I saw the very first Spider-Man movie when I was five, which lead me into an obsession with superheroes. I received a Gameboy Advance for Christmas when I was eight, which started my passion for gaming. When I was 11, I was obsessed with sci-fi and action movies, and when I was 12, I became a massive metalhead. At 17, I fell in love with anime and buried myself in it. To this day, I line my walls with posters of movies, anime and rock bands, and I set my collectable figures from various franchises on the shelf beside my collection of Blu-Ray and DVD movies. My obsessions change over the years, and I am able to blend in well enough with the regular crowd, but there’s no denying that I’m a nerd. So when I watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World it was the apex of all of my nerdy obsessions. It was as if the lords of video games, comic books and anime got together and made a film. It instantly became one of my favorite movies of all time.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is directed by Edgar Wright and stars Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. It follows Scott Pilgrim and his friends who are all in a rock band called Sex Bob-Omb. Scott meets the girl of his dreams (literally), Ramona Flowers, but in order to be with her, he has to dump his high school aged girlfriend and battle Ramona’s seven evil exes in video game-like duels. What happens after that is one of the most unique, funny and visually stylistic movies you’ll ever see.
It’s hard to describe Scott Pilgrim because there’s no other film quite like it. It blends so many elements together to create a whirlwind of entertainment that never lets up. Its dialogue is fast and witty, its characters are spontaneous, and its scenes are over-the-top madness. If you’re a nerd, you’ll soak this movie up. This movie’s identity is completely wrapped up in nerd culture from 8-bit Nintendo games to Dragon Ball Z and everything in-between. For non-nerds, the movie is so visually unique and delivers so much comedy that you will totally ignore the nerdy references that go over your head.
Surprisingly, this movie did poorly at the box office, but it’s the perfect movie for our generation. Everything that occurs in the movie is lightning fast and full of energy. Villains explode into coins, characters are introduced via sarcastic floating text, and flashbacks are shown through comic book panels. I seriously can’t stress enough how fun it is to watch this movie. It never fails to hook me from beginning to end, but then again, I am a nerd, so take my recommendation as you may.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is rated PG-13 for stylized violence, sexual content, language and drug references. It is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Universal Studios.
