Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright, 2010)

Edgar Wright most certainly has a wicked sense of humour.

One moment during the delirious Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, we see Chris Evans as egocentric action star Lucas Lee going to get a coffee as his entourage beat up our hero. He pulls out his phone having gotten a message, reads it, laughs smugly and declares to no one in particular: "That is actually hilarious". I don't know why but I couldn't stop giggling for the next ten minutes. The delivery reeked of all things Edgar Wright.

One thing the director really has a natural hand at is being able to juggle these moments of subtle comedy (a trait that can be found in all of his work from Spaced to Hot Fuzz) with genuine depth and emotion, example: the scene where Shaun has to kill his zombiefied mother in Shaun of the Dead. At it's heart, Scott Pilgrim is a coming of age story about one young man discovering his own self worth, in the midst of falling in love. The epic fight scenes are just dressing to the main themes.

But during these fight scenes you also realise just how far Wright has come as a director. Despite having the ability to induce epilepsy, there is never a moment where you're unsure of what the hell's going on. Taking a leaf from Fuzz, the action beats are precise and have a great sense of place whilst brilliantly utilising the video game aesthetic to the point where all those useless, shitty video game adaptations need to hang their collective heads in shame.

But, despite being hilarious at times, the heart of this movie is the relationship between Scott and Ramona. Cera and Winstead, as Scott and Ramona respectively, feel entirely genuine as the central couple, which is the key to making this film work. The affection these two show for one another gives the necessary emotional resonance to make Scott's quest to win her over believable within the deliriously spastic context of the film.

I found my like for Scott Pilgrim similar to that of the equally mental and equally enjoyable Kick-Ass in that both started off in fairly harmless breezy fashion before elevating themselves to being two of the most entertaining films of the year. Pilgrim, with time however, will ultimately turn out to be the better movie.

4.5/5