Trailer Tuesday: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

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If the trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World isn't the hyper-geekiest, Generation-Y, "WTF?!" thing I've ever seen, I don't know what is. It starts off like a thousand other hipster indie romantic comedies before veering into full blown comic book, anime and video game stylisation. I can honestly say that if you hate any of those 3 entertainment mediums, you should stay far, far away from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World because you will just not understand or appreciate it.


For the record, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is based on a cult, cartoony-looking comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley (which I'm sad to say I haven't read). Like the comic, the film follows the exact same storyline: charming 23 year old slacker and bass guitarist Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who has had some relationship trouble in the past, finally meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The only problem is that if Scott wants to be with Ramona, he first has to fight and defeat her seven evil exes - who jealously control Ramona's love life, and who range from rock stars to skateboarders to sinister identical twins.

So why should we care about a film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World? Well, first of all the film is helmed by British writer-director Edgar Wright (on Twitter here), a big time movie geek who has previously been responsible for the outstanding genre-melding comedies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Wright knows how to play with genre conventions for maximum comic effect.


The second big selling point of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is its fantastic young cast, which, along with Cera, includes Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman and Brandon Routh as 3 of the evil exes, along with Anna Kendrick, Johnny Simmons and Kieran Culkin. Of course, as we're dealing with comic-to-film adaptations, it's probably worth pointing out at this point that Evans is Fantastic Four's Johnny Storm (and soon to be Captain America) and Routh of course made a name for himself as the new movie Superman.

Finally, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World seems to be part of an exciting new fantasy movie trend. With Kick-Ass also releasing in the next month or so, 2010 looks to be shaping up as the year that proves flavoursome, and very funny, comic-to-film adaptations can be made that eschew iconic, ability-enhanced heroes in favour of considerably more ordinary characters and "real world" settings.

Scott Pilgrim is releasing in the United States on 13 August. I have absolutely no clue when the film will hit South African cinemas, but hopefully it will be sometime between the beginning of August and the end of October.

Comments

MJenks said…
I'm still hoping that Rex Libris makes it to the big screen.
3:19 PM
Brandon said…
Even though I'm not a huge comic reader by any stretch of the notion, I love the stylization that comes with some of these movies. I loved how stylized Sin City was, or say a Kill Bill type movie that was obviously influenced by comics even though it wasn't directly based on one. I will definitely be seeing this film; Kick-Ass too. Whereas I've skipped almost all of the "super hero movies" that have been churned out over the last couple years.

I've never been a big fan of very literary dialogue being translated to the screen (usually poorly - even Sin City is guilty of this) but I welcome anything that brings visually creative aesthetics to film! And I'm always up for a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously.
8:18 AM
Pfangirl said…
MJenks, Rex Libris sounds like it would make an awesome film:) Again, a comic with a healthy sense of humour intact.

Brandon, I agree entirely with what you've said. It seems like the non-superhero comic adaptations get to have more fun in terms of playing with stylisation and paying tribute to their source material. By contrast, because of things like The Dark Knight, superhero films have generally become so serious, conventional looking and real-world based.
8:01 AM
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