Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
7 people. A paltry seven people were in attendance when the lovely Marianne De Voecht and I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
"So what?" you may wonder. Granted, not all screenings of a movie can be sold out. But this was day 4 after the premiere, day 5 overall. It spells doom when
a movie fails to attract viewers in its first week. My fears were justified. Scott Pilgrim never entered its second week. Seven people, yes,
and also seven days. Not one cinema in Belgium is playing the movie - out since 1 December 2010 - as we speak.
For shame.
Scott Pilgrim is genius. The best movie of 2010? Yes, apart from The Social Network. You can't even compare the two. Whereas David Fincher's
Hamlet-esque Facebookin' tragedy is a conventional masterpiece that can be enjoyed by everyone, Scott Pilgrim is a postmodern comicbook/gamer/musician-catering epic
that can only be enjoyed by people with a certain mindset.
Normal grandparents and/or parents will probably blow their brains out during the first ten minutes and I have to admit, it takes those ten minutes for your mind to adjust itself
to the hyper intensity of the flick. Scott Pilgrim throws bomb after bomb of pop culture references at you at an alarming speed. The superslick editing doesn't help : you just
don't get a second to blink, because you will definitely miss a pun or a visual joke.
That small disclaimer aside, the entire movie demands to be seen. It's absolutely brilliant. The cast, the screenplay, the soundtrack, the cinematography, the special effects ... every aspect
is flawless. Michael Cera, the titular character, basically plays Michael Cera again - just as he did in Juno, Superbad etc. But no one plays an insecure teenager annex goofball better
than Michael Cera. I do hope that one day he breaks out of said stereotype, but he doesn't bother me for the time being.
The story? Scott Pilgrim meets a cute girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and wants to hook up with her. But before he can even start a relationship, he must defeat her seven (the movie sure is connected with a lot of sevens) ex-boyfriends.
Sounds crazy, having to fight ex-boyfriends to win a girl's heart? Well, no, it's just like in real life, right. Right?
Words can't do justice to the abundant awesomeness of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It's a definite cult classic in the making, due to its measly box office takings around the globe (a literal case of the movie vs. the world).
But what a great great great movie. Check it out on DVD or Blu-ray when you can!
Julian De Backer, 12 December 2010