I am in Lesbians with you

Last week I was so right. I went to the theater like an hour and a half early to make sure my movies wouldn’t be sold out. While I was standing in line at 8:45 pm the 10:30 show for The Expendables starts blinking red on the display, in other words it was sold out. I think I had already decided I was going to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World anyways but if I wasn’t sure my choice was made for me.

So I buy my ticket and head to the theatre. I was fully expecting a line of some sort even if there were only a few people. To my surprise there was no line or possible line marker for the movie. The previous showing for the movie had not finished yet so my friend and I stood around eating ice cream and candy waiting to be let in. As we stood there we stared with amazement at the number of people going into the theater across from us. No that is not The Expendable it is … wait for it … Step It Up 3D! Ugh.

Anyways, finally the movie finishes, the place is cleaned out, and we are let in with about 15 other people who have gathered. It is one of the huge theaters and with so little people the place seems empty. Before the movie start quite a few people come in but the place gets nowhere near full. But they are an enthusiastic crowd who are obviously fans of the franchise. There was even this guy with a Sex Bob-omb t-shirt. I totally want one.

After waiting around a while, an excessive amount of commercials, some pretty bad trailers including one for Devil the new M. Night Shamalamdingdong movie where the whole audience groaned at the sight of his name, the movie started. On screen came the 8-bit version of the Universal Studios logo with the music to match. At that moment I knew I was going to like this movie.

For those of you who don’t know, shame on you, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) lives in Toronto. He is 23, unemployed, shares a bed with his gay roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), is in a so-called relationship with a 17 year old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), and is in the band Sex Bob-omb. He’s an all around cool guy. At a party he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), she’s from New York, and falls head over heels for her. Little does he know that he will have to defeat her 7 evil ex-boyfriends, I mean exes, to win her love (and gain some self respect).

Scott Pilgrim vs The World is an excellent example of people who love and take pride in what they are doing. Many book or comic book adaptations seem to be haphazardly dashed together ruining a story that is truly great. The people that usually assemble these films know little or care little about the tale they are decimating. With this there is a lot of source material (6 books), a lot of characters, a ton or randomness, side stories, and somewhat lax moments. Edgar Writght, directed and helped pen the screen play with Michael Becall, managed to focus on the most important areas of the story so nothing too important was lost.

The way the movie is presented is very much like the layout of the comic books. There are pop ups, crazy streaking lines, and lots of shots of popular Toronto locations like Casa Loma, Honest Eds, and Second Cup. The look really captures the feel of the book except in crazy vibrant colour. There are even sequences where they use pages right out of the comic book that are seamlessly intertwined with the live action. It is really beautiful just to look at.

Script wise it is excellent. The dialogue is funny, witty, and fast paced. It didn’t have a douchey, full of itself quality (unless it was supposed to) that could easily have happened with this type of film and that I feared. The characters were incredibly likeable, relatable, and there was an overall sweetness to the whole thing.

I think one of the reasons the script worked so well was because each character was properly cast. The wrong individual would easily have delivered their lines wrong and screwed up the whole thing. I was pleasantly surprised at that because when I first heard the casting news I was very skeptical but it works. Including the actors listed above there was a lot of young talent including Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Johnny Simmons, Aubrey Plaza, and Mark Webber. The evil exes were all young but more seasoned actors that included Satya Bhabha, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, and Jason Schawrtzman. There is also a hilarious cameo by Thomas Jane, look out for it.

And then there is the music. In a movie where the main character is in a band you expect to hear some music and it is great. There are songs by the movie bands Sex Bob-omb and Crash and the Boys unfortunately i don’t know who they really are. And there is music by well know artists like Beck, Metric, The Rolling Stones, and Broken Social Scene. It is definitely a soundtrack I would buy instead of just download.

Even if you have not read the books I believe you would have no problem liking this movie. It isn’t choppy and unfocused. It presents and develops whole characters and a complete story that even though it is a bit out there it is clearly understandable and entertaining.

If you can’t tell by now, I liked Scott Pilgrim vs the World a lot. It is a cohesive art piece with beautiful cinematography, excellent directing, a great script, and a stellar cast. It really is a spectacle to be seen on the big screen.

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