The journey was long and annoying, but now you get to see what it’s really about: The Destination. We conclude our Scott Pilgrimage with a look at Scott Pilgrim vs the world: The Film
At the helm here is Edgar Wright, who you might remember being the director of Baby Driver, I film that’s almost impossible for me to rewatch given the current allegations against the lead actors. His history at this point was Simon Pegg comedies, and everyone loves Hot Fuzz, right? Can’t say I’m a huge fan of it, honestly but…
Wright is writing (ha) alongside Michael Bacall, who’s last writing project at this point had been a german comedy called Booker, which launched in 2003. The film started pre-production not long after the first volume came out, with Bryan Lee O’Malley involved at least as a consultant on the film, giving notes on his intended plans for later volumes.
That said the final volume of the book was released only a week before the film came out, and the colour editions didn’t come out till until 2 years later, so they were not used beyond the occasional notes in the final film. It’s also possible the film’s casting inspired some of the colours from the colour editions, as colour could only have been implied in Black and White. It’s also true that the film actually helped inspire some of the creative choices for volume 6, though not in the way you might expect.
The film was a critical success but failed to find an audience at the Box Office, making only $45m on a $60m budget. Despite this it has gained a cult following and over 70 awards and nominations, so let’s take a look and find out why
We open with an 8-bit recreation of the Universal Studios logo. Guess someone thought hording all those bolts wasn’t helping the economy and went and bought a pixelizer.
What were you expecting, a good 8-bit pixel joke? Anyway, we’re introduced to Scott, who’s been aged down to 22 and is played by Michael Cera. News is spreading, through convenient narration, that he’s dating a 17 year-old high schooler named Knives Chau. And by dating, he really means hanging out and they’ve done nothing sexual as of yet. The news first reaches his band, consisting of Kim, Steven Stills and Young Neil, and yes, Young Neil is an integral part of the band now, and also isn’t, I’ll explain that later.
Most of the dialogue at this stage is lifted directly from the comic, to the point where I think Bryan Lee O’Malley should’ve gotten a writer’s credit, as Knives arrives, and we’re given caption comics. In many ways, this is the comic brought to life, and in many ways, it isn’t, but we’ll get to that later. We get to hear them play and they’re honestly pretty good, which means they’re already an improvement over the band in the comic.
Can’t say I’m huge on the opening credits, it’s flashy enough to give you seizures and it’s not like any detail is that relevant to anything. Knives loves the song but kinda stops short of geeking out, which is kinda disappointing. Kim questions his motives and we’re next introduced to Wallace, who is just as awesome as his comic counterpart. The ownership diagram of the room is another detail lifted straight from the comic.
Scott tells Wallace not to spread around his love-life but before he knows it Scott younger sister Stacey is on the phone. It’s revealed Scott got dumped a year ago and is still processing some things. The next morning, he and Wallace meet up with Knives and Wallace awkwardly leaves. The two play a ninja game at the arcade in some foreshadowing for something later, and Scott spouts some weird bit of trivia about Pac-man.
OK, I can’t hold off any longer on this point, what the hell have they done to Scott? Scott from the comics was many things, but a nerd, no, he wasn’t smart enough to be a nerd and he rarely lacked in self-confidence. He was dim, which this Scott is too but this implies their reason is that is head is filled with game trivia with no room for anything else, except this is the only bit of game trivia he knows. I’m just imagining Knives getting sick of him spouting this same bit of trivia every time they play ninjas. There are a number of problems with how they adapted Scott’s character but the core of it is the casting and despite them being pitch perfect with just about everyone else, they dropped the ball casting Michael Cera as Scott.
Now, this isn’t entirely an attack on him, but he plays the wallflower too well to be convincing as an overconfident meathead who refuses to grow up like Scott Pilgrim. So, they’ve changed his arc without really changing his story. Now he’s a dorky shy guy who needs to learn to assert himself, this doesn’t gel with the fighting capability we see he has later. Square peg, round hole.
