In this bizarro version of Toronto—where the laws of social decorum, and gravity, are bent—lives Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), an ordinary 22-year-old who has his life pretty figured out. He plays bass for the garage rock band Sex Bob-omb, dates motor-mouthed high-schooler Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), and lives in a stark apartment with his much more mature, and sexually prolific, gay roommate (an impish Kieran Culkin).
All is right in Ontario, until Pilgrim meets the rollerblading, Technicolor-haired Ramona Flowers (a charmingly deadpan Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and falls head over Adidas in love. But to win her heart, Pilgrim first has to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in a series of video-game-styled showdowns.
Whereas many comic-book adaptations focus on the sleek video-game look beloved by the gamer set, Pilgrim uses the pixelated, 8-bit aesthetic of the Atari age. Expect "Pows" and "Booms" to scroll across the screen—like the Adam West–era "Batman" or a pop-up infested PC—as Pilgrim sheds his boyish ennui and puts up his dukes against the League of Evil Exes.
Chris Evans delivers a refreshingly funny and self-effacing performance as the cocky skateboarder-turned–movie star whose stunt doubles do all the fighting. Brandon Routh plays an ex whose supernatural abilities are powered by his veganism. Jason Schwartzman dishes out snark as a sleazy club owner and Ramona's former beau who created the League.
Cera offers a slightly edgier take on the perpetually adolescent character he usually plays. The actor is a master of timing, executing one-liners with ease and wielding each awkward pause or stutter with the nonchalance of a 1980s Bill Murray or "Annie Hall"–era Woody Allen. Cera's Pilgrim fulfills the fanboy dream: Inside every bad-postured, indie-rock Clark Kent lives an ass-kicking Superman.
Yet, despite the choreographed fight sequences and over-the-top graphics, Cera never fully rescues his character from the identity-crisis island where he is stranded between being a teenager and a man. After his fifth fight, the movie drags as Cera kicks and quips like he did five times before.
Although enjoyable, the movie sometimes languishes in a crisis of identity. Maybe it is "High Fidelity" meets "Street Fighter"? Perhaps "Ghost World" mashed up with "Mortal Kombat." Is it an indie romance or an action comedy? At points, it is all of these. But like most truly original works, categorizations largely fail "Pilgrim." It is what it is: a fun summer movie that isn't afraid to turn the volume up to 11.
Genre: Comedy.
Written by: Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright, Bryan Lee O'Malley.
Directed by: Edgar Wright.
Cast: Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, Jason Schwartzman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead.