I’d be shocked if Scott Pilgrim vs. The World turned out to be anything less than entertaining. With Edgar Wright behind the camera, the man who brought us Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, many people were eagerly anticipating the film. Based on the graphic novel of the same name the film stars current Hollywood obsession, Michael Cera (Superbad, Juno) as well as some other up and coming actors and actresses like Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick and Jason Schwartzman.

There certainly has been a lot of hype surrounding the film and everyone seems to be talking about it. The buzz surrounding the film has been there for a while now and Edgar Wright certainly has some big expectations to live up to. Being one of the last blockbusters of the summer, there is a lot riding on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Now that the film is finally out, we get a chance to see what all the commotion is about. Is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World really the be all and end all or is it just another overhyped film destined to disappoint?

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a 22 year old living in Toronto. He’s a bit of a doofus yet still fairly likeable. He spends most of his time, playing guitar with his friends Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), Young Neil (Johnny Simmons) and Kim Pine (Alison Pill) in their band Sex Bob-omb.
With one bad relationships in his past, Scott has moved on and he’s now dating Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), a 17 year old. Aside from constantly being ridiculed for dating a high school girl, Scott seems happy in the relationship.

Enter Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The moment he lays eyes on her, Scott knows he has found the love of his life. Eager to pursue his new found love, Scott sets out to win her over. After hastily dumping Knives in quite a ‘jerk’ manner, he sets his sights on Ramona.

He bumps into her at a party one night and decides to take a chance. He approaches her with the classy pickup line: “You know Pac-Man?” to which she replies: “I know of him”. That best sums up how smooth Scott is with girls.

Undeterred by the initial rejection, Scott doesn’t give up when he’s first blown off. After making another effort, and this one somewhat respectable, he gets his first date with Ramona and as they start to hang out, they soon start to form a relationship.

There’s just one problem, Ramona has seven evil exes who are determined to get in Scott’s way. These evil exes don’t just want to stop Scott, they want to kill him. Unaware of this at first (too bad Scott only skimmed the email), he soon realizes that if he wants to win over Ramona’s heart, he must first defeat her seven exes, which is no

easy task.

The League of Evil Exes themselves is one of the highlights of the film. The group is as colorful and outrageous as a group can get and every character is very entertaining. The League is perfectly cast and everyone gives great performances. They’re all wildly over the top but they’re a lot of fun to watch.

We have Chris Evans as a cocky movie star who does his best Eastwood vocal impersonation, Jason Schwartzman as the megalomaniac record producer who takes everything a bit too far, Brandon Routh as a pretentious vegan rock star (my favorite evil ex) and a few others who all make for a great supporting cast. We never know why Scott must battle Ramona’s evil exes and there is never any intelligible explanation for any of the events that transpire here but who cares? Wright’s target market certainly doesn’t and I guess that’s all that really matters.

Each time Scott faces off against an evil ex, the fight is staged like a video games a la Street Fighter style. Whenever Scott defeats an evil ex, the ex bursts into a pile of coins. Sometimes Scott even gets a points bonus or an extra life. The fights are one of the more interesting parts of the film. The participants perform over the top high flying moves as the screen is littered with graphical effects. Split screens, camera tricks, sounds that come complete with their own illustrative words and more than enough flashy lights make the whole thing somewhat dizzying. Although neat at first, these fights border on ‘gimmick’ territory and by the end of the film it becomes, dare I say, repetitive?

Clearly hoping to target the youth in society, Wright throws an abundant amount of pop culture references into the film but manages to get away without drowning the characters in pop culture diversions. That being said, there are a daunting amount of references and they’re so frequent that it will be tough to catch them all on your first viewing.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World boasts a very unique visual style. Cinematographer Bill Pope helps Wright deliver a visual knockout of a film. The best way to describe the visual style that Wright creates would be the following: a giant mashup of magna, video games, music videos and comics all coming together to meet real life. It’s certainly refreshing and unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The film turns out to be visually arresting and our eyes almost never get a break.

Some scenes have so many effects and cuts that we start to fear a seizure is just around the corner. It’s easily the most frenetically paced movies I’ve ever seen. Wright also uses a lot of scene connecting pans and wipes that can be quite jarring. He brings the film’s ADD style editing to an almost insufferable level at some points and

it gets a bit too hyper at times

Aside from your eyes never getting a break, you’ll be hard pressed to find time for your jaw to relax. The film is very funny and it’s consistently cracking jokes. A lot of the lines are downright hilarious and most of the gags work really well. The few gags or lines that miss the mark don’t really pose much of a problem as they are soon forgotten due to the film’s rapid pace. I found myself laughing out loud at many parts and it’s one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a while.

That being said, there are moments when Wright is in danger of overdosing on his own quirkiness and after a while you may start to feel like thing are being taken too far. A couple of parts are just too strange for my liking. The Seinfeld scene is way too out there and the musical number within a fight scene within a musical number just left me scratching my head.

Complementing the very funny and well written script is the cast. The film really benefits from the young and talented actors and actresses that Wright has chosen. Everyone in the cast does a great job and they all help to keep the film feel exciting and energetic.

