Ok, so I am not a big fan of Michael Cera films, but every once in a while, a role of his grabs me just by the trailer. I saw the trailer for this and thought, "This looks like a shoutout to 80s video games, I should see this". So, I grabbed my partner in crime and drug her to it. :)
The film stars Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, a young aspiring rock musician with a vivid imagination who is dating a high school student Knives Chou (Ellen Wong in her first major role). He gets a lot of grief for this from his friends who include his band mates, his sister (Anna Kendrick), and his gay roommate (Kieran Culkin, who has some of the funniest lines in the movie). LIfe is normal for Scott, till he sees a girl in his dreams and then meets this mysterious beauty in real life at a party. Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is this charming pink haired girl who captivates Scott and thus the trouble begins. Turns out she has seven exes who want to kill Scott Pilgrim. Why is not important, we just know that they want him to die. So, throughout the movie he will have to face them, each showdown more outrageous and intense than the next (look for a Donkey Kong reference).
The movie is very unique in it's approach to the story. Right off the bat, reality goes out the window, and we are treated to the band, "Sex Bomomb" playing their instruments, complete with animation on the screen to look kind of like a comic book come to life, which this is. It's based on a graphic novel and is filmed in such a way to reflect that. However, here we encouter one of my problems with the film. I was confused throughout the movie as we are subjected to multiple filming styles. Anime, comic animation, split screen shots, video games shots, and animation drawn into live action shots. It's all very bright and colorful, and gave me a splitting headache. Hmmm... maybe that's why I've been sick the last 3 days? Is that what it feels like to be high? But I digress... the constant changeup of filming styles got very tiresome. Filmmakers need to pick a style or two and go with it, don't throw so much on screen that my senses experience overload and crash on me. Something I did love about the filming however, was how they were able to capture the fight scenes and make them work like watching someone play a video game. It was fun to see the crazy stunts and insane violence characters committed against one another.
The rest of the story is actually very good, as we care about Scott and whether he will end up with Ramona or Knives (resulting in some very funny moments) as well as what will happen to his band and whether he will survive the seven deadly exes! He and his gay roommate throw barbs back and forth and I found myself laughing out loud at the insults hurled back and forth. Noone was safe in this. I do think the movie dragged just a bit in the middle, there was a couple of moments in a club that were completely unnecessary and didn't really move the story along. It was filler just so they could say they'd "gone there".
As for the content, there are some offensive things in this. Yes, one of the characters is gay, but that isn't rammed down our throats, he's more there to lighten the mood, and he is very funny. There is a very little language, nothing strong. There is a brief makeout scene that we could have done without, and there is a lot of violence, although it is mostly played for laughs- till the end, where the mood suddenly shifts very darkly for some odd reason, completely out of sync with the rest of the movie. Overall, though, nothing in here that should bother to many, but like Suzy said, don't take the kids to this one.
I liked Scott Pilgrim and would recommend any Michael Cera fans should go see this, plus with all the 80s references, if you were around to remember the 80s like Suzy and I, you will love, love, love the constant jokes! So many younger folk in the theater were confused by the things we kept pointing out, that was pretty fun. However, due to sensory overload, it's overly long running time, and the uneven moments, this is not a great film. Still, worthy of seeing, 2 1/2 gold bricks for Scott Pilgrim.
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