Scott Pilgrim VS my review...

Rating: 6/10 (22 August 2012)

Scott Pilgrim VS The World, based off the Oni Press graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O Malley, has had a mix of opinions. Some people love it; however, other people completely hate it. When I first watched it, I didn't view it with a critical mind, so my verdict on it was that it was awesome. Having watched it again with a critical mind, I'm starting to think: Was it really that awesome?
The graphic novels were great, but the 6 books had so much in them, character wise and story wise that seemed way too much to pack into one film. But, with the bad points in the film, it has its up sides. Edgar Wright did a great job at staying true to the source material. A lot of the scenes in the movie looked just like they did in the books, and the comic effects that came on screen made us feel like we were watching a moving graphic novel. The casting also helped a lot also, as most all the actors looked very similar to the comic's characters. Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winsted defiantly suited the roles, especially Jason Schwartzman, who made a great Gideon. Another good thing was that it had the same quirky humour that the books had, and I found myself laughing at what was funny in the graphic novels. But the films flaws are what brings it down from being as good as the books. The thing with the 6 books was, it had A lot going on. There's a lot of characters' that have their own back-stories, ranging from the evil ex-boyfriends to Scott's fellow band members and friends, and I felt that pretty much none of them were explored enough in this film.
The whole back story between Scott and Kim was briefly mentioned but not fully explored; the Envy Adams story was also brought up, but only left us asking what happened between them in the first place? The ex boyfriends had very little screen time each, and although that is the case in the books, at least the books explained a little more about them. Mathew Patel had his story explained, but then we are given the same cheesy singing scene that was one of the first books low points. The Twins were completely wasted due to neither of them having any lines to say, and there was no real confrontation between Ramona and Todd and how Todd is, basically, a cheating scumbag.
The relationship between Scott and Ramona didn't work at all. It took 6 books to develop the love story and the conflicts between them, but, like a lot of other factors in this film, that part seemed rushed through also. Ramona had the same habit she had in the books, she was quite the confusing character whose personality goes from annoying to very annoying after some time. I didn't buy the romance between Scott and Ramona either, and even towards the end when it's all over, I still don't see how they manage to make the relationship work together. Everything seemed to be summed up within a few minutes that leaves us asking things like: "Wait, what happened between those two?" or "Well that got summed up a bit quick" or even "They have TOTALLY missed that part out!". Understandable, movies can go down a different route from their source material, but this movie tried to fit everything in that resulted in it being quite a mess of a film. And Ramona had the same habit she had in the books: She was quite the confusing character whose personality go very annoying after some time.
Whereas the films CGI was often quite decent, some fighting scenes were a little glitchy. I'm not too sure if that was their intention to make fight scenes glitchy like a video game, but I don't think the whole video game effect appealed to me. Another thing that I'm unsure of is, are these characters' actually in a video game? The lives, the fighting and the sound effects, is it set in the real world or an actual video game world? Whereas in the books Bryan managed to get away with it, for a film it doesn't work all that well.
The verdict is, Scott Pilgrim VS the World is an enjoyable film if you don't pay too much attention to details. However if its details and a proper structured story you are after, I doubt that you will enjoy it.