Scott Pilgrim - helluvalotta fun, just don't get too serious about it.

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2011)

I have a theory - there are two kinds of movie; the kind where you engage your brain and soak the movie up like a good book, and the other where you disengage your mind and let it wash over you as an experience. Scott Pilgrim is mostly about the experience, with our hero being a geeky, dorky heart-breaker forced to defeat his new girlfriend's exes in fight scenes more reminiscent of Manga than Hollywood action movies.
I personally really enjoyed this film, and watched it without having seen any trailers, reviews and what-not. If you decide to check the other reviews posted here, please skip over the wordy, self-indulgent, overly serious ones - these reviewers should check out a nice fun film like Taxi Driver for their style of reviewing instead!
After having seen a stupid number of films both English language and foreign, never discounting any type of movie, except maybe a certain flavour of US comedy (romantic comedies and the mainstream slapstick that's made for dumb-dums), I have to say that I found this quite refreshing, not taking itself too seriously on any level unlike many, many films crammed with excessive posing and "cool" one-liners.
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World makes for a very different experience to most movies, and has more in common with manga, martial arts and 80's pop-culture movies, with video-game references splattered throughout, and probably won't be "got" by everyone.
Initially I found the lead, Michael Cera to be quite dorky and a little bit wet behind the ears, and the dialogue a bit vague. But then the craziness kicked in, I grasped the intent of the film, disengaged my brain, laughed out loud frequently, and forgot about everything else.
Visually and sonically, this does great justice to it's manga/video game references, and having come away from reading Manga moments before, I was massively pleased by the style imbued throughout. I thought the cast were well chosen for their parts, with moments of almost inconsequential non-dialogue between characters, and utterly dry, deadpan delivery at others, with no actor taking themselves too seriously. The self-awareness that pervades US comedy acting was thankfully muted in this movie - I can't stand it when comedy thinks that it's funny before it's delivered the 60th punchline in as many seconds (to the makers of Family Guy - you're just too desperate to make me laugh, and end up failing miserably with your back to back lines!).
I truly believe that this is a love it or hate it film, crammed with references and visual touches lifted straight from Manga, Video game and Pop-culture (with love), made to bring much dryness, fun and colour to movie-goers. To the makers of this movie -
Please can I have some more like this?....
-it goes REALLY well between the serious stuff that I also enjoy watching!