“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” based on a comic book, takes two universal interests of young males — games and girls — and combines them into one thing. The title character (Michael Cera, as usual playing a slight variation on George Michael Bluth) has to fight off seven evil exes of Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in order to win her.
It’s a strong concept, yet by the fight with the third ex, I was thinking, “Four more to go? Uggghhh.” Part of the problem is the common flaw with video-game-themed movies: Watching other people play video games is not fun. But actually, the fight scenes are quite watchable. I liked that they were cartoony; unlike in “Kick-Ass,” our hero doesn’t literally get beaten and bloodied, even when he’s thrown through several walls. And a couple of the fights take the form of battles of the bands, and that’s cool — in one case, it’s a bass face-off; the other is a full band showdown.
So, while the fights certainly could’ve been tightened up a little, the real problem with “Scott Pilgrim” is the between-fights stuff. Cera is always a dry deliverer of lines, but he’s good at it; there’s always some feeling there. His supporting cast, though, has not mastered this art. Particularly lifeless are the girl drummer and the gay roommate, who act like they don’t want to be in the movie — that’s not a good vibe to give off.
I think the dryness is supposed to feed into the broadly comedic structure of the film, but it doesn’t work. It’s not stupid; it’s just not funny. For example, a “Seinfeld” music cue and a laugh track are used over one scene to symbolize Scott’s attitude at the moment. It’s kind of clever, but also quite random, and it keeps the movie at a distance.
Also, I felt like a lot of the between-fights stuff was just Scott and Ramona talking about how it’s weird that he has to fight seven evil exes. A little deeper exploration of their relationship would’ve been nice.
The girl who digs Scott, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), has some spunkiness to her. And Ramona is eye-catching, at least, with her ever-changing hair color. But the overall movie feels way too detached, like it’s too cool to care. Visually and stylistically, it is rather cool (the defeated villains turn into coins and all that). And yet, I could’ve walked out after the second evil-ex fight, gone home and taken a nap instead and not felt like I missed anything.
With “Scott Pilgrim,” don’t even bother inserting your coins in the first place. Try your hand at another game.