Blu-Ray Review: SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD

Review by Stephen Jones

If any movie this year was bound to have a great home release, it was SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. In spite of its disappointing theatrical run, I think everybody expects it to do well in the long run thanks to its target audience being exactly the sort of people who turn box office bombs into DVD hits. The Blu-ray definitely does’t disappoint. Better movies have come out this year, and better movies are already on DVD and Blu- Ray, but this is the one I picked up before anything else.

I’ll start with the movie, but I’ll try and keep it brief. It’s a crazed, hyperkinetic mash-up of comic books and video games and the sort of people who obsess over both. It serves as sort of a microcosm of the geek/hipster subculture, so whatever your particular ‘thing’ is, it’s represented in some capacity in this film. Sadly, I think one of the best things about Scott Pilgrim might be one of the things keeping a lot of people from seeing it; Michael Cera. I hear a lot of complaints that he plays the same sort of character over and over, and to a degree that’s true. Okay, it’s just flat-out true. But not in this one. He’s not a nice, demur geeky guy. He’s actually kind of a douche, playing up a false persona of exactly what Cera has been typecast in order to pick up chicks. He also, in addition to a lot of the other cast members, carries himself surprisingly well in the action sequences, for whatever that’s worth. It’s a ton of fun, the characters are great, and it’s just flat-out a well made movie, one of the best of the year.

The transfer is outstanding. It may not have looked like it from the trailers or TV spots, but this film needed a great transfer just like SIN CITY needed a great transfer. All the over-the-top stylization is sharp and clear, the video game and comic book effects pop, and whenever the bulk of the screen is black (which does happen a few times) it looks great. The sound is just as good. There’s a lot of voice over, musical numbers, crowd scenes, and the mix is loud and clear. The dialogue is audible without the big loud scenes blowing out the speakers, which is a problem a lot of films like this tend to run into.

The bonus features are where it all really shines, though. Behind the scenes features for pretty much every aspect of the film, all the weblogs and the Cartoon Network short, four commentary tracks (two cast, one crew, and one with Wright and the creator of the Pilgrim comics), music videos, bloopers, deleted scenes, they really did go all-out for the Blu-ray. The DVD itself has decidedly fewer bonus features, which is a shame, but it does still include all the commentary tracks. It’s more expensive, but between the two I have to recommend going with the Blu-ray, especially since it comes with the DVD anyway, so get it even if you don’t have a player yet.