Pilgrim's No Progress
Other than feeling like I've been violated by the Duracell bunny the thing I learned from "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is in the words of Murtaugh "I'm too old for this ....". I'm serious because "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" with its frenetic visual styling is a movie which appears to have been made for those who suffer from some form of attention deficit disorder. I don't have that problem, I enjoy movies which don't feel the need to cut every 3 seconds and throw in 100 random visual gimmicks a minute to keep the audience entertained. But I can see why for those who struggle dealing with dialogue consisting of more than 10 words in a row that "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" would be entertaining.
22 year old Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera - Juno) is a bit of a dweeb, he plays in a band and is currently, sort of dating 17 year old school girl Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) although they've only ever held hands. But then in to his dreams and life comes Ramona Flowers; edgy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Die Hard 4.0), dangerous and very attractive and Scott is smitten. But not only does Scott have to try and end things with Knives he also finds himself having to deal with Ramona's 7 evil exes.
Like many the thing which attracted me to watch "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is writer, director Edgar Wright because his movies with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have been great. Unfortunately everything which made those movies great is missing from "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" as he takes on another genre but in a very in your face style. That genre is in fact a combination of two because "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is based on a series of graphic novels but is combined with a computer game styling. And in fairness there is a lot of energetic styling going on which combines voice bubbles with game like high score pop ups and energy bars.
The trouble for me is that in trying to combine the two "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" incessantly bombards the audience with these styling gimmicks. As I already mentioned it probably works for the generation who find themselves struggling to focus on anything which doesn't flash and change every 5 seconds but for those who like flow it is like an assault on your eyes and ears. Don't get me wrong because they styling is sharp and mimics the jumping nature of computer games and graphic novels, actually spoofing them at the same time but there is so much of it that it crowds out the story. In fact at times there is so much going on visually with flashing lights that it almost feels like mind control.
The one thing which "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" has going for it is a cast which commits to all the nonsense with Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead both being full on. But it is also the supporting performances which are good with the likes of Kieran Culkin and Chris Evans adding to the general chaotic amusement.
What this all boils down to is that "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" was not for me and rather than finding the visual styling entertaining I found it head ache inducing. But if you are young and find any scene which lasts more than 5 seconds without an edit too hard going it will probably entertain.
