Edgar Wright’s third film “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” an adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s cult graphic novel series, has already captured the geek zeitgeist in the past few months leading up to its release. But will this wildly unique film achieve mainstream success, or become just another cult classic? It is sure to be one of those films that will be divisive among viewers.
J.J. Abrams moderated a conversation with Wright at the 2010 LA Film Festival. It played more like a retrospective of Wright’s brief yet prolific career leading up to his involvement and experiences working on Scott Pilgrim. Way back when he was promoting his breakout hit, “Shaun of the Dead,” producers handed him a copy of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s then new first volume and boldly stated “we have your next film.”
Obviously he would make “Hot Fuzz” in between, but that is beside the point. There was no one more perfect to take on this source material than Wright. His knack for employing a frenetic visual style without losing sight of character and story always made sense as a choice for this project. Wright went on to say, “In a similar way to ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz,’ the book is great because it starts in a reasonably real world and then it kind of starts to explode into something else.” He also talked about “already thinking about what it would look like in live action before I’d even finished the first book.”
For those unfamiliar with the books, or the recent marketing onslaught, the story follows Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) as he tries to win the heart of his new romantic interest Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) by doing battle with her seven evil exes.
Since everything is viewed through the lens of Scott’s own pop culture infused life, these fights play out as larger than life video game inspired duels. The fights are extremely fun to watch and are unlike anything that has been seen on the big screen before. But beneath all the eye-catching visuals and outlandish moments is a subtly effective story of young love that plays on the central metaphor of fighting to keep a relationship alive. Further elaborating on this, Wright said, “What’s great about the source material, and hopefully in the film as well, is that it is at heart a Rom-Com.”
Cera and Winstead each do solid work to keep the Scott and Ramona relationship grounded amongst the kinetic mayhem that is taking place around them. It also helps to have an entertaining cast of supporting characters, and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is loaded with memorable characters such as Scott’s band mates and his gay roommate/confidant Wallace (brilliantly played by Keiran Culkin). On the villain side, Jason Schwartzman sells the smarmy pretentiousness of final ex Gideon Graves quite well, but it is Chris Evans and Brandon Routh who give scene-stealing performances in their respective fight scenes.
O’Malley’s books stretch out Scott’s journey over 6 volumes. The film manages to condense all the books into one, including each fight (many of which vary a great deal from the books) and somehow cramming in all of the side characters that make up Scott’s world. As a result, the film moves at breakneck speed and has to change many things, mainly in the second half.
Wright and his co-writer Michael Bacall began writing the script after only two or three volumes were finished and had to rely on a rough outline of the rest of the story from O’Malley. It sounds on paper like a lesson in how to NOT write an adaptation. However, it all still manages to ring true to the spirit of the source material, even re-appropriating jokes and plot devices from the books to be used in different ways for the film.
Wright made a comment that, “some of what’s in the film were Bryan’s original ideas that then didn’t actually make it into the volumes.” Of course, those unfamiliar with the novels won’t pick up on this and even those who are still probably won’t catch everything on the first viewing.
The real question is how casual viewers who aren’t biased fans of the material will react to the film. On the one hand, “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is a modern pop art masterpiece that will have passionately devoted followers no matter what, but could alienate those who aren’t willing to take the leap into its rock n roll and Nintendo themed universe.
One thing that is certain is that Edgar Wright and his many collaborators have put together a truly original film. According to Wright, it is the type of film that he’s always wanted to make, as he praised creator O’Malley by saying, “It was a gift of the source material to do comedy and visuals and action and music in the same film.”
