Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Tagline: An epic of epic epicness.

Curiosity: It’s the film adaptation of one of my favorite comics from one of my favorite directors featuring some of my favorite actors. Surely nothing can go wrong.

Plot: Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is twenty-something slacker slumming around Toronto without much direction. He loves video games and the Smashing Pumpkins; everything else is kind of up in the air, which is what leads him to dating high school student Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). It’s a simple, innocent relationship that doesn’t require a whole lot of effort on his part… until he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Live Free or Die Hard, Sky High), a super-neat-o gal with roller blades, sarcasm, and the power to travel through dimensions.

Dating Ramona comes with a caveat, though: Scott must defeat her seven evil exes in combat. This ain’t gonna be easy – one of ’em is vegan and another is half-ninja!

Thoughts: My disappointment in Scott Pilgrim is mostly my fault. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s epic is one of my favorite comic collections as of late, along with work from Peter Bagge, Joe Sacco, and Craig Thompson. Edgar Wright is similarly one of my favorite directors. I watch Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz on a regular basis. The cast is pretty great as well. Cera isn’t nearly as miscast as his previous work would suggest, and the rest of the cast does a great job capturing the characters’ essences. My personal favorites were Chris Evans as Lucas Lee (I always get excited when Evans pops up. Go rent Sunshine) and Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram (Between this and Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Routh has shown some awesome comedic chops in supporting roles). Wallace Wells is one of the funniest characters in the book, and Kieran Culkin is likewise one of the funniest actors in the adaptation. Thomas Jane and Clifton Collins Jr. have maybe 60 seconds of screen time, but each of those seconds is hi-larious.

But I still like the movie more in theory than in actuality. I’m not necessarily upset that Wright doesn’t film everything from the books – indeed, I’m actually surprised at how successful he was overall at editing six books down into one movie. I expected characters and subplots to disappear. Rather, I take issue with two elements of the movie.

First, the beginning feels so hyperactive and rushed in its attempt to plow through the key plot points of the first book. For the first half-hour or so, the movie is just a cavalcade of bullet points. Once it gets to my favorite books (volumes two and three), it starts to hit a good stride, but I feel like Wright has trouble balancing cohesive storytelling and fidelity to the source material for a while. Same goes for the ending, only this time it takes forever. The majority of the film is actually quite hilarious, but unevenly so. I feel like you still need to have read the books to make sense of the plot, although I’m rethinking this stance now that I’ve spoken with a few friends who have enjoyed the film without reading the series beforehand.

My other beef is that Wright sometimes takes bits and character traits from the book and reassigns them. I get that sometimes characters get combined in movie adaptations, but this time he’s essentially retelling me jokes I know incorrectly. That’s annoying.

Still, I’m sad that Scott Pilgrim isn’t making more bank. I really wanted this movie to succeed. I love just about everyone involved in its creation, and while it’s a flawed work, it’s something I still hold quite dear.

Reflection: The soundtrack is pretty good. And I love my man Chris Evans.