Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2010
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

The sheer genius has finally come out of a Michael Cera movie. (No, I'm not counting Superbad as a Michael Cera movie). Was this the movie where he played an awkward guy trying to hook up with a girl? Of course, but there was something different about this. Maybe the way over-the-top antics of the film threw things out of whack for me, but it worked. The supreme originality of the way that a very typical story was told was mind-boggling to me.

Cera plays an unemployed loser in a band with a few friends. The band sucks, and he lives in a one bedroom (one bed only) apartment hole with a gay roommate who does nothing but make his life hell. He begins by dating a much younger girl who falls madly in love with him way too quickly. He then meets a girl named Ramona who changes his life. I know what you're thinking, blah blah blah. But this old time "three's a crowd" storyline has been taken up a notch by amazing visual effects.

The entire movie is surrounded by old-school video game audio and visuals. The characters are introduced as characters would be in a video game. The old Batman "POW" and "BAM" antics are thrown into the mix as well. It was like watching "Kill Bill" meets "Mortal Kombat", but better.

This modern-day twist on an old time tale shows that movies are not dead, originality is not fading, and today's actors and technology do not need to rely on 3D nonsense in order to create something, well, awesome. The bravery of Cera's soul in the movie seemed outlandish, but then I realized, the whole movie is completely outlandish.

What does it take to bring out the competitive side of a guy? What does it take to make a guy really show how much his girl means to him? How come all of her exes have super powers? The crazy thing was that I never expect much from these movies. Like "My Super Ex-Girlfriend", what the hell? That was not a movie worth even talking about, let alone reviewing.

Cera's awkward style finally came through in a not-so-Napoleon-Dynamite type way. He was able to be awkward but just quirky enough to attract the cute girl. She was way too good for him, typical typical, but the flow of the character relationships really flowed over into the extreme reality that was the movie.

The visual effects offset the untimely and humorless Jason Schwartzman (don't get me started). He's like the Enrique Iglesias of the acting world. Everyone seems obsessed with him but no one can seem to figure out why. Anyway, the movie was way better than what I expected. The story was so-so, but the visuals and originality of the fight scenes really brought it up to par.

Stars (out of 10): 8