Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was unleashed last weekend. The $60 million, Edgar Wright directed video game romp is a strange foray into nostalgia, contemporary manga style fiction and stylistic filmmaking, so, when I went to see Pilgrim at the Arclight opening night, I had only an expectation: the film would be fun. Why then, did this collision of my beloved interests: manga, anime and video games feel slightly off mark?
It’s weird to see the very things I cherished in my youth being synthesized into a major studio releases. I was born in 1980′s and now my generation is now a prime target for 80′s nostalgia. From “pre-worn” graphic t-shirts to the resurgence of 2D side-scrolling platform games and 80′s action and ski flicks, us 20-something guys (and gals!) are getting it from every side.
Pilgrim shines with every lovingly hand-crafted sound effect and video game call-out. It’s as though Edgar Wright kidnapped video game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi and forced them to work in a bunker deep under Los Angeles for Xbox Live points. Elements of every genre are present, just take a look at “Every Video Game Reference in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World” Pilgrim takes all my fun quirky, formerly niche interests and synthesizes them, and surprisingly for me, the sum is not as great as its parts.
Story with Character?
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, adapted from an award-winning comic by Bryan Lee O’Malley, takes some tenants of video gaming to heart. But perhaps not the right ones. In seeking to emulate a video game style, many of the characters seemed flat, literally one-note “non-player characters” (NPC’s) in a light-on-story fighting game. It felt more like I had been playing an hour or 2 of Tekken than watching a proper story.
What happens between the awesome over-the-top fighting? Sadly, it’s where things really fall apart. Many geeky movie goers may be willing to forgo the flicks apparent lack of motivation or depth (more on that in a second.) For what it’s worth, this is a beat-em-up style movie, it has a story as deep and transparent as beat-em-up games like Streets of Rage II.
In fighting games, the story serves the gameplay, it (often clumsily) sets up the next chance encounter and then you fight! That’s a tough trick to pull off seven times in a 112 minute feature. But as exciting as each battle was, the fun was ephemeral, the enjoyment fleeting. Like a ride at a theme park, we’re “on rails” until it’s over.
The love story between Scott Pilgrim and Romona Flowers runs on auto pilot. Love stories have to be authentic, to keep me invested, even in silly or fun movies. The “on-to-the-next-one” mentality of Scott, where his friends and loved ones are concerned, makes it difficult to reconcile his apparent infatuation with Romona. The Romona character never does anything worthy of being fought for. Yeah she’s cute, aloof, totally-hip but really she’s kind of a dick. And as a result, I never once cheered for Romona and Scott to be together.
It’s disappointing to see the story machinations so clearly in play. Can you recall the names of seven of the evil exes? How about their back story or motivation? I wasn’t looking for gold, but I just don’t know enough about any character to truly care about why they needed to be vanquished. This coupled with the anemic relationship between Scott and Romona left so much to be desired.
Visual / Sound
Edgar Wright has always been good with the visual details (check out my Shaun of the Dead breakdown) and he mixes it up with a clever visual vocabulary. I was initially drawn to the energy and visual execution of Pilgrim. Despite this, it’s hard for me to peg why this familiar synthesis isn’t a home run.
In a recent Popular Mechanics article, VFX Supervisor Frazer Churchill explains how they distilled the video game juice:
The film is informed by video-game style, but it’s not like we looked at games and thought, ‘We’ve got to put that in there,” – Frazer Churchill
And there’s plenty of video game mythos and fanboy gems to go around. Observant listeners may perk up when they hear the theme for Nintendo’s Zelda, ring chimes from Sonic the Hedgehog, the explosion of coins out of a defeated enemy, or literally the hundreds of other small handcrafted audio cues that, no doubt, took time to design and execute.
The onomatopoeic manga-style typography adds some whimsy. By the second hour, I’ve seen as many “action words” as I’m willing to to bear. And perhaps that’s part of the problem. Pilgrim is filled with visual flourishes that are delightful, in small doses. If Pilgrim was 15 minute YouTube video it would likely have 80 million views. There are constant split screens, over-layed text, power-ups, all with fast paced quick cuts interspersed with cheeky visual jokes. A.D.D. theatre at its best. But how do you do long-form A.D.D.theatre?
Insert Coin to Continue
I’d put the performances in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World into the same category as movies like Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children or Resident Evil: Degeneration. With goofy delivery of lines like “I’m a little bi-furious!” the movie misfires with a quirky, strange Japanese-esque smile.
Pilgrim’s strength is with style and flash. Its depth will be a matter of much debate. Still, I like the universe in which Scott Pilgrim lives. In fact, I look forward to the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World video game. The nostalgia crowd is already eating it up. And why not? After all, as I left the movie theater I thought to myself, “I wish I could have played that game instead of watching it.”
