Scott Pilgrim VS the World

(Pulled from Terminal Lance. Original post Aug 24th, 2010. Date changed to match original post.)
Scott Pilgrim VS the World has gotten a plethora of sensational and positive hype among the movie world, and while I was skeptical at first, I can tell you first hand that what they say is 100% true. The last movie I saw in the threaters that I actually thought the over-priced movie ticket was worth my hourly labored money was so long ago I can't remember, probably something along the lines of The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. To the point: Scott Pilgrim was an amazing movie in almost every aspect and level I could possibly enjoy a movie on.

First off, if you're not a 1980's or retro gamer, you might not enjoy the themes this movie dances with. However, if you are, the term "nerdgasm" fits. The movie opens with a memorable 16 bit melody about our dearest green tunic wearing adventurer (I'm speaking of Link of course) and quickly introduces the cast to you with a very imaginative and colorful opening. The movie is laced with retro gaming homages which tickled me endlessly.

Now aside from the video game references this movie had a solid plot; Boy meets a cute girl, they date, but then the boy meets the girl of his dreams, and in order to win her over he has to defeat her evil ex's. The writing of the movie is simple, but very enjoyable and (again) laced with retro gaming references. The acting was also superb and left me feeling impressed. Michael Sera does a great job at not only not playing his cliche wimpy-guy-type-casted-role, but does an even better job kicking ass. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who will now be my new movie star crush) is four times hotter than she was in Die Hard 4 (Live Free or Die Hard) and I absolutely loved her wry humorous dialogue with the rest of the cast. An amazingly hilarious performance by Brandon Routh (my favorite of the ex's), whome I'm always impressed to see him in comedies and not falling in with being type casted after doing Superman Returns. Now my favorite performance lies with Kieran Culkin, who plays the most player-esque, stoic, and awesome homosexual character I've ever seen on the big screen.

The martial arts choreography was excellent, some of the best I've seen in recent (non martial art epic) movies. Truly something a kung-fu movie enthusiast can enjoy. The fights, tho backed by video game moves, makes them very unbelievable. However, the great choreography that makes these fights flow so smoothly is beyond amazing. I loved every single hand-to-hand and melee fight in this movie.

As for the nerdgasms... The special effects of this movie (much like everything else) are (again laced with video game references) astonishing. Sure there might have been one or two scenes that are obviously CGI, but they do such a good job that you either don't notice or are so blown away you don't care! They take you right into a world where every fight would end up being just like a culmination of every Capcom, Namco, and SNK VS game with an announcer yelling "KO!" and the flurry flashing colors and effects that make you understand why they outlawed episodes of Pokemon in Japan and Korea, and make you wish you had the enlightened euphoria followed by seizures. Kidding about that last part. 

Lastly the music of the movie flows with the indy-rock persuasion of garage bands playing at crappy urban cafe's and selling out to open for some huge cover band. The sound track is alright, not sure I'd say it's worth the money, but I thought it was enjoyable because I liked the movie so much. So if you're not into that indy-rock scene, or just hate Canada, you might find those to be the only downsides that could stop you from seeing this movie.

To sum it up thusly , Scott Pilgrim VS the World is a coming of age tale of a boy leaning to become a man, chalk full of hilarious refernces, dialogue, and one-liners that will surely please almost every movie go'er on some level, and give every video gamer a nerdgasm.