Pass the aspirin

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2011)

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is a youth-oriented comedy that is destined to divide audiences into two diametrically opposed camps: those who see it as a brilliantly creative and satirical take on modern adolescence, and those who see it as a migraine-inducing, insufferably pretentious exercise in self-conscious self-indulgence that has desperation written all over it. The movie is definitely an acquired taste, but one thing is for certain: very few who see it will be indifferent to it.
Based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is a highly stylized, non-linear account of a 22-year-old geek (played, as always, by Michael Cera) and his surrealistic adventures with his friends and band mates (the cast is indeed enormous) – who are a combination of dorks and Goths and just about everything in between – as they do battle against evil forces, most of them former boyfriends of his current flame (Alison Pill), in snowy Toronto.
Writers Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright's attempt to transfer the look and style of graphic literature to the big screen meets with only modest success here (Wright also directed the movie), and it's not too long into the film's nonstop assault on the senses that we're compelled to holler "Uncle!" purely out of self-defense.
The is-it-a-dream-or-is-it-reality? narrative framework, the frenetic editing, the robotic line-readings, and the words constantly flying all over the screen have a certain novelty and charm at the beginning, but they quickly wear out their welcome – as well as the audience's patience – and all we're left with is a profound sense of relief once the whole thing is finally over.
Despite the best of intentions in wanting to do something a little bit different for a change, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" still comes across as a "cult classic" trying just a little too hard to become a "cult classic."