B+
Ever since 'Sin City', I've been waiting breathlessly for the film that will truly transport the experience of reading a comic book to film. Actually, that doesn't quite get at it. I mean the film that will reinvigorate a sense of rich spectacle into mainstream films. Movies just aren't pretty anymore. There is so much style and artistry that can be employed with today's special effects technology, but instead we're making more spaceships. Special effects can be used to create an environment and be itself a vehicle for meaning rather than just elaborate set dressing and comic movies are at the forefront of injecting some much needed style and symbolism into the faux grittiness of the handheld camera action scene.
Long story short, I'm still waiting. Scott Pilgrim is a fun movie, but it lacks the emotional punch to make it a truly great film. The story has so much potential, but Wright increases his comic action while decreasing his characters at an increasing rate as the film goes on. This is not the way the story progresses in the comics. Bryan Lee O'Mally's clever little picture-books read like the doodles you used to draw in the margins of your notebooks in junior high. Simple lines sketch out cartoon characters that become increasingly more complex as the story progresses. Its surrealism gives way to real dilemmas and predicaments at times and its drama is centered squarely around the destinies of two lovers and whether or not they're really star-crossed. Somehow, Wright misses the heart of the books while remaining true to their style.
The film is brilliantly made. Its comic visuals are the best yet. The first 30 minutes plays out almost frame for frame with the comics, but as it goes on there is just so much craziness that is packed in. Real life takes a backseat as set-piece after set-piece is thrown at you in a dizzying haze of quick cuts and whimsical special effects. The movie is an easter egg basket, a feast for the eyes, but it lacks emotional glue. The premise is no less compelling but at about the 45 minute mark the pinata bursts and the film's visuals pour out over you like a deluge of brightly-wrapped candies. The first few boyfriend encounters work well metaphorically speaking and begin the process of slyly commenting on the characters and their conflicts, but the film gains pace exponentially until there is no time for a quiet moment and Scott and Ramona's love is left to skate on the idea of the original setup rather than building to any kind of payoff.
Still, it's nonstop hilarity and the visuals are like nothing ever before filmed. I also can't say enough about the editing. It's just staggeringly impressive at what Wright can accomplish and I can't even imagine how many separate shots make up this film. The action scenes are really really fun and the film has a lot more intelligence than much of the other junk that has banked at the box office. It's smarter than your average popcorner, but falls just short of being a masterpiece. This is surprising since Wright has proven himself to be a master of weaving in genre comedy with real emotion and self-aware commentary (if you haven't seen Shaun of the Dead, watch it now). I can't think of a more perfect director to handle Scott Pilgrim, but Scott Pilgrim lacks structure and craft. Shaun of the Dead was an extended metaphor, a coming-of-age story by way of zombie apocalypse. Scott Pilgrim is a love story by way of videogame, but it lacks the structure and parallelism that caused the former to be such surprisingly meaningful comedy. Another example of this is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a similar, smart genre comedy with some great whimsy and a solid emotional center that solidifies in one simple scene at the very end, when Martin Freeman monologues about the purpose of his life and his dedication to his true love just before his brain is about to be drilled by two megalomaniacal mice. It's an insane bit of cinema but it tugs at the heartstrings in a surprising and fresh way. Scott Pilgrim could have used a scene like this. Where the action dies down for just a moment and our hero gets the chance to say what all of this really means.
Still, I'm sickened that this film did so poorly at the box office. It only pushes the disturbing reality that moviegoers these days are hopelessly concrete. Our flights of fancy must always be hedged in by logic. We won't allow any room for disbelief; realism must rule the day. Personally, I think the world would be a safer place if we drew such a clear line between reality and fiction as Scott Pilgrim. The violence in this film is not even remotely imitatable and a strong current of whimsy pervades. It comes admirably close at putting comic films squarely into the mainstream, but its financial failure is quite depressing in that respect. Someday, true believers, someday.
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