As I sat down to watch Scott Pilgrim last week, it was admittedly with some bating of the breath. I’m a massive Edgar Wright fan (as if anybody who’s watched Spaced and Shaun couldn’t be) and the trailers for SP had literally blown me away. I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the hype; worried that Edgar Wright would’ve been forced to steer away from his usual singular style under the watchful eye of Hollywood. Thank God I hadn’t read the books at that moment in time, or I would’ve been a wreck!
Scott Pilgrim is essentially the story of boy meets girl, but about twenty times more awesome. Scott is a 23 year old slacker from Toronto who’s making nothing of his life, plays in a band called Sex Bob-Omb, and has recently acquired himself a 17 year old Chinese girlfriend called Knives Chau who goes to Catholic school and wears a uniform. Nuff said. The subject of much ridicule from his band mates, his rich gay roommate (Kieran Culkin), and his far worldlier younger sister (Anna Kendrick), Scott finds himself drifting through life. That is, until Ramona Flowers (Winstead) rollerblades through one of his dreams and into his local library.
Scott immediately becomes obsessed with Ramona; obsessed with the ever-changing colours of her hair, her cool and mysterious American background, and, naturally, the fact that she’s pretty damn hot. He goes from stalking her at a party, to ordering a package he knows she will end up delivering, to not signing for the parcel until she agrees to go on a date with him. However, his obsession with dating Ramona leaves him no time to think what to do about Knives, who is steadily falling in (17 year old) love with him. As his relationship with Ramona begins, Sex Bob-Omb get their first show at the Toronto Battle of the Bands.
But Ramona has been keeping a small detail from Scott about her past – which catches up with her just as Sex Bob-Omb start their debut show. Ramona has seven evil exes, all intent on fighting Scott Pilgrim to the death. The first of these, Matthew Patel, shows up during first five seconds of the gig and shoots fireballs at the stage. Scott is forced to fight him, and it’s from this moment on that the film really gets into its stride.
Despite chavs walking out of the cinema both times I saw it, I absolutely loved this film. In fact, I think the fact it can force a chav to leave my presence without presenting them with an ASBO made me love it just that little bit more. Edgar Wright’s direction and attention to detail is utterly sublime. He has created a film that’s completely unique and like, totally awesome.
It’s a retro gamer’s dream, containing so many references that even a mild super Mario fan could find themselves experiencing a slight nerdgasm. The cast are all brilliant – every evil ex hilarious – and I don’t think I can find much fault at all with this film.
Wright has poured every drop of his blood, sweat, tears and God knows what else into this film, and it really shows.
Level Up, Mr Wright.
