by: Alan Smithee

Remember the film Tron? Back in 1982 there was no film to compare it to. Before 2010 when they made the second film, there was still no film to compare it to. It took the video game world and translated it into film; it looked as if the people making the film jumped inside an Atari game and filmed everything they saw. There aren’t films like that anymore, films that can’t be compared to any other; they use CGI and do the same boring stuff they always do with it.

You can compare a lot of modern films to each other but, what about Scott Pilgrim Vs the World?  Can you think of any other film where people explode into coins? Or people who have giant animal spirits coming out of their instruments? Or where a guy falls in love with a girl but in order to win her heart he needs to fight her seven evil exes? I didn’t think so!

This film is based off the graphic novel with the same name, which was written by Bryan Lee O’Malley and came out in August 2004. When it came out it caught the eye of writer/director Edger Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and became a dream project of his. He was the only one who could see this become a film, and in 2010 it came out, and people . . . well, they all reacted differently.

There were more people who didn’t understand the film than people who did. It took every page of the comic and translated it into film. People object to that, crying out, “Oh my god, why does this look like a video game? This is stupid!” Well, that’s how the comic book was! He wasn’t going to change it for those people who don’t understand. It was made for the fans of the comic, the video game nerds, and himself. Yet, despite that I didn’t read the comic before I saw this, I loved every second of it.

I should go on and talk about the plot, shouldn’t I? Somewhere in Vancouver a base player named Scott is just trying to get by. He has recently gotten a girl friend that is still in high school. No one understands why he is dating her, I don’t even think he does. But while he is at the library one day, he sees his “dream girl.” That following night he goes to a party and she happens to be there. Her name is Ramona, and Scott quickly tries to get to know her. He ends up spending the night at her house (no dirty thoughts) and she starts to like him, and they start dating.

But wait! Doesn’t he have a girl friend? Right when she seems to fall in love with him, he dumps her for Ramona! Everything is perfect right? Not really . . .  It turns out in order to be with her, Scott needs to fight her seven evil exes. Why don’t I say ex boy friends? They seem to not be all the same gender . . .  Scott tries to live his normal life, but he keeps having run-ins with these “evil exes”; it turns out all to be a plot by her latest/longest ex, Gideon, who is opening a new club in town that his band really wants to play at!

Does everything end up going well? You should go see for yourself. This is a nerd movie, like I said before not everyone will get it; If you love video games, you will love this film. Check it out.