Michael Cera who literally always plays the same character, is up to his usual shenanigans here. The kid doesn’t have much range. To be honest though, it doesn’t really matter, it works well in all his films (so far) and it works exceptionally well in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

His comedic timing is flawless and his awkwardness makes his scenes all the more entertaining. He drops some fantastic lines and he fits perfectly into the film’s quirky mood. The only complaint I have is that the romance between Cera and Winstead never feels authentic. It’s tough to believe that Cera’s character would even have the guts to be with her in the first place.

Ellen Wong, who plays Knives Chau, is quite a surprise. Whoever found her should be rewarded as she provides some of the film’s funniest moments. She plays the part so well that you’ll almost completely forget the fact that she has minimal acting experience.

Kieran Culkin plays Wallace Wells, Scott’s snarky gay roommate and he steals every scene he’s in. Like Wong he shines in all his scenes and is very very funny. I haven’t seen Culkin in a film for a while now and I’m hoping he gets some more exposure after his role here.

Lastly, there’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead who plays Ramona. Winstead is fairly confident in her role but as I noted before, the romance between her and Cera never feels real. The two never really seem to hit it off and there’s never any real chemistry. She also gives off an almost enigmatic vibe which

made it hard to connect with her. Despite this, Winstead still does a fine job and offers a solid performance.

As I mentioned before, the supporting cast does a great job also. From Webber, Pill and Simmons who play Scott’s friends to Anna Kendrick who plays his sister Stacey, and of course the seven evil exes, everyone is near flawless. The cast was perfectly chosen and they really made the film a treat to watch.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World gives us an energetic and exciting film that is just what we needed in a summer full of such drab movies. Wright manages to connect with his target audience as he goes down a quirky road, similar in someways to what we’d see in a Wes Anderson film. He creates a movie that truly has a little something for everyone. Implementing a unique visual style, Edgar Wright crafts a dazzling, entertaining and surprisingly charming summer blockbuster.

While Scott Pilgrim vs. The World doesn’t turn out to be the perfect film that many thought it would be, it does manage to offer a very stylized film that will please fans of the comic book. Covered in originality and oozing with wit, it turns out to easily be one of the better movies that I’ve seen this year.

Wright’s wildly imaginative vision and talent behind the camera keeps things feeling fresh and it all makes for a pretty awesome viewing experience. While it’s a bit much at times, almost dizzying at certain parts, one things for sure, there’s never a dull moment in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. And for that alone you owe it to yourself to check it out.

This is a film that needs high quality video and audio. Both the visual and audio effects really play a big part in the film and without them, the film would surely have turned out differently. Luckily, Universal realized this and they put together quite a nice Blu-Ray for the film.

There are a ton of sound effects here and they bounce around your speaker system to create an aurally immersive environment. The music is handled tremendously well and brings with it a great clarity. The sound editing that was so impressive in theatres shines through here equally as well. The flawless sound design is very impressive and this is a movie that really benefits from being played on a nice surround sound system.

While there are a whole slew of audio effects here, there are just as many visual effects. CGI, split screens, quick edits, sounds that come complete with their own illustrative words, text effects and more than enough flashy lights all help to stimulate your eyes. Luckily, it all looks good on the Blu-Ray.

Contrast is great and the vibrant color palette looks superb. The film uses color very deliberately in some scenes and it really shows. Detail is also well

done, especially in facial expressions. This is a film that looks absolutely flawless in terms of video.

The Blu-Ray keeps on giving when it comes to special features. Here’s what you get:

Four Commentaries are included: 1)Wright, co-writer Michael Bacall and original graphic novel author Bryan Lee O’Malley; 2) Technical Commentary with Wright and DP Bill Pope; 3) Cast commentary with Cera, Schwartzman, Winstead, Wong and Routh; 4) Cast commentary with Kendrick, Plaza, Culkin and Webber. 21 Deleted Scenes (HD; 27:12), several of which are actually alternate/extended scenes, all with optional Wright commentary. Scott Pilgrim vs. the Bloopers (SD; 9:42) a pretty funny collection of screwups and gags. Documentaries, including: The Making of ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ (HD; 49:33), Music Featurette (SD; 16:27), and You Too Can Be a Sex Bob-omb (SD; 2:42). Alternate Footage Pre-Production (SD; 1:27:32 a collection of short featurettes) Music Promos Visual Effects includes Visual Effects Before and After (SD; 14:37), Roxy Fight Ribbon Version (SD: 1:11); and Phantom Montage Hi-Speed Footage(SD; 3:47). Soundworks Collection: Sound for Film Profile (SD; 5:43) Adult Swim: Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation (SD; 3:48) Scott Pilgrim vs. the Censors (SD; 4:11) Blogs (SD; 45:46) Galleries Trivia Track U Control

It’s an exhaustive list but it does offer a lot of interesting features. Of course you have your usual throwaway features, but most the stuff it isn’t bad. The making of documentary is fairly standard and nothing above average but still worth a look. Out of the four commentaries, the cast ones were the most enjoyable but serious fans of the film may want to give all 4 a spin.

The pre-production featurettes include a couple interesting behind the scenes look and the Soundworks feature is a nice, yet brief look at the sound editing. We do get a lot and while it’s all pretty decent, nothing is really stand out. Nevertheless, there is a hefty amount of bonus features and it should be enough to keep fans of the film happy.

Overall, Universal has put together a nice package here for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It’s a great film and it looks superb on Blu-Ray. It’s a film that is certainly good for more than one viewing and the special features will take up a good chunk of your time. Go out and pick up this disc, it’s one purchase you won’t regret.