My Review of "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a movie released back in 2010. It was based on a comic book and it really shows in this movie. I remember seeing this movie back when it first came out and remembered it being really ahead of its time. The movie is also an ode to Toronto. Although I'm not from Toronto, I kind of love how Canada-centric this movie is.

The movie starts out with the introduction to Scott and his buddies in the band Sex Bob-omb. They gang want to make it big as a band in a very competitive market. Meanwhile our main protagonist, Scott, has recently gotten into a new awkward relationship. Awkward because she's a high school student.

It's pretty evident that he's going out with this girl to get over a brutal break-up he recently had. All this changes when he meets the love of his life, Ramona. He's instantly smitten with her but going out with Ramona has its caveats. Whoever wants to date her has to battle her 7 deadly ex's.

This movie goes off the deep end and that's evident from the very start. It's influenced by all things nerdy. We have homages to video games, comic books and pop culture. Though they look into things that people didn't really explore back in 2010. At that time, movies didn't just casually talk about homosexuality so nonchalantly. They even joke around a lot about it but not in a negative manner. They add a lot of different things like interracial relationships and even veganism. None of these things were that common back in that time. To see all that in this movie and just played off like it's nothing is pretty revolutionary. We don't really see the big deal now but that just shows how ahead of its time it was.

Stylistically this movie is off the charts. At times the movie just jumps out of the screen because of the sheer amount of special effects and angles it's throwing at you. There's a ton of innovation in the way they made this movie but I guess you can argue that it could have been ripped right from the comic. Still it's pretty impressive that they were able to do this in a live action version so seamlessly.

Another impressive aspect of this movie is the audio department. The mix is really nice and the homages to video games and comic books is a nice touch. Hearing this on a surround system is where it's really at because they have a lot of special effects with the surround sound. Though they do have some quirks like having extreme quiet moments followed up with extremely loud moments. That can be jarring at times.

If you look at the cast for this movie, you'll notice that the majority of the cast have now gone on to be big stars in their own right. They all knocked it out of the park with this one. Even smaller roles will have you rolling in laughter because of the pure charisma of all of the actors involved.

It's very difficult to explain why all of the characters are so lovable despite the fact that most of them are essentially terrible people. I guess it's lovable in a Seinfeld sort of way. You really have to understand a certain type of humor in order to really get this movie. I don't think it's for everyone.

Technically this movie can be very non-sensical. To me it works as I could follow it but there's a lot of dreamlike sequences and transitions that may confuse a lot of viewers. There isn't a lot of handholding for our viewers to just understand the irony in certain scenes or how they're playing on certain transitions to make certain explanations. I kind of like that about this movie but again some people just won't get it and that's okay.

Overall, I loved this movie. There's so much to love about it but I don't think everyone will get on board with this. I truly feel like it was ahead of its time but many people like things grounded on reality. This is definitely not for you if that's the case. I have to give this movie a 8 out of 10. I can go back to this movie over and over again. It's so well crafted and I love all of the characters in it.