Wolf Gnards

Here we are at Comic-Con 2: Electric Boogaloo… if you didn’t catch the first part of my San Diego Adventure, check it out here. As for now, alright, you got it out of me, I’ll tell you about Scott Pilgrim.

Where were we? When we last left off, our fearless Wolfie was trapped in one of many endless lines at San Diego Comic-Con. No hope to see a cool panel. No hope for a cheap meal. Powerless and basically sealed in a cement tomb with thousands of nerds with limited to debilitating social skills. But there’s a bright shiny spot: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Comic-con provided three free screenings for those willing to put in the time and effort.

So, I did not get to see many of the big stars, and I didn’t get into many of the panels I set out to get into, so on Saturday of Comic-Con I camped out for a Scott Pilgrim sneak preview. I had to wait 5 hours in line, but I got in. It was all very secretive and hush, they took our cameras, and told us if they saw a phone screen there would be dire consequences. Edgar Wright stabbed someone in the eye. But once Edgar stopped stabbing, he introduced the audience to the cast of Scott Pilgrim, even Captain America was there. If you squint at the photo, you can almost see something, maybe. The big blurry one is Brandon Routh, he truly is as huge as he is boring.

This made the entire trip to San Diego worth it. Comic-con pass, flight to San Diego, Hotel room, meals: all worth it. It did turn a free movie ticket into a a $1200 movie ticket, but still worth it. From the moment the 8-bit Universal logo starts, you know you’re in for a good time. This is a Will Smith summertime rap good time, good clean fun. And all the stuff about being packed in with anti-social people I said early, forget it. A theater stuffed almost entirely of fanboys and fangirls probably made the whole experience a 100 times better.

In a lot of ways, Scott Pilgrim vs The World is Edgar Wright’s Citizen Kane. I don’t mean it’s the greatest movie of our time. I mean that it’s the culmination of Wright’s talents, everything that he does well in a movie, comes together perfectly. Scott Pilgrim is basically Spaced if Spaced had an unlimited budget. If you’re a Spaced fan, prepare for the mind blow. If you’re a Micheal Cera fan, you’re going to walk away an Edgar Wright fan. If you’re Simon Pegg fan, you’re gonna ask “Where’s Simon Pegg?” That’s the one thing that’s wrong with the film, it’s a shame that what could potentially be Edgar Wright’s magnum opus doesn’t star Pegg.

What I liked about the film was that Wright was faithful to Bryan Lee O’Malley’s source material without being beholden to it. He definitely put his own Edgar Wright stamp on the project. A lot of comic book fans don’t understand when comic films deviate from the graphic novel, it’s just because a film is not a comic book, sacrifices have to made to tell the story in under 120 minutes. The changes were all done well and for the most part do not take away from the comic. Conversely, a lot of screen writers don’t understand that the comic book source material is something that should be revered, this is a sacred object and should be treated as such. Wright clearly respected it, while elevating it to another level. In a lot of ways, film is a better medium for the pop culture and media obsessed Scott Pilgrim comic than a comic book. The only problem I felt was that some of the animated sequences seemed wedged in, trying a little too hard to nod to the comic book.

I do fear many of the references will be lost on the film’s target audience. Does anyone under 25 even remember 8-bit video games? Maybe, they’ll get it. Maybe, they’ll laugh politely, afraid of not looking in the know. Also, at times Pilgrim was perhaps a little too gimmicky. The film never reaches the same emotion core as say Shaun of the Dead, and at times Pilgrim seems like a loosely compiled collection of bits and skits, but they’re incredibly charming bits and not hitting that emotional chord is almost excusable. Plus, deep emotions combined with Pilgrim’s flashy, fast paced style could cause seizures, the same thing happens when kids watch Pokemon.

Michael Cera was a perfect bit of casting as Scott Pilgrim, a nice guy that you wouldn’t mind punching, but you still would like to see him end up with the girl even though you still kind of want to punch him, too. It seems like Cera really only plays himself and it’s just fortunate that this works for Pilgrim. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers is something I actually had a bigger problem with, and I love Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Seriously, I watch Sky High whenever it’s on TV and it’s on TV all the freaking time. She seems like she should be perfect for the role, as the dream girl type, the same way Zooey Deschanel is in (500) Days of Summer. In (500) Days of Summer you understand Gordon-Levitt’s obsession and feel for it, the obsession of Ramona is less clear in Scott Pilgrim vs the World. But she just never fully connects with the audience, and in the end, you want to see Scott Pilgrim end up with someone, but I really didn’t care which girl he actually ended up with.

Fun, flashy, a bit of fluff… you’ll enjoy it if you have a soul and some concept of popular culture of the past 20 years. If you’re the kind of person who glues themselves to a TV (like yours truly), you’ve found something new to glue to.

The lesson: I won’t be going to San Diego Comic-Con again anytime soon. I will be seeing Scott Pilgrim in the near future.