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Kim:
Scott, if your life had a face, I'd punch
it.
The stellar Edgar Wright has finally made it to the American shores by
way of a cult series of graphic novels and in typical Wright-fashion,
he's not prone to just making any movie that would appeal to an audience
of the PG-13 sector. "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" is self aware. It's
so self-aware it's aware that it's self-aware and makes its audience
aware of its self-awareness by reminding us of its self-awareness with
an often self-aware sense of humor that very few will get. Leave it up
to Wright to make a broad mainstream teen film that will only appeal to
a cult audience as "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" is basically about the
modern generation. It's pure unadulterated pop culture overload with
ideals that are simplified and set to the tune of classic video games.
Edgar Wright is exactly where he wants to be after offering up "Spaced"
and "Shaun of the Dead" in the UK which were unbridled celebrations of
everything pop culture, and now he provides an American version with a
satire not only on modern youth in America, but in our unwillingness to
step outside the bounds of our knowledge of pop culture. While Wright
does pay homage to the classic tropes of the pop culture generation, he
also mocks it in many instances, exaggerating much of the relationships,
relegating them to mere quarter arcade games, and supplying an array of
vapid and superficial characters many of whom will be rooted for when in
reality, they're not remotely likable.
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Even hero Scott Pilgrim is
something of a selfish worm incapable of committing, he
hangs around insecure moronic band mates, his best friend
uses him, his sister wants nothing to do with him, his love
interest is a vapid cliché, and the girlfriend (he's trying
to dump but has no courage to) is a meek wannabe incapable
of mustering up an original thought of her own. Wright
places his characters in the bubble of the pop culture orgy
giving them all fairly derivative personalities and thoughts
while also jabbing at our own sense of importance and
relevance where we're filled with problems that aren't even
as harrowing as we perceive them to be. |
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Characters here are so apathetic toward life
they can't even muster up enough emotion to care about one another, but
in spite of all of that, Wright manages to deliver something of an
exciting and hysterical spoof of the teen romance where every bit of
melodrama is unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and every action
is questionable. Many audiences will view "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World"
as a high five to our culture, but in reality, Wright basically points
and laughs at us, the youth of this generation unable to muster up
original catchphrases and fashion, grabbing pieces of our identity from
television shows, video games, and celebrities. Wright adds the element
of mockery throughout with a sitcom laugh track after Scott celebrates
his one night with Ramona, and his ability to depict every emotional
conflict with a tongue in cheek artificial flourish painting it to look
like your run of the mill anime.
Which
is not to say "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" isn't fun. It's action
packed, has some brilliant direction, absolutely top notch editing, and
puts on display a strong cast of young actors from (just to name a few)
Alison Pill, Ellen Wong, Chris Evans, Keiran Culkin, Mary Elizabeth
Winstead, and Michael Cera respectively all of whom give truly great
performances and are allowed their times to shine. Wright essentially
makes a statement about where we are in this world where nothing truly
matters to us beyond relationships and video games, all the while making
us laugh through the social commentary. Wright presents a wicked
throwback to 8-bit video games and our obsession with nostalgia, all the
while standing back and asking us "Is this all we really care about at
the end of the day? Is this all life can give us?" Wright goes for more
than just an adaptation of a fairly popular graphic novel series. "Scott
Pilgrim vs. The World" is undoubtedly one of my favorite films of 2010,
and one that will be grossly misunderstood by its fan base.
Edgar
Wright does it again with "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" an entertaining,
spastic, and fanboytastic romance comedy that is also an interesting
statement on modern youths detachment from actual human emotions through
the advent of technology. That pretentious crap aside, "Scott Pilgrim
vs. The World" rocked my cock 'til ten o'clock.
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