By Fred Topel | Image property of Universal Pictures
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is just extraordinary filmmaking. It pushes the tools of cinema in clever ways, but it always conveys the effect it’s going for. There’s nothing careless or experimental in here. It’s just a filmmaker expertly using his toolbox to achieve whatever he wants. Not bad for a third feature.
Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The first angled shot that takes us into the opening credits shows you where he’s headed with this one. The opening NES style studio logo was pretty nice to start though. You’ve just got every possible style of visual media in here, from student film to on screen animated effects, video games, comics. There’s stuff in here you’ll have to freeze frame later on DVD.
The editing is even more impressive. He uses editing to play with time and space. Conversations happen over vast distances, but flow via editing. Editing conveys Scott’s distraction, and it plays with movie conventions we take for granted.
This is how you can use modern film techniques to create a fantasy world of wonder. You change the rules of reality, not the linear images of them. I grew up with The Neverending Story and Labyrinth where you could see things that didn’t exist via puppets and production design. Now we take for granted that we can see that stuff, if they even put in that much effort. Now they can paint any old world on a computer.
The “stuff” of a movie doesn’t change anymore. It’s too easy to put new stuff in a movie. You have to actually create a world that doesn’t even follow the physics and natural laws of earth. It’s not just putting the video game effects in. It’s changing the reality of getting from place to place, having conversations, even thoughts.
It’s a language we all speak though. We know about Vs. and 1-ups. I couldn’t believe some of the styles he incorporated. You know the fights will be awesome, but each battle is momentous. It’s a great fight and it involves so much imagination. You just marvel at every thing coming and you want to revisit it immediately.
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