"Game On" Before "Love On"

Rating: 9/10 (17 August 2010)

It's sometimes career suicide when making a film based on already produced, cult-adored material because the material (TV show, comic book, video game) has a rabid fanbase. I'm not familiar with the six-volume, American manga series, "Scott Pilgrim" by Bryan Lee O'Malley, but its' cine-adaptation, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" by Brit fanboy director Edgar Wright ("Shaun of The Dead", "Hot Fuzz" and the TV series "Spaced") is enough to make me a convert because it has the pulse of a heroin-addicted jackrabbit. Keep up, people!
No doubt Michael Cera ("Arrested Development", Superbad", "Juno") is geek-familiar in the title role, a twentysomething, struggling indie rocker in Toronto who either jams with his buds Stephen (Mark Webber), Kim (Allison Pill of "Milk") and Young Neil (Johnny Simmons of "Jennifer's Body), hangs with his sharkish gay roommate Wallace (sly Kiernan Culkin of "Lymelife") or avoids the great buzz surrounding his ex-girl/rocker Envy Adams (Brie Larson of "The United States of Tara").
Barely legal high schooler Knives Chau (lively Ellen Wong) captures Scott's heart, but the relationship's deader than a corpse. Enter bright-haired, American immigrant and Amazon delivery girl on rollerblades Ramona Flowers (cute, deadpan Mary Elizabeth Winstead of "Live Free Or Die Hard") in the pictures, and it's "Knives Who?" in Scott's head. Ramona returns his "love jones" but her seven ex-lovers (two are twins and one's a girl!) show up, mean and super-powered, forcing our hero into wild anime/video game duels, complicating his already shaky love life.
If you understand the visual languages of anime, American and Japanese comic book, video games and indie rock, which are jam-packed in the script by Wright and Michael Bacall (co-wrote/starred in "Manic"), good for you because the average moviegoer would get a brain aneurysm. The co-writers know all the fringe pop culture storytelling tricks and hugs them: speed lines during battles; side commentary; captions introducing characters and locales, illustrating audio effects (a la the 1960s "Batman" TV series) and noting life points; limbo-like dreams; characters changing hairstyles and costumes; facial wild takes and enemies turning into coins after defeat. It's an assault on the eyes and ears, but film begs and deserves multiple viewings, especially on DVD.
Nobody has a gray hair, sagging chin or an AARP membership card in the cast, but they have old souls, especially the two leads. Cera may be a typecast victim, but his role has a backbone, attracting Winstead's dour but colorful heart. The aforementioned supporting players are damn good gonzo; no cast of a TV teen drama could defeat them! Even the "sane" ones, popinjay-like, steel-eyed clerk Julie Powers (Aubrey Plaza of "Parks and Recreation") and Scott's hard-fact older sib Stacey (Anna Kendrick of "Up In The Air") fit in the madness. Bill Hader (also of "Superbad") is interesting the unseen voice.
You also can't forget The League of Evil-Exes, a bunch of self-loving nut-jobs, Scott must handle one by one. Standouts include Chris Evans (who's been in a lot of comic book cine-adaptations since 2005) as a cocky action movie star; Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns" and a unfairly controversial-by-fan guest run on the geek spy series "Chuck") as a strict vegan guitarist/ Envy's current beau; Mae Whitman as a feisty lesbian with a metal whip and Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore", "Bored To Death") as a slimy music industry power broker/the gang's leader.
Like "Sin City", "Watchmen (The Ulitmate Cut)" and "Kick-Ass", "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" is another true-blue cine-adaptation of a comic book/graphic novel that gives the finger to conformistic, maturity attitudes while being mature in the process. Not a lot of people will "get it"(thanks ADD!!!), but give it time. Until "Tron Legacy", the film's probably the most video game-centric around. If they see this, hard-core gamers will refrain from drowning their sorrows in Yoo-Hoo, after being exposed to drek like "Double Dragon" and the "Street Fighter" films (not the Sonny Chiba films, mind you).