Not Just Another "Comic Book Movie"

Rating: 8/10 (16 August 2010)

Does an unusually good job of not just retaining but enhancing period and place-specific pop culture references in adaptation to film. Wright's work has always shown such sensibilities, from TimeSplitters in SOTD to an entire episode of Spaced that references Resident Evil. But here it is enhanced visually by the pixel-jamming cinematography of Bill Pope and Brad Allan's martial choreography into something unique.
It is easily the most accurate "comic book movie" to date, but not in the sense of being slavishly faithful to its source. It does so in expressing stylistically the ability of sequential art to collapse time and space, forcing the viewer to make inferences beyond those implied by jump cuts. At the same time, the film captures the sense of immediacy and complete immersion into the dream logic of video games.
The references are extremely well integrated into the plot, with many foreshadowed by games characters play before they themselves act them out. From a ninja arcade cabinet game to Nintendo, Sega and Dreamcast home console titles. There are dance moves from Space Channel 5 in the Matthew Patel faceoff, opponents exploding into coins from countless brawlers, Ramona travelling through a Sub-space shortcut like in Mario, references to Zelda, Street Fighter, Double Dragon and Mortal Kombat franchises.
It also draws upon anime, with the art style from the comic appearing directly on screen at key moments, and an emphasis on establishing shots familiar to manga fans. At a key moment, the ability to manifest and draw a katana from one's chest appears, just like in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Brad Allan from Jackie Chan's Sing Ga Ban brings a strong sense of video game rhythm to the fight scenes. They are tightly choreographed to often diegetic music by on stage band battles. Allan has Matthew Patel do a quick flash of Ken Lo's footwork snap from Drunken Master II, in a fun nod. And Wright casts the Miyoshi Brothers from Battle League Horumo as twins who synth-duel with Sex Bob-Omb.
****************SPOILER****ALERT********************* The films changes the ending and sequence of events from the comic, but in a manner I found more dramatic and fitting to the medium. Knives fights Flowers in Schwartzman's Chaos Club instead of the library, and the appearance of Nega Scott is resolved almost as soon as it happens. But it is all of the fine touches that Wright puts in that most accurately reflect those in the comic, while being done in a cinematic way more reminiscent of European art house film than Hollywood product.
Numerical, heart and "x" motifs run through the film, and Evans' Lucas Lee is used to more directly mock Hollywood action film conventions. Brad Allan, no stranger to stunt doubling, has the movie star Lee character's doppelgangers take on Pilgrim for him. This scene simultaneously mocks the substitution of Toronto for NYC in American productions, having them tear through a matte painting on a scrim.
By mocking the clichés of multiple forms of media and maintaining a specificity in terms of time, place and tone, this movie distinguishes itself clearly from not just other comic book adaptations - but the majority of literary ones as well. Of course, these same merits are likely to have it be dismissed from critical consideration. At least until those elements become nostalgic enough to be taken seriously, at which time younger audiences will have moved on.