Knives loves Clash of the Demonhead, Scott doesn’t because of reasons outlined in the comic review. He heads home and shows Knives his old house, across the street. One weird transition later, Scott has a dream. The transition is so poor I was almost convinced he passed out looking at his old house or something.
Scott bemoans feeling lonely as a pink-haired chick on skates passes by, telling him it’s just a stupid dream. He’s in bed with Wallace and other Scott? Didn’t think Wallace did that when Scott was about. He takes Knives to the library and sees the girl from his dreams. It distracts him through practice and soon he’s heading off to a party at Julies, she was introduced at the music store and I glossed over it.
Scott is told that her name is Ramona flowers, they have a brief and awkward introduction including that same bit of trivia again, and he stalks her until she leaves. Julie expressly forbids him perusing a relationship with her, and tells him she may still have a thing for a guy named Gideon. Wallace arrives home drunk that night and Scott tells her about Ramona, Wallace tells him he should break up with Knives first and somehow he manages to tell Stacey despite being barely conscious.
Scott orders a parcel from Amazon and finds an email from Matthew Patel which he finds boring and deletes. Knives arrives and the two have a more awkward date, but despite coming close, doesn’t actually break up with her. Steven Stills has booked the group, Sex Bob-omb at a Battle of the Bands, with the prize being a record deal with one G-man Graves.
Another weird transition later, we see Ramona head through another of Scott’s dreams with his parcel in tow, to his front door. Their encounter is as awkward as last time but just to get him to stop, Ramona agrees to him asking her on a date. They meet in a park and talk but the snow begins to get harder, though not really hard enough to justify the line “I can barely see you.”
They head to Ramona’s house but it stops short of sex. Scott invites her to the battle of the bands, forgetting that Knives said she’d be coming too. Probably could’ve just taken a page out of the playbook of Dixie from A.N.T. Farm and introduced Knives as his ex to get the breakup over with. Scott instead chooses to run away. Clash and the Boys (one of whom is a girl) are up first and they’re songs last about 3 seconds, much like they did in the comic.
Not wanting Knives and Ramona to get too well acquainted, Scott insists on performing next and Knives passes out from all the excitement. The song is played with Young Neil there being a technician or providing backing vocals or… I don’t know, what is he doing there? Anyway, their performance is interrupted by Matthew Patel, he’s come to kill Scott.
The two engage in a pretty well-choreographed fist fight complete with onomatopoeic sound effects and action lines. Scott has him still for a moment as we get some backstory for his relationship with Ramona, complete with comic book artwork. He was the only non-jock in school, and they fought off the jocks together, it’s also revealed he has mystic powers, which he then uses to gain an edge over Scott, hey, it’s Matt and the Holograms. Scott stuns him with a cymbal and knocks him out.
Ramona drags Scott out and, on the bus, reveals that to continue dating her he’d have to defeat her 7 evil exes. How she knows this, I have no f*cking clue. We’re 1/3 of the way through the movie and we’re only just through the first volume of 6.
Returning home the next morning, to a sitcom laugh track for some reason, Wallace issues him an ultimatum, break up with Knives, or he will spill the beans. Whilst Scott does the deed, he’s looking up Lucas Lee, a pro-skater turned actor who’s in town shooting a movie and he intends to stalk later. Knives finds him at a phone booth and the two head to the music store, where Scott does the deed.
He feels bad on the bus for a bit, then things about Ramona and is instantly OK again. Young Neil is definitely providing backing vocals at band practice, and Scott actually calls him Neil, and not Young Neil when he leaves with Romana and has him take over. I like Young Neil, in the comic but he’s somehow even better in this film.
Ramona has changed her hair style but this has Scott panicking that she’s spontaneous, wait what? I don’t think Scott in the comics knew what spontaneous even means. Anyway, they have an awkward date with Garlic Bread and eventually decide to walk up to the castle, where it’s revealed that Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) is evil ex #2. He also exits his trailer to the Universal Studios music, in case you forgot form the 8-bit opening who produced this film. He has his stunt doubles try and beat up Scott but Scott proves himself to be pretty good and takes them all down, and they don’t explode into coins.
