Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) co-written and directed by Edgar Wright based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a Toronto 20-something slacker who is dating a high-school student, the 17-year old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). His friends (i.e. his band mates) and his family are at best unimpressed with his choice, especially since it seems like he's on the rebound from a break-up a year earlier. Then Scott has a dream about a roller-skating, pink-haired girl who turns out to be an actual young woman--Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). She's just moved to Toronto from New York City and is working deliveries from amazon.ca. Scott quickly orders something just to meet her. He's smitten though he does not realize she has seven evil exes who will come fight him. He has to win all the battles in order to truly date her. The exes start showing up, causing fantastic fight sequences, as Scott deals (or doesn't) with the complications in his life.

The movie follows the visual spirit of the comics, with a lot of over-the-top visual flairs and action sequences. Wright is a brilliant director and has great command of the material, evoking a lot of laughter and wonder through his visual storytelling. The actors do a great job of keeping their characters believable in the unbelievable situations. The movie is fun to watch from the opening Universal Studios logo which is digitized and has an 8-bit music version of the Universal theme (the regular theme is used later for the entrance of one of the exes). Scott's character develops through the film, leading to the unsurprising but satisfying happy ending.

Recommended--highly if you are a fan of Edgar Wright or the comics.