As part of the series Ten Days of Comic Book Movies.
#2: Scott Pilgrim versus the World (2010)
Trade Paperback Tickets: If you want to talk about one of the most faithful comic book adaptations ever made we should chat about Scott Pilgrim. Someone recently posited to me that Scott Pilgrim isn’t a comic book movie since it’s largely about video games. Well, sure, Scott lives a video game life but this is still a definitive comic book movie. It’s based on a series of comic books, after all. The various characters who appear in the Scott Pilgrim world are actual people, despite being sometimes conveniently used to move the plot forward (I blame the lack of available time to fully explore as much as was explored in the comic books) and everybody has a role. I find the choice of actors pretty much perfect. The film is never dull and though it leaves out some items from the books, it’s mostly done as a factor of time and the things that are removed are those that wouldn’t have translated as well to film, anyway.
What I truly like about this movie version:
- It is as fun a movie as you can get, comic book or not. It’s funny, it has meta references, action sequences, one-liners, pop-up jokes, visual gags, a moving storyline, dozens of interesting characters, silly songs, etc. Name something great and it’s probably in this movie.
- Nobody who is in this movie is not, in some way, a nerd. By which I mean these people are either good at playing nerds or are self-professed nerds, or are just generally really easy to believe are closeted nerds. In a comic book movie, you really can’t ask for much more than that.
- Video game references. The video game references that may make this seem more like a video game movie are extra awesome because they are video game references in a comic book movie that includes video game references. The music, the visual gags, the mere fact that there is even willingness to create a video game movie within a comic movie. (That last part is a little cheap but seriously, much love for Bryan Lee O’Malley and for everybody who worked on the film version.)
What I think may not be so good:
- The fact that this movie was not well-loved when it was in the theaters. Um, I’m sorry, nerds, where the hell are you? Why didn’t you like this movie?
Endorsements & Prohibitions:
This is going to be 9.5 out of 10. (I have a hard time offering perfect scores. This is about as close as it gets.) 1-up!
Dumpster Jedi 