A mildly enjoyable waste of an afternoon

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2011)

I usually don't write reviews of fairly current, reasonably popular movies (I tend to like the odd older theatrical and TV fare), but after reading some of the message board posts, I felt the desire to toss in my 2¢ worth. I'm an 'older' movie lover having played my first arcade game around 1962 (baseball, with a real ball and a levered bat, I won 2 free games but my mother pulled me away).
Anyway, the first time I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, I came in about evil-ex #2, so I didn't catch the set-up. But it didn't take me long to figure out that this movie was a fantasy, not reality, and the world it portrayed was based on arcade/video games. I appreciate plots and locations that shift reality around so long as they stay true to the newly invented world. To me, SPvsTW stayed that way.
Basically, the story follows that very old tried and true plot device, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. (btw, this could work for both girls Scott is currently interested in, Ramona AND Knives, depending on how you like your ending!) That can be okay, but only if there is something interesting going on. And with Scott Pilgrim now having to defeat the seven evil exes of his current girlfriend one (or two) at a time, in order to win her over, there is.
On a secondary level, it follows pretty much the outline for what used to be called a screwball comedy – unconventional, goes in different directions, behaves in unexpected ways (wikipedia). And more importantly it features not just one female character 'rarely seen in movies' but a number of very strong female characters each of whom is fairly capable of 'holding her own'. And it is close to being a sex comedy without the sex with the couple being obviously mismatched with the male further down the (economic or 'cool') scale than the woman (again it works for both Ramona and Knives). Oh, and witty repartee. An almost perfect fit - a screwball comedy for the 21st century.
One aspect that keeps the interest, is that in this 'arcade' game, Scott Pilgrim like in any good Adventure (yes, I played Colossal Cave a lot), has to use both his strength and his wits in totally different ways in order to defeat his opponents at each level. And the fights were very good, from a great graphic Battle of the Bands to figuring out how to hit a female without looking uncool, to tricking an opponent into making foolish mistakes (and being punished for them!), to Scott finally understanding how he should have been all along.
I found the ending somewhat of a surprise in that the viewer is almost led to believe one result will take place and then it's changed at the last second which goes with the basic screwball comedy concept.
Besides having a wealth of strong female roles, I also think this will be a great movie to come back to in later years to see a lot of future stars in early roles, as well as wondering where are they now for others, much like 'Magnificent Seven, American Graffiti, St. Elmo's Fire, have done for successive past generations of movie goers. I want to see Allison Pill, Ellen Wong, Kieran Culkin, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, Brie Larson in later films (like I already have Anna Kendrick).
My favorite line which cracks me up every time is Gideon (the token villain) saying, 'Do you know how long it took me to get all the evil exes' contact information? Two hours! TWO HOURS!' (has Jason Schwartzman used something similar in 'Bored to Death'? That line could easily have come from his character there.) That and every utterance (and facial gesture or lack thereof!) by Allison Pill were very funny.
Some drawbacks because it's not a perfect movie (few are), Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim) needs to work the camera better enlarging his range of emotions, most of the females and some of the males easily upstaged him. Some of the fights went on a little too long. Since I came in late for my first viewing (I've seen it 2 or 3 times since), I assumed Ellen Wong (Knives) was playing her real age, because she looked like a 20 something (except for very early in the movie with her longer hair in that ponytail sort of 'do'), so I had some problems accepting that set up when I finally caught the opening sequences.
For someone who has enjoyed the arcade/video gaming scene for a long time, I found it a very amusing pleasant brain-candy type of movie, (like The Fifth Element for instance), strictly an entertaining waste of 2 hours. A solid 7.