Scott Pilgrim VS the World, an epic of epic epicness, has had me excited for months. I hadn't heard of the movie before reading a post on this very website about the announcement of the film adaptation. After putting off reading the book series for several months, I finally sat down and burned through all six and the side comic last week, and I was awed by the fantastic universe that Bryan Lee O'Malley had built on the foundation of sarcasm, video games, and pseudo Japanese art. After reading the books, I was actually kind of worried that the movie wouldn't be able to live up to the graphic novels, but my worries were quickly discharged within the first 5 minutes by what I can only call, one of the best opening credits since Watchmen.
The Casting
I knew the casting would be on point after seeing a picture of each actor juxtaposed with their comic book counter part. I know I was kind of perturbed that Cera would be playing Scott Pilgrim, but his performance was spot on and captured the character exactly how I imagined while I was reading. My favorite character in the book was Wallace, and Kieran Culkin played the coolest gayest roomatest role I could ever ask for. Chris "CaptainTorchAmericanHuman" Evans was hilarious, the Brandon Routh scene was so damn cool, and Jason Schwartzman was the best possible choice for Gideon. Every actor captured their corky character as closely as possible.
The Action
Ok, so like, I knew there was fighting and stuff in the book, but it never occurred to me that they would turn every fight into awesome Kung Fu fights, and they did, and it was pretty ill. Brandon Routh has one of the most memorable scenes and their depiction of Todd's telekinesis was sick.
The Visuals, holy crap, the Visuals
First off, this movie captured the comic so greatly mostly because it is the comic with a subtle change in mediums. Its inclusion of onomatopoeias, "D"'s dribbling from galloping bass lines, and other flamboyant embellishments add so much in the way of making this movie a visual spectacle. On top of that the movie literally translates many squares, making it especially fun to watch having read the comic.
Continuity
Does it stay true to the book? Well I've kind of already answered that, but basically, yes. Of course, to fit six books into one, two hour, film there is a lot of consolidating and omission, but overall, what they left in greatly outweighs what they took out. There are one or two scenes I wish they had kept in, like Knives Chau's father cutting through a moving bus, but hey, that's what deleted scenes are for, right? (I could only pray they include that in the extras). I loved how they including a little piece from the free comic (I won't spoil what part)and after everything, they managed to greatly reduce time spent on Envy's story and Gideon's some what confusing back story. The only part of the story that was vastly different from the book was the battle against the twins. They did a great job as far as tasteful exclusion.
Verdict
I give Scott Pilgrim an easy 5/5. The movie succeeded in everything it set out to do, be hilarious, cool, and really fun. I had an amazing time at the theaters and reading it in my room. I'm only sad that there really can't be a sequel (they'd better not).