A hyperactive film of wild imagination

Do you remember your teenage years? Were yours a decade of youthful exuberance, endless summer romances and glossy and glamorous memories?

No, mine neither. That’s exactly why One Tree Hill, The OC and the Twilight Saga mean nothing to me, because no teenager is that troubled/good looking/fake.

If like me, your teenage years were spent mumbling with inbetweener friends, playing obscure music really, really loudly and moving from one trashy computer game to another, then this is the film for you.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a brilliant piece of escapist cinema whilst still being a story that we can all relate to.

It’s a hyperactive spectacle of wild teenage imagination that brings a cult comic-book hero to life.

As awkward as he is affable, Scott Pilgrim is played by the brilliant Michael Cera who rose to fame in the likes of the criminally underrated cult US comedy series Arrested Development and the award-winning teen comedy drama Juno.

He stars alongside the like of the awesome Jason Schwartzman, known as a favourite for his magical contributions to a string of movies by the genius Wes Anderson – a charming and understated magic that Schwartzman brings to each of his roles and this is certainly no exception.

The story begins when Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old Canadian slacker and bass player in the hilariously bad Sex Bob-omb, is living in Toronto and starts ‘dating’ a much younger Chinese-Canadian high-schooler, Knives Chau before he meets the girl of his dreams – Ramona Flowers.

Madly in love, Scott soon finds out that in order to date Ramona, he must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in an audio-visual special effects feast that plays heavily on computer game culture and imagery.

With cameo roles from Brandon Routh, Chris Evans (of Fantastic Four fame, not the DJ off of Radio 2) and others for the exes, the fight scenes are without a doubt the best bits of this movie. It’s like watching Street Fighter, but live action.

“What are you doing?” someone asks, before the geek fest reaches an ultimate crescendo. “Getting a life,” replies Pilgrim before punching a ‘1 UP’ symbol to the wild and hysterical titters of those in the audience who misspent their youth jumping down pipes and chasing princesses on the back of dinosaurs with Mario.

What follows is a mental onslaught of nerd-violence, as if the IT Crowd met Tekken, before the film winds down into a tidy ending, doing the comic book legend great justice and keeping it within its thick black-lined boxes.

At times the film plays on its strengths a bit too much. As you’re beaten around the head with pastiche and niche nods of nostalgic dork-ism, the plot suffers from brief moments of overkill.

The CGI Bollywood dance-off from the first evil ex-boyfriend is irritating to say the least, not to mention pointless and baffling.

But on the whole, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World deserves the critical acclaim and commercial success that has been lavished upon it.

With subtle and dark comedy balanced with 8-bit wonder, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is like Seinfield for the Super Nintendo.

Plus it features an amazing score by Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, featuring the likes of Beck, Blood Red Shoes, Metric, Broken Social Scene, T-Rex and The Rolling Stones. This film not only ticks every box but completely blows them apart.

It will go down in cinematic history as much more than a cult summer blockbuster, but as a picture of perfect youth.

By Andrew Trendell

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