Scott Pilgrim ROCKED my 8-bit world!

I heard about the Scott Pilgrim movie about 2ish years ago and my response was: No... no way.  How can they even begin to capture the pure epic awesomeness of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book series Scott Pilgrim compressed into one movie?  It can't be done.  Wait?...  What is this you say ... Michael Cera's going to play Scott Pilgrim?  The cutie pie guy that fans the flames for geek girls everywhere?  Well that changes everything.

I have been a fan since Scott Pilgrim Book One and was resilient with the idea of SP as a movie, and I was afraid they were going to “Hollywood-up” this comic book movie.  But with Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, that was the first right step for the SP movie.  I am the type, when a movie of this magnitude, one that I am giddy to see... I don’t want to know much about it.  I want to be magically surprised.  The same reasoning goes why I don’t want to see the Harry Potter trailer. [I fear the next movie I see in the theaters is going to have the HP trailer.  NOOOOooooooOOO!]  A friend of mine would keep telling me more details than I wanted to know about the approaching Scott Pilgrim film:  Guess who’s playing Knives Chau!  They finally casted Ramona!  [Argh...Don’t tell me!]  But as the website for the Scott Pilgrim movie came out admittedly, I was getting pretty excited.  Now I can make a little Scott Pilgrim avatar.  The Scott Pilgrim vs. The World website periodically rains coins that you can capture for points.   

From the opening of the 8-bit version of the Universal logo that played before the Scott Pilgrim film, it was the hint of all the little gamer touches to come.  Even for individuals who are not familiar with the world of Scott Pilgrim, this film offers an action-packed hilarious movie that will not disappoint.  As skeptical as I was when I heard about the Scott Pilgrim movie, this was really well-done, and it meets and exceeds my Scott-Pilgrim-fan-high-expectations.     

One day Scott discovers, via email, he will be battling ... to the death ... with a Mr. Matthew Patel.  Mr. Patel is the first of the exes, and Matthew Patel arrives during Sex Bomb-omb’s gig to fight.  Shortly afterwards Scott discovers in order to date Ramona Flowers he must battle... no, DEFEAT... Ramona’s seven “evil exes.”  Ramona Flowers [Mary Elizabeth Winstead], the mysterious blue-haired girl that skates into Scott's dreams and life, and makes him forget all about Knives Chau [Ellen Wong] the seventeen Chinese catholic high school girl he’s dating.  The battle scenes all the stuff that is gaming: +1up [a pixelated drawing of Scott’s head]; coins awarded; life meters [or in the case of Scott, his pee meter].  The other evil exes sequentially make their appearances fairly quickly to battle Scott.  They are packing six trade books into one movie after all.  Just like a video game, the battles amongst the exes become increasingly difficult for Scott to fight.  Lucas Lee [Chris Evans] the skateboarder / movie star; Todd [awkward moment... Todd is in the band, Clash at the Demonhead where Scott’s ex, Envy Adams [Brie Larson] is the lead singer]; Roxy Richter [Mae Whitman]; the Katayanagi twins, and the evilest ex of them all Gideon [Jason Schwartzman].     
  
Edgar Wright, director of Shawn of the Dead, kept a lot of the visual elements found in the comic book form.  The comment boxes giving ratings and introductions to all the players in the Scott Pilgrim world [eg: Stacey Pilgrim.  19.  Younger Sister.  Rated T for Teen.] and the visual layout of ownership of items in Wallace’s [and Scott’s] apartment.  The sequence goes fairly quick but it’s word for word from the comic.      

These are tiny little visual details that make the total fans just applaud and cheer.  Especially when film delves into the romantic back story of Ramona Flowers, where the movie includes original art from the comic book.  Awesome.  I LOVE the fact that they kept the story set in Toronto.  Not that I care much for the city, but it just keeps up with the faithfulness to the comic book.  



The fighting sequences were really well done, even having Ramona and Knives fight in a few battles.  The only fight where I wish it was *more like the book* was the Matthew Patel battle, where Sex Bomb-omb [and Stacey & Wallace also] help Scott fight against the Hipster Goth army, replete with martial-art stances.  I could have done without the Bollywood-esque parts in the Patel fight.  The battle between the twins is probably the one that is least faithful to the comic, but book five contained a lot of “relationship drama” and the Katayanagi twins have a more complex story line.  Besides we get to see Sex-Bomb-omb rock some more.  In the book, there are parts where chord charts shows what notes Stephen plays during band practice. [It’s only three chords, Sex Bomb-omb is not that good.]  Which would have been a nice touch in the film, but film offers the comparable visual “D D D D D D,” the notes Scott strums away on his Rickenbacker.  

Kudos to the set dressers and people who provided wardrobe.  It was completely spot on from Ramona Flower’s star purse, Stephen Stills’ cactus cowboy shirt and all of Scott’s band shirts.   Spot-on.  The comic book was certainly the visual guiding force.

Sex-Bomb-omb was the most disappointing in casting.  Kim Pine [Alison Pill] didn’t really fit what I had envisioned what the Sex-Bomb-omb drummer would look like.  She did have Kim’s freckles though.  [Which sometimes was the only differentiating point to tell some characters apart in the comic book.]  In the film version it seemed there was too much of a spurned-lover tinge to her character, where she seemed fairly over Scott in the comic.  [In the comic she does have a makeout session with Knives Chau.  Ooooh.]  Stephen Stills [AKA: the Talent] seemed far more spastic in the movie rendition when he seemed much more mellow, deadpan sarcastic in the comic.  But this is merely a fangirl aside, and does not really derail from movement of the plot.  Wallace Wells, [Kierkan Culkin] was one of the funniest roles... sharing a bed with Scott and all his hookups.  Aubrey Plaza, my favorite actress of awkward comedy, played a so-so Julie Powers, the on / off girlfriend of Stephen Stills.  It seemed like a stretch for Aubrey to play a character who is constantly yelling, since the roles we have seen her in play her at fairly mousy.    

Cast the video game battle axes and karate-chopping action aside, ultimately, Scott Pilgrim the movie is a love story.  Some couples deal with the ghosts of relationships past and for Scott these exes take a physical form as he fights against all the other men that have been in Ramona’s life.  But the biggest obstacle that Scott must fight in order to be with Ramona, is the battle with himself.  Only then can he be with the girl of his dreams.