Scott Pilgrim - Reviewed

When I say the words "A movie about a generation, for a generation, by a generation", I'm not just trying to use methodical repetition to illustrate my point. I want want to show the gravity of how important and influential "Pilgrim" is to people my age.

Using clever (often subtle) references to video games and comic books, the story of "Scott Pilgrim" follows the titular hero (played by the wonderful Michael Cera, in what I believe to be his most emotionally intense film) in his Canadian existence as he falls in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Subsequently Scott battles the evil league of Flowers' ex's for experience points, the love of his woman, and coins. Lots and lots of coins.

Director Edgar Write, whose previous big-screen successes "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" earned him geek-cred as the man who makes dreams come true, displays his ability to score the high points on each movie with this endeavor; "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World".

I realize now, after seeing "Scott Pilgrim", that no amount of terrible ex-girlfriends of mine could ever equal the kind of death-defying crazy that the seven evil exes' of Ramona Flowers possess. Sure, one of mine set fire to her hair just to prove she was over me. Another ate her cat. But nothing can compare to the desperately evil horribleness of having seven exes' who are not only dastardly, but all gunning for her latest Beau.

There is a considerable amount of background story and ambiance that is too extensive and outlandish to present here, including Ramona's job as an Amazon.com delivery girl, Pilgrim's gay roommate Wallace, the intertwining of Scott's and Ramona's pasts, as well as any rational explanation for the Vegan Police. But Suffice it to say, all of this story-dressing sets the mood in which every moment of the movie shines.

Seeing as how this film follows incredibly faithfully to its source material, the American made manga of the same name, it amazes me how well a good idea can be translated on the screen with successful CGI and an outstanding cast. To say "Pilgrim" is stylized would be an understatement; just like in saying how Sin City is modern-noir, one cannot fathom the incomparable realization of the literal translation to the screen version.

Deviations from the original manga become a welcome addition to an already outstanding presentation. In one scene, as Scott has fallen head over heels for his new girlfriend Ramona, he arrives home to his roommate Wallace with a laugh-track and exposition musical cues taken straight out of Seinfeld. This merging of what our minds imagine and what plays in the real world only heightens the affection the audience has created for the lovable loser Scott and his new direction in life. Counterpointing this is the depth and weighted drama of Scott's dream sequences, lonely and dying in the middle of a barren desert, which serves as a gateway for Ramona to deliver packages through.

Not even the warped mind of Hunter S. Thompson and his drug-induced "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" could match the themes of metaphysical existence "Pilgrim" displays. Early on in the film it becomes apparent that while movies by Thompson, or Vonnegut, or Palahniuk, speak to a certain age and generation of people, "Pilgrim" speaks to the hearts and minds of the video game age where gamers have long since felt left alone and forgotten by a world which dismisses them.

"Pilgrim" stands as a testament to how a culture of slacker-ism and gaming can, in fact, produce highly creative and unique ideas which would go unheard or unseen in any other moment in the history of mankind.

I give "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" 5 extra lives out of 5.