Sunday, August 15, 2010

Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

IMDb

Title: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Distributor: Legendary Pictures (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Director: Edgar Wright
Writer(s): Michael Bacal (screenplay), Edgar Wright (screenplay), Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni Press graphic novels)
Staring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Mae Whitman, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for stylized violence, sexual content, language and drug references.
Running Time: 112 min
Synopsis: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil exes in order to win her heart.

What Others Are Saying?


Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter:
80% (Fresh), Top Critics: 79% (Fresh), RT Community: 82% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 68 out of 100, Users: 8.8 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 72: (31.2% A, 41.2% B,
19.7% C, 6.9% D, and 0.0% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: B+ Users: A-

My Review

Source Material: Based on a series of graphic novels written by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Entertaining Value:

  • Action Elements: The action is fun. Scott Pilgrim proves that cartoon-ish action can happen in real life. What I'm getting at is there was a lot of onomatopoeia used. So much so it kind of remind of the Batman from the fifties staring Adam West. But that was the point.
  • Comedy Elements: For me and my gamer friends it was pretty much not stop laughter. But I don't thank you have to be a gamer to get the references cause most of them come from old school gaming systems like the NES.
  • Dramatic Elements: Even thought this film is driven on comedy and ridiculousness, it still had some decent dramatic parts.
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: With been a graphic novel based movie there is some Sci-Fi and fantasy elements that add to the spectacularness of the film.

Cinematic Value:

  • Acting and Dialogue: B+: This film has a fairly young cast, but there was also some talent mixed among them. Look at some of these actors: Chris Evans, who is the new go to guy for any and all, comic book, graphic novel, superhero based movie, Jason Schwartzman who is great in pretty much everything, Michael Cera, the type-cast awkward teenager, Mae Whitman, known for being the voice of Katara from Avatar: The Lastr Airbender.
  • Art Direction: A: The style of the film had a since of "coolness" because of the costumes and such.
  • Cinematography: A: I though it was interesting how they filmed it, so by the end of the film you believed that the reality of a video game could be the reality of the real world. Which, is perfect cause that's how Scott Pilgrim perceives his world .
  • Direction: A: I have been pleased with Edgar Wright films up to this point. He seem to know what he is doing, so I quote: "stick to what you know" As far as the pacing and what not, I never felt board once. It was the complete opposite.
  • Editing: A: Do you remember Ang Less's Hulk and how they tried to cut the film so it read like a comic book, and failed. Well, Scott Pilgrim is the opposite of that, it reads like a comic book but doesn't suck. It also reads like a video game. The video game theme was very common through out every aspect of the film. .
  • Screenplay: A: The theme was obviously nostalgic video games meets modern pop punk meets superheroes; a perfect movie for nerds and geeks alike, but the story combines all those aspect perfectly that a larger audience will like the film.
  • Sound and Music: A: I felt the soundtrack was like, "name that video game theme." but I okay with that cause the music fits the over all theme.
  • VFX: B+: It wasn't Oscar worthy but it contribute to the films awesomeness.

Overall: A-: This film was one of the most entertaining film film in my life. It may not win best picture but it a awesomely fun film. I highly recommend this film. It saddens me this film inst going to do as well at the box office as it should. I cant believe a film that rank way less critically has done better at the box office, that film is The Expendables. I say lets rally up and spread the word around that
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a good film so next week it can get those numbers it deserves