2C / ENTERTAINMENT MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
MOVIES
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Writer/director/producer Edgar Wright, left, talks with actors Michael Cera, center, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, right, on the set of the action-comedy "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World."
'Scott Pilgrim' brings comics to life
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
"I don't think overwhelming the audience is necessarily a bad thing," opines the British filmmaker Edgar Wright. "Sometimes people get so used to bland, microwaved films, they crave to be lulled into the same pace and structure. I hope it's a good thing if a film feels fresh and different."
Wright is about to find out if his thesis holds true. After directing the king of all zombie comedies, "Shaun of the Dead," and a hilarious deconstruction of the Hollywood buddy-cops genre, "Hot Fuzz," the filmmaker has returned with "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," which opens Friday. This wild, breakneck picture — a cross between a teenage romcom, a superhero adventure and a live-action "Street Fighter" video game — tells of an amable, 22-year-old Toronto slacker played by Michael Cera who falls
for the enigmatic, out-of-hisleague Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
But as soon as the couple starts going out, Ramona's romantic baggage, in the form of her seven evil exes, interrupts their bliss. Each old flame challenges Scott to a duel to the death, the fights becoming progressively more difficult.
Fortunately, although Scott appears to be just an aimless, skinny guitarist waiting for his life to begin, he also has superpowers. Based on the six-issue graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is a singular mixture of comedy, fantasy, kung-fu and garage rock, all cranked to 11. Beginning with some truly trippy opening credits, Wright uses every conceivable tool in his filmmaking arsenal to depict the world through Scott's contemporary, geeky, fantasy-prone eyes.
"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" also comes closer to duplicating
the experience of reading a comic book than any other adaptation that has come before. The screen often splits into panels; text balloons float in the foreground; words like "Plok!" and "Thop!" pop up when people punch each other. Flying, telekinesis and impromptu swordfighting are not uncommon. Occasionally, animation takes over. In one shot,
a character's facial features are suddenly replaced by an emoticon.
On the soundtrack, a few notes from the "Seinfeld" theme song segues into a laugh track, or a snippet from "The Legend
It's initially exhilarating — you have never seen a movie quite like this one — although depending on the age and temperament of the viewer, that excitement can devolve into fatigue over the course of the picture.
"Scott Pilgrim' is taking all the media young people consume and trying to find an equivalent in cinematic language," says Peter
"Scott Pilgrim' is taking all the media young people consume and trying to find an equivalent in cinematic language."
of Zeldas' overture leads to the recognizable beeps and boops of a Nintendo game console or an Apple computer.
PETER DEBRUGE Variety film critic
Debruge,
a senior
film critic
for Variety.
"Manga,
japanese comics,
video games,
comic books,
even the vernacular
for text
messages
and Twitter
they're all
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blended in a way we've never seen before, which is extremely exciting."
But Debruge also thinks the relentless, in-your-face style of the film overwhelms the story and its characters.
"To young people, boredom is the worst possible thing anyone can suffer from," he says. "So this movie gives you a kind of attention deficit disorder-filmmaking that throws everything at you at once. The pace is where I think the generation gap comes in. As innovative as this film is, it becomes exhausting to people past a certain age."
Michael Bacall, who cowrote "Scott Pilgrim" with Wright (in close collaboration with O'Malley), says he and the director were aware of the potential to push things too far and risk alienating a segment of the wide audience at which the film is aimed.
"We were aware it would skew younger, but at the same time we worked really hard to make the love story something that anyone could identify with," Bacall says.
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Conceptis Sudoku
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| | | | 3 | | | 1 | 5 |
| | 5 | | | 7 | | | 8 |
| | 1 | 8 | 6 | 3 | | | |
| 6 | | | | | | | 7 |
| | | | 2 | 1 | 6 | 9 | |
| 7 | | | 5 | | | 4 | |
| 2 | 8 | | | 9 | | | |
| 5 | 6 | 9 | 4 | | | | |
By Dave Green
Difficulty Level ★
8/02
ACROSS
1 Reed instrument
5 Legislation
8 Parks of civil rights fame
12 Part of Dante's "Divine Comedy"
14 Grand story
15 Sea in the North Atlantic
16 Valley
17 Mouth part
18 Resides
20 Vaults
23 Wan
24 Raw minerals
25 Accomplish
28 Perch
29 Heron's cousin
30 A Gabor sister
32 Not intact
34 Profit
35 Blunders
36 Not flat, as terrain
37 Oat cereal
40 Ford Explorer, for ex.
41 Tolkien beasts
42 Strong blend
47 Hawaiian island
48 Skilled musician
49 Feed the hogs
50 TV Tarzan Ron
51 Dance move
DOWN
1 Chances,
for
short
2 Sheepish remark?
3 Bobby of hockey
4 "Hotel California" band
5 Speech impediment
6 Fool
7 Idiomatic site of discipline
8 Late night flight
9 October birthstone
10 Ledge
11 High cards
13 Lectern locale
19 Tiny amount
20 "Help!"
21 Saharan
22 Greek cheese
23 Farm measures
25 Distress
26 Scallopini meat
27 Super-bad?
29 Noble title
31 Whatever number
33 Dis-arrange
34 "— this day our daily bread"
36 Injure
37 Cattle calls?
38 Caspian Sea feeder
39 Reverberate
40 Agile
43 Part of R.S.V.P.
44 Drunkard
45 Away from NNW
46 "Alley
See puzzle answers on page 7C
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