Fresh, hyper-kinetic and just plain fun

Rating: 9/10 (3 September 2010)

I don't think a movie's quality should be correlated to box office success so I don't care one bit if Scott Pilgrim was a commercial failure. It's still a bold, inventive and very fun film to watch. I'm probably part of the target audience for Scott Pilgrim : male video gamer, geek and in his thirties. That being said, I don't think Scott Pilgrim will appeal only to us. Younger people and especially women will likely love it. Witness the characters who are in their late teens/early twenties yet are much too young to have known the old 8-bit games from the Nintendo Entertainment System era in their heyday (mid-1980s). It bugged me a little, but it's a very minor point. Most of the characters are also cool geeks and far from stereotypical nerds : they're part of indie rock bands or fans, not wearing glasses, more charmingly witty than socially awkward, and more often that not, amazing fighters.
This film is a very unconventional action/romance/comedy with strong pop culture sensibilities (video games, comics and mangas mostly). I don't think I've ever experienced something quite like this in cinema, so weirdly it gets major points for originality despite being riddled with references. I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish. It was a blast to watch and listen to. Visually, it's extremely fresh and dynamic with most sound effects being written on-screen like on a comics page. It might seem annoying, but it worked very well. It has lots of quick cuts (some of the funnier bits coming from stuff appearing out of the blue after a cut) yet everything is easily followable. The fights in particular were very very cool, exciting and spectacular (for geeks : more graceful like Soul Calibur 3 than static like Mortal Kombat). A big part of the humor comes from the one-liners and friendly (or not) banter. It succeeds in doing something very difficult : using intentionally corny lines, bad puns and, by delivery and context, making them sound witty or funny instead of dumb and trite.
I think it's my favorite role by Michael Cera, who inhabits that kind of nice, witty, slightly awkward, geek-chic role better than most. But I think the secondary characters are wonderful too and sometimes even steal the show. I loved most of them, especially the very likable and enthusiastic 17-year old Asian girlfriend (so likable you feel sorry and/or root for her) and the wise and promiscuous gay roommate. The main love interest and object of Pilgrim's quest is suitably enigmatic and fascinating. It shows she has baggage and is rather melancholy (almost never smiling). In a brilliant bit of casting, you also get the guys playing Superman (Brandon Routh) and the Human Torch/future Captain America (Chris Evans) as evil ex-boyfriends. I don't know if it's just me but I noticed that eyes in Pilgrim seemed bigger than normal, almost like manga eyes. Kudos to makeup (or special effects ?) for that. The flashbacks with actual drawings from the Scott Pilgrim comics I didn't like as much. They seemed a little out of place, a bit jarring. Scott Pilgrim was a success at entertaining and surprising me constantly. The action was better than expected, the humor was funny, the characters were a joy, the visuals were astounding and the writing was smart. The romantic aspects could have been a bit better, more touching, but were still quite enjoyable. All the geek references were icing on the cake.
Rating : 8.5 out of 10 (remarkable)