Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has been in theaters for about three weeks, now, so this review is a bit delayed. It's still out, though, so not all is lost. The movie poster tagline reads, "An epic of epic epicness". While I, personally, didn't think the movie was that epic, the phrase conveys the movie's demeanor and sense of humor accurately. Now, let me say right off the bat that I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World considerably and if you have any appreciation for the genre whatsoever, you should definitely go and see it if you haven't, already. However, I went into the theater with some pretty high expectations that I didn't feel were quite met, and this left me a little disappointed. What I was hoping for was something a little more like Kickass or Zombieland, both of which--I felt--did an exceptional job of combining comedy and action with sincerity. Directed by Edgar Wright, it seemed to me that Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was having a hard time deciding whether it wanted to be more like the films mentioned above or Wright's own (equally amazing) movies, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The result was, in my humble opinion, kind of sketchy. I have to cut it some slack, though, because it is a truly unique film, chock-full of comic book and video game elements that make it the first of it's kind, in many respects. I also haven't read any of the comic books, so maybe I just don't have the right idea in mind of what the movie was attempting.
What probably disappointed me the most was the fight scenes. As has been my complaint with several other films' fight scenes, rather than legitimizing them with actual stunts, it seemed to me that they relied much more heavily than I would've liked on crazy, distracting lighting and weird camera angles to keep things confusing and hard to follow. The scenes were far from bad, mind you, I just wasn't nearly as impressed with them as I had hoped to be. I mean, they were supposed to be like video game fight scenes, after all.
The acting was all good, as expected, though it would be nice to see Michael Cera play a character other than...well, Michael Cera. The dialogue was enough to keep me giggling more-or-less throughout the entire movie, and I particularly enjoyed Wallace: Scott's gay room/bedmate.
All in all, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a quality, original, and entertaining movie. Though there were a few aspects of it that I felt were a bit rough around the edges, there's still lots about it that I enjoyed and I look forward to similar video game-style storytelling being used in other films in the future. If I had to rate the movie, I think I would give it a flat B. Go see it. It's one of the few movies out worth seeing, right now.
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