I Saw a Movie: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Illustration from The Circus Procession by the McLoughlin Bros. of N.Y., 1888

I can't say I'm shocked that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World had an underwhelming opening box office, in spite of the excellent reviews it received. It has a several strikes against it. Director Edgar Wright has two cult favorites under his belt, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, but has not had a big hit movie. The film's title character is played by Michael Cera, best known for his lightweight, teenage, coming-of-age films. The film is based on a series of Canadian graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley - they're best known for their mix of romantic angst, indie-rock lyric-quoting, and video-game references. It's not a formula that says, "Box office boffo!"

I can also see why Scott Pilgrim vs. the World got a lot of good reviews, though. Wright smartly combines the pop-culture tropes of the graphic novels with his own kinetic style for a movie that never uses the same visual trick twice and never cuts from one scene to the next in a conventional manner. He pulls off the balance of comedy and action even better than he did in his last two films - Hot Fuzz in particular felt schizophrenic at times, and Scott Pilgrim never does that. The script pulls out the best material of the six graphic novels (which I liked but didn't love) and makes the unlikely plot structure of six big fight scenes work where it seems like it shouldn't. The solid ensemble cast works hard to recreate the circle-of-friends feel of the books, with Kieran Culkin and Ellen Wong providing the best performances as Scott Pilgrim's gay friend and teenage girlfriend/stalker.

For me, though, the film's two leads are a big hole in the middle of the movie. I wasn't expecting much from Ramona Flowers, as O'Malley's source material doesn't give the character much depth, but - man! - did May Elizabeth Winstead look good standing around. On the other hand, I was surprisingly let down by Michael Cera - he made some of the great Scott Pilgrim lines from the books come to life, but he lost me when he started kicking butt. Something about that Raggedy-Andy hair and weak chin didn't work for me when the movie kicked into high gear.

I hope, though, that the good buzz around Scott Pilgrim vs. the World continues to build, because I think there's a pretty big group of people that would enjoy this movie but are shying away from it because of the whole Nintendo/Canada/indie-rock thing. Edgar Wright's very distinctive style will grate on some people (especially the over-40 set), but Scott Pilgrim has at least 120 great visual and verbal gags, and you only really have to laugh at about a third of them to come away from the movie satisfied.

"Pilgrim's Progress" by Procol Harum