Vincent MeccaOver the summer I was invited to a movie called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The only thing I knew from the previews I saw on TV was that a boy was going to have to fight the seven“evil exes” of his girlfriend in order to be with her. What I expected to watch was a sappy love story with dry humor, seeing as the main character was played byMichael Sera. Well, that wasn’t the case at all. I was shocked.
The opening starts out with main protagonist Scott Pilgrim and his band Sex Bobombs practicing for a gig, while Scott’s girlfriend Knives, who is still in high school, watches. The story progresses to a party where Scott spots the beautiful Ramona Flowers standing up against a wall. He attempts to ask around about who she is and what she’s all about, but the answers he gets are vague and only intrigues him more. Scott tries to go up and talk to her, but his poor attempt at small talk fails when he begins telling her the origins of Pac-Man.Scott later finds out that she works for Amazon.com as a delivery girl, and so he quickly orders something online in hopes that she’ll deliver it. The day the package comes and Ramona rings his doorbell, he asks her out and she agrees if he’ll sign for his package.This turning point in the movie begins their relationship and the love triangle between Knives, Scott,and Ramona, as well as the problems Scott will soon face from the League of Evil Exes. As the story goes on, Scott receives an email from the first of the seven evil exes of Ramona, stating that he is coming for Scott now that he is dating Ramona.He disregards the email,and only realizes after he is attacked at his concert by this first evil ex, that he is, in fact, going to have to fight Ramona’s exes in order to be with her. For each of the exes Scott encounters, Scott learns a little bit about Ramona’s past and what type of person she used to be during the time she dated each person. Scott also uses these clues from the past to his advantage as he learns how he can defeat them.
The movie is actually based on a comic book series by Bryan Lee O’Malley. It included a lot of elements you would find in a comic book, including bursts with words like “Dong” as character Ramona rings the doorbell to “Pow!” as Scott dealt blows to evil exes.
Another interesting aspect to the movie was the relationship to video games. Score Points, to 1-ups and coins appeared after Scott defeated his opponents. The fight sequences at certain parts mirrored fighting games such as Mortal Combat or Street Fighter. A lot of video games are referenced within the movie itself either directly or indirectly. For example, Zelda noises can be heard through the movie as certain things happen. Scott also mentions the video game Final Fantasy when he says he has learned to play the bass to its battle theme. I found it interesting to see how they applied all these aspects normally found in a game and comic into a movie, and I think they did a good job.
Overall, I found the movie to be enjoyable. Weird? Yes, but I think that in order to appreciate the movie you have to understand the small things that happen and relate them to either a comic you’ve read or a video game you’ve played.
Out of the three people I went to the movies with, I was the only one who really liked the movie, and I realized that it was because I’m a nerd and I got all the references the movie made. If you are or have been into video games in the past, then you will probably enjoy this movie, however if you were never into comics or video games in the first place, then you probably won’t be able to relate to the movie enough to get as much out of it as someone who has.
