2) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)
When I first saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, I thought it couldn’t get better as far as comic book adaptations go. Released the same year as Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, I couldn’t believe how many arguments I had when proclaiming Edgar Wright’s masterpiece was hands-down the comic book movie of the year – and then some.
Scott Pilgrim’s lovestruck journey is perfectly transitioned from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s popular source material, capturing the unique blend of nerdy moments, relationship woes and action-packed battling. I don’t say this much, but Wright achieves perfection – a level other movies failed to attain until this very year.
When analyzing Wright’s techniques, you’ll realize how each scene flies by like a slew of comic panels, perfectly coinciding with the director’s signature quick-cut mentality. Characters don’t really saunter through a scene, they get from point to point in a flurry of actions and close ups, jumping about like a comic would. Things happen quickly, irrationally and without warning, sometimes catching us off-guard, just like when you’re flipping through a trade and discover a monumental event on the next set of pages, hidden by our singular turning.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is also full of perfect references, like villains bursting into a pile of coins or Scott collecting 1UPs, which brings that whole geek/gamer culture into reality right before believability sets in. As Aubrey Plaza attempts to swear on screen, a little censor bar and noise cover her up as to keep audiences from the foul language – little nuances that keep us in comic mentality.
Not to mention, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is visually one of the most beautiful movies I’ve ever seen, and is the pride of my Blu-Ray collection. The vibrancy of colors, the white borders that sometimes square slow-motion scenes, each musical battle, every otherwise forgettable detail that Wright highlights in some kind of funky light – it’s all there. Wright captures the freedom of comic books, the pain in Scott’s story and the explosive vitality in O’Malley’s graphic novels, elevating the collective whole to unfathomable levels.
Game, set, match – almost.
