful group Clash at the Demon Head whose singer is Scott's ex-girlfriend, Envy, in which he had a bad breakup with.  And what makes this fight even harder is that Todd is a vegan which grants him awesome powers of.....vegan awesomeness.  So Scott has to dig deep if he plans to defeat Todd and get rid of those pesky flashbacks he has with Envy in happier times.

I think it's safe to say that the author has finally solidify his writing style for Scott Pilgrim.  Here, he strikes the perfect balance between the nice, soft character development of Volume 2 and the fast-paced video-game, joke-a-minute, clever wording cocktail of Volume 1.  The characters are no longer just relate-able to me but actual people to care about.  All the major players now have their own neat backstories or the hint of a neat backstory that'll come up in the later volumes.  No one is saying clever things just to be clever but that there's a point and purpose to it.  Everything just makes sense in this volume.

Now there are some things that did bother me a bit in this volume.  The first thing is that the separation between flashbacks and the present is a bit poorly done on the first read.  There isn't much in the way of orientating the reader on when the past becomes the present since the past is pretty obvious due to Scott's long hippie hair.  When it shifts to the present there isn't much warning and you don't get any close-ups so you can't go by hair length.  With re-reading this, this complaint is silly but it nagged me at first.  But what flaw that doesn't go away with re-reads is the mini-fight/competition between Scott and Todd at some place called Honest Ed's, which is the Canadian version of Wal-Mart or something like that.  The thing is that it's supposed to be a really horrifying and deadly place but the only reason why is that it's similar to how a new-born baby cries at the horror of being alive.  I guess it's the hip thing to think that stuff like Wal-Mart is a place of soul-sucking evil filled with evil moose clocks or something.  And even though it's actually a cute bit, it does nothing to advance the plot and it tells nothing of what's going on.  It's just a waste.

This volume delivers exactly what you expect out of Scott Pilgrim by this point.  It has all the awesome video game references, it's still hip and it's still hilarious.  It does falter with how the story is set-up between flashbacks and Honest Ed's but those are fairly minor quibbles and they don't damage this volume too badly....the other two volumes are still better but not by much.

8/10

Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1, reviewed

I'm sure like most people, my awareness of Scott Pilgrim came with the Edgar Wright movie that's coming out in August.  My interest was piqued and I know that the movie will either be the most awesome thing ever created or it will fail miserably because it was trying so hard to be awesome but I digress.  I saw the graphic novels and I skimmed it to see what it was all about.  What I saw was something akin to a kitty in that it was so adorable that I must buy it and own it and love it, theoretically of course.  So did my theory of love turn into reality or did it just blow up in my face like awesome chemistry, let's find out as we dive into Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.

Scott Pilgrim has a pretty cool life so far.  He's 23, plays bass in a horrible punk band called Sex Bomb-Omb and just started going out with a cute high school girl named Knives.  Sure he doesn't have real responsibilities, that pesky job thingy and the fact that the story takes place in Canada but hey, it doesn't slow him down.  But one night in his dreams, this really radical chick called Ramona Flowers comes skating by and Scott is immediately smitten and then he finds out Ramona's real and then he finds her at some party where he finds out she works for Amazon.ca as a delivery girl so Scott concocts a plan to buy CD's and wait for her to deliver them where he plans to ask her out on a date...which succeeds.  But then we find out that Ramona has seven evil ex-boyfriends which Scott must fight and defeat if they are to keep dating and so beings this epic tale of epic epicness.

The thing that I really love the most in this was how well-written and funny this is.  There's this irreverence to it where the comic breaks the fourth-wall to provide guitar tabs for one of Sex Bomb-Ombs songs or heavily explicit foreshadowing. The other times it's a near lethal cocktail of rapid-fire jokes, video game culture references and mind-blowingly epic fights.  It's pretty much like movies similar to Airplane! where if a joke fails there's another one that's coming right at you that might not fail but most of the jokes don't fail but most of all, the romance between Scott and Ramona grounds the comic with some sweet romance.  If anything, the attraction between the pair may be a bit too quick since before their date it was all Scott stalking Ramona in a creepy albeit cute way but that's just nitpicking.

The artwork is in the style of those Japanese magnas which works wonders for creating the world of Scott Pilgrim.  I know there's some flak on it because it's drawn in a simple manner where American comics are drawn more realistically and all that, but a realistic Scott Pilgrim would not have worked as well.  In a universe where people can fly, there's 64 hit combos and summon winged babes it's a lot easier to accept with the simple cartoony art. However, there is quite a lot of detail that's hidden in these panels if you want to look for them and the art just looks fun.  Plus, the character models are absolutely adorable.

This volume is almost  as awesome as the comic thinks it is.  The writing is sharp, clever and hilarious.  The love story between Ramona and Scott is sweet even though Ramona forgives Scott a bit too quick for being all creepy and stalkerish.  The fight between Scott and first evil ex-boyfriend is fun to watch.  This is a great read and I'm excited to read every volume of the Scott Pilgrim saga and watch the movie.

9/10