Saturday, August 14, 2010

Best Movie Night Ever II: The Review

(There's a few minor spoilers in here; no key plot elements, but I do give away a bit of the movie's one-of-a-kind style. You may want to see it without my coloring.)


Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is fantastic for a variety of reasons.

Or just because Mary Elizabeth Winstead is sexy douchebag.

Firstly, Micheal Cera and the rest of the ensemble is perfectly casted. No one seemed out of place, and the personality of the characters perfectly reflected the looks and actions of the actors. Cera does a fantastic job as the cool yet nervous dork Scott Pilgrim, delivering his quick-witted lines and hilariously deadpan faces wonderfully, as does Pilgrim's love interest, Ramona Flowers.

The contrast between them is perfect.

The movie's pace is incredibly fast, with seamless scene transitions that are almost dizzying, as some start with Cera's face in one background, and instantly changing to another. It's way of cutting from scene to scene was refreshing, as it never used the same transition twice, and did so with complete understanding of how to apply certain cuts to enhance the humor.

The storyline, while in retrospect a little bland, was perfectly exploded to ridiculous proportions, so you'd forget the story is as simple as one kid fighting seven people for one girl while being in a band (Which, by the way, made great music that I have to find). Not to mention the movie is smartly self-effacing.

Also, no one has ever actually thought to apply video game aesthetics onto a movie before, and to see it done on this huge screen is like Mountain Dew for my sugar-starved eyes. The flashes of points as enemies evaporated into coins, the comic book onomatopoeias ("RRRrrrring"), and the cartoon-esque moments (Such as in one scene when Cera leaps through a house window to escape a girl) were things movies, the ones I've seen anyway, never executed so well before. This makes Pilgrim not only a refreshing movie, but quite possibly the most unique movie I'd ever laid eyes on.

If you hate this, please e-mail me so I can berate you.

And of course, the fight scenes were lovingly over-the-top. My favorite was actually Ramona's fight scene.


This is completely absurd. I love it.

But the battle against the Vegan gets the nod for the most ridiculous. It exemplified the movie's self-awareness, as it subtlety breaks the fourth wall and makes fun of pop culture stereotypes, all the while providing visuals (Dr. Manhattan much) and moments (I mean seriously....a bass guitar battle in a movie? Fantastic.) simply never fathomed.

And, on a side note, the in-movie music is actually pretty good on its own. It's worth watching just for the few "Sex Bombomb", Scott Pilgrim's band, songs.

All in all, Scott Pilgrim is probably my favorite movie of all-time, and quite likely culminated what was easily the best at-the-theater experience I've ever had. It had the sights, the sounds, the humor, and the intelligence, with little left to be desired. I couldn't ask for anything more from this movie or that night. Best movie night ever.

2 comments:

  1. ohohhhhh this looks mighty. too bad it hasn't come out yet in malaysia!

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  2. I'm sad it flopped at the box office. With the crap Hollywood pumps out, you would think people are going to appreciate well written movies like Scott P. Oh well...

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