Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

It has taken me a while to write my review of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, which is possibly the greatest movie of all time. There is nothing wrong with this film. As of writing this review, I have seen the film 13 times. The film was released on August 13th, 2010. I saw the midnight screening, and was astounded. I recommended the film to everybody I knew. But sadly, the film flopped at the box office and fell into obscurity. And what baffles me is that golden gems like Scott Pilgrim disappear, while train wrecks like Little Fockers have #1 at the box office for three consecutive weeks. And Scott Pilgrim is a gem. It is based off of a Canadian graphic novel series (Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life; Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World; Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness; Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together; Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe; and Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour. I own all six of these books) written by Bryan Lee O’Malley. The books have been critically lauded as one of the best graphic novels of the 21st century. And what makes the movie work is that it is a color (the books are black-and-white) live-action moving version of the comics, with little bits added and taken out, but nothing of much harm. The things that were taken out were taken out for a reason. And the things that were added were added for a reason. So if you are going to complain about changes SHUT UP! Nobody wants to listen to you whine. The film is directed by Edgar Wright, who previously directed the first two installments of the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy of British films (the third film doesn’t even have a title yet), Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. He also directed the very funny British series Spaced, which is basically a British Community. All three of these star Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and Scott Pilgrim is Edgar Wright’s first major production that I know of not starring them. The film stars Michael Cera (of Juno, Superbad, and Arrested Development fame) as Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old slacker from Toronto Canada who is living with his ‘cool gay roommate’ Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin; Igby Goes Down), is dating 17-year-old Chinese schoolgirl Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) and is in a band with high school friends Steven Stills (Mark Webber), the lead singer and guitarist, Scott’s high school girlfriend Kim Pine (Allison Pill; Milk) on drums, and their mutual friend Neil Nordegraph (Johnny Simmons; Hotel For Dogs, Jennifer’s Body, and Evan Almighty) as an equipment hauler and groupie. Scott’s life gets thrown for a loop when he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead; Final Destination 3, Make It Happen, Sky High), an American delivery girl who Scott ultimately falls for, breaking up with Knives almost immediately (almost. Scott tends to forget things. He creates some relationship problems, all being hounded by Scott’s sister Stacey (Anna Kendrick; Twilight, Up in the Air)). As Scott and Ramona’s relationship continues, Scott finds out that Ramona has seven evil exes, played by Sahata Bahaba as Matthew Patel, a mystical fighter who can summon demon hipster chicks at will, Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, Push, The Losers) as Lucas Lee, a skater-turned actor, Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night) as Todd Ingram, a vegan psychic who is dating Scott’s ex Envy Adams (Brie Larson; Hoot), Mae Whitman (Arrested Development) as Roxy Richer, Ramona’s ex-girlfriend (um…yeah) and a half-ninja, Shota and Keita Saito as Kyle and Ken Katayanagi, two Japanese DJs, and Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, I ♥ Huckabees, The Darjeeling Limited) as a villainous music tycoon, and the creator of the League of Evil Exes, Gideon Gordon Graves. And since I have spent about 600 words on the plot and cast of the film, I will actually start talking about how amazing it is. I am a dork, and this film is possibly the dorkiest film of the last 20 years. It has cult film written all over it. It is perfect. There are no faults. The cast, direction, writing, effects, and soundtrack is all perfect. It is the film that one out of every fifty will love, but they will LOVE it and watch it multiple times, and recommend it to every single person they see. It is the Donnie Darko of the 2010s. I said earlier, I have seen it 13 times. That’s probably more times than Michael Cera has seen it.
10/10