Scott Pilgrim vs. the World may be based on a graphic novel, but it plays like the best video game adaptation ever made.  Even the opening Universal Studios logo and fanfare are given a classic Nintendo feel.  Sitting in the theater attempting to absorb this busy movie, one gets the feeling one is caught in the middle of an epic battle between Guitar Hero and Mortal Kombat, with some of The Legend of Zelda thrown in for good measure.  The result is a movie that will require at least a second viewing to fully catch all the references… but it only takes one viewing to win you over.

The title character is a bit of a hipster dweeb, the type of guy that actor Michael Cera has come to embody so well from Arrested Development to Juno.  Scott is dating a high school student and trying to become a rock star when he meets Ramona Flowers, the colorfully-coifed young woman who steals his heart.  Unfortunately, Ramona comes with some serious baggage: seven exes that make up the “league of evil exes.”  In order to date Ramona, Scott must defeat each and every ex in brawls worthy of the Super Smash Bros. franchise.

The plot is straightforward, but there is little else conventional about this colorful tornado of a movie.  So much stuff is thrown at the constantly changing screen that you may find it difficult to keep up, but that’s part of its charm.  This is definitely a movie made for the modern generation raised on video games, whose attention spans can barely last a YouTube video.  The characters are introduced with short, creative onscreen resumes and as Scott progresses through his mission, the audience is informed of the changes in his character attributes that include skills such as strength, speed and, yes, balls. When a phone rings, the sound is expressed by the word “riiiiiiiiiing” fluttering across the screen and the fisticuffs are amped up with titles that might remind older viewers of the Adam West Batman show, words like “biff” and “pow.”

If you haven’t guessed by now—the title itself should have given it away—there’s no room for reality in the world of Scott Pilgrim.  Sure, the characters are fighting to the death, but it’s a video-game kind of death.  When Scott defeats his enemies, they burst into a pile of coins (“Sweet! Coins!”) that bolster his score, and if Scott should perish, he can start over thanks to that extra life he picked up back on level three.

Michael Cera brings pretty much the same quirkiness and sensibilities to the role of Scott Pilgrim as he has to most of his characters, but it somehow feels fresh here.  The cast of villains is effective and I especially enjoyed the former Superman Brandon Routh as a vegan-powered rock star.  Where I felt the movie failed to take a cue from the many video games that helped to inspire it, however, is the progression of the challenge the evil exes present.  In video games, the boss levels always get more challenging as you progress through the game, but by the time the movie gets to levels five and six, it seems in too much of a hurry to move on to the seventh and final ex.  There’s also the always-present Ramona, who seems like she should be locked away in a castle somewhere until Scott fights his way to save her and win her heart.

These are complaints maybe better suited against the actual video game version of the movie, rather than the movie itself.  Director Edgar Wright, who previously gave us the seemingly laid back (in comparison) Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, manages to create a movie experience that is fresh, fun, and unique.  Even a movie as unique as Inception could be somewhat described in cinematic terms (“Ocean’s Eleven meets The Matrix”), but describing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in such a way is a true challenge.  Sure, just about every bit and piece of the movie can be attributed to a specific part of pop culture past, but the collection as a whole is another story altogether.

Although I have never read any of the graphic novels this movie is based on, I did feel as if my many years of video game playing gave me enough of a background.  Gamers are sure to thoroughly enjoy this movie that plays like a tribute to the history of video games.  Wright was able to secure the theme song rights to Nintendo’s prized The Legend of Zelda by calling it “the nursery rhyme of this generation.”  The question now is whether Scott Pilgrim vs. the World will go down as the movie of this generation.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is rated PG-13 for “stylized violence, sexual content, language and drug references.”  A couple of slightly dirty jokes make up for the sexual content, but the violence shouldn’t be much of a problem as characters don’t spill blood, only coins.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.