Lucas is a more challenging opponent, kicking Scott straight through the set dressing. Scott tricks him into doing a particularly dangerous skate stunt where he goes so fast he explodes on landing. Ramona left mid-fight and Scott tries and fails to contact her. Wallace gives him some bad advice, and tells him he needs Scott to move out. Scott gets a call but it’s not from Ramona, it’s from Envy Adams. She is a footnote in this story which is a problem given how important she is to Scott’s backstory.
Scott walks off to evade knives when he’s attacked by a shadowy ninja. He manages to get her to show herself then she agrees to f*ck off because he’s not in the mood, or something. Scott calls his sister to talk but instead of running into her, he runs into Julie, who’s more than a little displeased about Scott and Ramona. Also, there’s a running gag about swear bleeping… ok…
Ramona’s there too, and Scott affirms that he’s still in love with her and Envy (Brie Larson) is there too because of contrived convenience. Long story short, Envy cheated on Scott for a guy named Todd, they’re very light on the details here because that would require Scott to undergo self-reflection on a grand scale which this film is just not gonna get into.
4 men in a bed, why didn’t Scott sleep at Ramona’s at this point. Envy has asked Steven Stills for Sex Bob-omb to open for them in a secret show, and Steven Stills has agreed to this, feeling they need more exposure. Knives is stalking them from the window and sees Scott with Ramona. This enrages her enough to get blue highlights in her hair and start dating Young Neil.
At the show, Sex Bob-omb play and it goes pretty poorly. Ramona sees Knives with blue highlights and is a bit freaked out, Scott is equally so. Clash of the Demonhead begin to play and it’s revealed that Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) is evil ex #3. They’re invited backstage, where Knives finds out about Scott dating Envy. This leads to an altercation that leads to Todd punching the highlights out of her hair. Scott stands ready to fight but Todd is vegan and has supernatural powers. So where did Matthew Patel get his from? We get some backstory with Todd, told in comic panels before the fight continues.
Todd kicks his ass in every direction, including musically but Scott eventually comes up with a way of defeating him, tricking him into drinking coffee with half-and-half. The Vegan police arrive to take his psychic powers away as this is apparently his third offence. Honestly, if it had been his first and only allowed offence it would’ve made Scott’s victory look clever as opposed to luck. Todd is quickly dispatched.
They’re about to head to an after-party while Scott asks Ramona if she ever dated someone who didn’t turn evil. So far, he’s the nicest guy she dated. At the party, he’s attacked by the girl again, Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman) evil ex #4. This time Ramona decides to fight her own battles, bringing her out her trademark hammer, she’s told that Scott would have to defat her with his own hands for some reason. Ramona helps him out but puppeteering him until Roxy manages to separate him but Ramona mentions her weak point on the back of her knee which Scott exploits.
Scott gets drunk and Ramona leaves, telling Scott he’s another evil ex waiting to happen. She then provides him with a list of her evil exes, the next ones are the Katyanagi twins, Kyle and Ken, their backstory and what that means for Ramona are not in this, no idea whether they’d been thought up but they’re Sex Bob-omb’s next opponent in the Battle of the Bands.
The performance, which is amp vs amp, takes the form of a pair of dragons fighting a giant gorilla and this is crazy, even by Scott Pilgrim standards, the twins are rather easily defeated. Scott earns an extra life for this. In the Audience, Gideon and Ramona talk and Ramona is given a weird green ring. Even though they haven’t technically won, Gideon offers sex Bob-omb a record deal. Scott refuses to sign the contract but they have Young Neil to take his place. Ramona leaves for Gideon, which in spite of the excuse they come up for this later, makes me sad.
My god, is Gideon the perfect asshole. Scott goes into his customary depression but it’s a little shorter than in the books. Stacey consoles him for about 2 seconds, Wallace offers little comfort which is interesting but he gets a phone-call from Gideon, offering him an invite to the grand opening of his Chaos Theatre.
