Extremely flash

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2010)

Few films have filled me with equal amounts of anticipation and dread as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The anticipation came from the marriage of an intriguing premise and a director that had shown immense promise through having a hand in some of the best comedy of the past 10 years. On the other hand, the over-the-top style and hipper-than-thou vibes looked to be a double-edged sword that could bring the whole thing crashing down in bright computer-generated flames.
Let's get the plot out of the way - for those who haven't heard anything at all about this, the titular character is an unemployed musician living in Toronto who ends up meeting the girl of his dreams one night. As he gets involved with her, he discovers that she has a hell of a past - she's left behind "seven evil exes". For no adequately explained (or particularly necessary) reason, they each come after Scott and engage him in ludicrously over-the-top battles. In between fights, Scott still has to deal with the various ups and downs of his relationship and how it affects the rest of his life.
Right, let's move on the film proper - well, those feelings I mentioned in the first paragraph? By and large justified in both respects. On the good side, stylistically the film is sublime. Despite having never read the source comics, I still enjoyed the film's heavy-handed usage of comic-book conventions such as visible sound effects, split-screen panels...the works. That's going without mentioning the copious references to videogames, whether it's the subtle use of sounds from other games or the blatant references to such things as getting lives or winning points. The visual effects are also top-notch, going above and beyond expectations with colourful clashes and blistering battles. If nothing else, Scott Pilgrim looks a million dollars.
Now comes the bit where I follow up a paragraph full of earnest praise with a little bit of honest criticism...while the film is great visually, I'm not really a fan of everything else about the film. Michael Cera does his usual "awkward goofiness" schtick, while most of the other cast deliver undemanding deadpan performances. On the other hand, the hamminess of the exes comes close to making up for it it.While I don't deny that these different styles genuinely fit in the right sequences, sometimes it gels and sometimes it doesn't. The same goes for some of the references that the film tries to jam in, especially one scene that parodies a certain popular sitcom that really isn't quite as funny as it should be. I could probably rattle off a list of the stuff that falls flat, but I'd probably have to list the stuff that didn't as well, so the non-action sequences are something of a mixed bag for myself.
If you're familiar with any of Wright's other work, this will definitely amuse you to one degree or another. If you're not, well, I daresay all the promotional materials give you the right idea - it's a fairly lightweight romantic comedy plot wrapped in a few layers of unbelievable fantasy and cooked to a crisp. Ultimately it suffers from one very extreme case of style over substance, but what a style it is. Definitely worth seeing in theatres, if nowhere else.