His hair is shaggy from not having had it cut since his major ex-girlfriend broke his heart. He wears T-shirts bearing obscure references to things like “Sharpie” and “Plumtree.” And the lyrics he utters as a backup vocalist and bassist
His hair is shaggy from not having had it cut since his major ex-girlfriend broke his heart. He wears T-shirts bearing obscure references to things like “Sharpie” and “Plumtree.” And the lyrics he utters as a backup vocalist and bassist in his band “Sex Bobombs” have repeated choruses like, “on my garbage truck.”
But don’t misunderstand: Scott Pilgrim isn’t a nerd. He’s quite cool, actually. And as you’re taken along his journey, or pilgrimage of sorts, you start to realize just how studly he is.
Embattled with all that comes along with young love, Pilgrim (Michael Cera) in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” lives a life imagined and real that oscillates between battles of the bands and a hierarchy of video-game levels.
Rife with one-liners, (“will she geek out?”) the movie takes on the boyish charm that comes from the poetry of living within the imaginary. Strengthened by the humor set forth in a metaphor concept that Pilgrim must conquer the league of exes (seven of his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriends and one girlfriend) Pilgrim is just the way die-hard Cera fans want him to be: A self-effacing hipster nerd with a penchant for being awkward and ingratiating himself to the fairer sex.
Based on a series of books by Bryan Lee O’Malley, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” takes on a new, lighthearted way of capturing the woes of young love and the corresponding fears that coincide.
For Pilgrim, a 22-year-old Canadian dating 17-year-old high-school student Knives Chau (don’t worry, they don’t even hold hands, it’s quite innocent), life is a series of disappointments.
That’s until he meets the evasive, punk-y and bored Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a girl who dyes her hair often, prompting Pilgrim to, of course, fear she’s “fickle” and “spontaneous.”
It’s dreaming during a nap in his basement apartment (that’s so small he must share a bed with his gay friend, Wallace Wells, played by Kieran Culkin), that Pilgrim wakes and meets Flowers, literally the girl of his dreams.
He quickly pursues her, a cagey love interest so hot she melts the Toronto winter ice behind her from the wake of her roller blades.
But the gauntlet has been thrown down. To date Flowers, Pilgrim not only needs to keep his cool, he needs to successfully combat her exes in a series of battles resembling different cult-classic video games and corresponding levels.
Though you never really know just how Pilgrim is able to kick ass the way he does, reality in this movie doesn’t really matter.
If most video-game fans wished their lives were more like a video game, they’d probably wish it were more like “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. “
From there, the plot unfolds as one would expect. One by one, Flowers’ evil exes come to battle Pilgrim, each armed with their own super power based on a character quirk — most of which are quite clever.
Of course, since it’s a movie for the young, catch phrases throughout are often preceded with the word “So,” as in, “That’s so not going to happen,” along with witticisms and several thoughtful, though-at-times-gimmicky, embellishments peppering the movie. This includes the comic-book-esque fight scenes with bubbled captions reading, “Paf!” and “Pow!” that occur in each ex scoff.
Overall, the movie is a nostalgic look at Generation Y, walking a childlike line while still capturing some more adult, say Generation X, humor.
Though it seems the movie aims to distinguish itself through its video-game dress-ups and embellishments, its actual strengths are quite traditional. Thankfully, the plotline avoids cheap thrills and gets at the heart of young love and young life, pleasantly.