Scott runs to the chaos theatre which is password protected for some reason. Scott challenges Gideon and earns the power of love in the form of a cute red sword, which he uses to cut down a bunch of Gideon’s guards. Gideon himself though is a different story, he shatters the sword in a single stroke and is about to stab him when Knives intervenes, wanting revenge on Ramona for hurting Scott. Did I mention the fight scenes are really well choreographed?
Scott breaks them up and has to admit about the whole cheating angle. Whilst distracted, Gideon stabs Scott through the chest with his sword, killing him. Scott falls dead and somehow Ramona is in his dream despite the fact that she’s right there and given that she’s apparently under mind control via a control chip on his neck, she would also be incapable. She explains that she was obsessed with him but even when they were together, he never gave her the time of day, so she left, and that caused him to become obsessed.
Scott utilises his extra life, which sends him back to the beginning of the climax, he beats up the security guards to get inside, gives his blessing to Young Neil, who he now calls Neil, which would work a lot better if he hadn’t called him Neil in a previous scene. He’s no longer fighting Gideon for Ramona but for himself (even though he’s totally doing it for Ramona) and earns the power of self-respect, a more powerful sword. He knocks Gideon back and uses the time that buys him to head Knives off at the pass and apologise to both of them for the whole cheating thing. Any time now with removing that chip.
Gideon unveils his word and the two fight. Knives enter to back Scott up and Ramona just kinda stands there. The power of self-respect is shattered but Ramona manages to get close enough to Gideon to weaken him so Knives can disarm him with her scarf? What is she now, Tom Baker? They use their ninja-game to finish Gideon off. He explodes into millions of coins.
But even dead, Gideon has one final trick, the Nega Scott, not really sure what Nega Scott even is, but Scott’s power of self-respect leads to the two getting on swimmingly, it’s an anti-climax joke. Ha! Scott makes his peace with Knives who tells Scott to go after her. The two head off together as the sun rises.
So that was Scott Pilgrim vs the World. It does a great job in translating the world of Scott Pilgrim onto the big screen. The use of several comic-book aesthetic touches like the onomatopoeia, caption boxes, comic transition shots and the like help this stand out as a unique movie, even when compared to other comic book adaptations.
The story does a decent job of adapting the first 2 Scott Pilgrim books, likely the ones they knew the most about when writing the script. Dialogue is almost entirely lifted from the novels and most of the major plot beats are there, unfortunately most of the major plot-holes are too. Not sure what the League wants or anything.
The most major change is the timescale, whilst the book covers over a year, the film covers maybe a few weeks. The result is a lot of gradual changes become more rushed, such as Ramona’s flip-flopping about Scott. Evil exes 3-5 go down a bit too easily, it feels like they rushed through them to get to the climax.
So, I want to talk briefly about the original ending. It’s pretty hinted at with Knives’ expanded role in the final fight and the talk the two have at the end. Yes, the original was Scott getting back together with them and omg, WHY? Even in this film, her obsession with Scott was not portrayed as healthy. Plus, just to remind everyone she’s a high-schooler.
The supporting cast aren’t exactly utilised, as most of the story arcs surrounding them have been cut for time. I think this hurts Ramona the most as her being under mind control and with Gideon for the climax instead of heading out on her own to make peace with herself means she still has all that sh*t to deal with at the end. We also don’t see her thawing as a person, integrating into Scott’s social circle and showing much in terms of actual affection for Scott, nor beyond surface level details of her bitchiness and hypocrisy. Somehow Young Neil ended up with a slightly expanded role.
It’s interesting to compare the film’s climax to Volume 6. If anything, I kinda prefer this smarmy, conniving version of Gideon from the film over the complete nutjob he is in the book. The lack of convoluted subspace glow also is an improvement, though I don’t feel tying the climax to Knives would’ve been a good idea in the comic, and I don’t really like it here either, as it’s basically there as foreshadowing for the original ending. I wonder if Young Neil’s promotion was one of the elements translated over, because of one of only a few similarities they shared.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a solid adaptation of a comic series that would definitely work better as a TV-show. It’s almost perfectly cast with the only major misstep being Michael Cera as Scott but carries enough charm and a truly unique visual style to remain an interesting and enjoyable experience.
Praise Rating 240%
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