Scott Pilgrim has found the girl of his dreams. But his path is more difficult: in order to face her, Scott will have to defeat her seven exes.

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To the rhythms of nostalgia and memories of bygone days, it is always pleasant to plunge into the surroundings of familiar game design fantasies. At first glance, it is not difficult to capture this virtual world, consisting of a two-dimensional exposure and multi-colored pixels, on film, which will preserve its extraordinary beauty, while giving the perception a forgotten feeling of carelessness, as well as a keen sense of excitement. But it is easy only to imagine, but not to execute. World cinema has long struggled with the pragmatism and rationality of fictional universes, but the solution to this problem has finally become quite obvious. All that was required was to fill the comic book film with the main currents of pop culture of the last 30 years, which are closely interconnected with the gaming industry. Bring innovative elements to the piece, starting with quotes from classic video games, and ending with a branded console fighting game with perfect stylization. It is thanks to such innovations that each frame of the tape literally comes to life on the screen and instills the belief that you can open the door of the imaginary image and step forward with one fleeting obedience of your hand. But it must be remembered that this is just an illusion that the real magic of cinema is fraught with.

Undoubtedly, the unification of the creativity of the Canadian artist Brian Lee O’Malley and the talented Briton Edgar Wright for modern cinema could not pass without leaving a couple of significant discoveries and, of course, the audience’s delight. After all, every skillful stroke of the cartoonist in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ”Wright tried, first of all, to fully feel, and secondly to interpret in his own way. The master achieved an ambiguous effect, so that the final film adaptation of the O’Malley comic strip reflected not only the whole essence of the author’s intention, but also retained the director’s unique vision of this graphic novel. Therefore, in the film, respect for the original and its characteristic advanced style of narration are combined with an acute satire on the lifestyle of the younger generation, as well as with perfectly played references to various classical works, both cinema and other types of art, in which the director’s ambitions are clearly traced. …

With irony and a predominance of a fair sense of humor, Edgar Wright, in his colorful work, paints an unremarkable loser in the soul of Scott Pilgrim, whose life, with its fascination, is similar to the endless snow-covered landscapes of Canada. But a typical-looking comic book hero who does not try to surprise the viewer with his personal qualities and does not try to impress anyone with outstanding deeds, gradually finds the meaning of existence. Thoughts about playing the guitar in a hopeless band, problems on the personal front, gradually dissolve in Scott’s head when true love comes to him in the guise of the beautiful Ramona Flowers. And his everyday life is doomed, to play with all the shades of the rainbow, not at all because of the girl changing the hair color to suit the mood, so much because of the edges of absurdity, which open up at lightning speed in this work. The league of seven former and very angry guys here serves as a crazy illustration of the classic concept of any video game based on duels, in which the main character, of course, must prevail over all rivals. And each new battle is more spectacular than the previous one. Without a doubt, it is the fights that add dynamics, comicity to the action and demonstrate impressive CGI effects. But the main thing is that almost every second storyline is a culminating point in the film, and they all together form a diagonal composition, at the heart of which is a magical feeling of love.

Unobtrusively and with a sparkle in his eyes, the director is like the central character in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World “, which tells the story of the origin of” Pac-Man “every time you meet a girl, not only pays tribute to the gaming culture, but also lovingly describes its entire era to the smallest detail. Graphic bells and whistles inherent in the genre of comics are here met with purely visual features of any computer fun. Therefore, when, during the next dialogue of the heroes, the picture of the film is divided into several parts, the remarks they say become tangible in reality, and coins are poured out of the defeated enemies and points are awarded for the knockout – do not be surprised at anything. And if now you have seen a curious scene where the conversation of friends was accompanied by mock laughter, as if in any TV show, then in a matter of seconds the plot outline of the film can make a sharp turn in the opposite direction, permeated with a completely different mood. Likewise, Wright drifts from one extreme to the other in his work. But all his goals reach the set bar, and every detail in the design of the integral mechanism works properly.

The competent musical component of the film, which appears in the work as a separate character, contains several discoveries in the person of such fictional groups as Sex Bob-omb and Crash and the Boys, as well as the well-known classics performed by The Rolling Stones. But the decisive factor in the originality of this hypostasis is that it is supported by abstract animation and psychedelic editing, which inspires emotions in the minds of the audience, which are so difficult to express in words. It is even more difficult to believe in the sincerity of the acting of Michael Cera or Mary Elizabeth Winstead, because the Edgar Wright theater of absurdity is to blame. Despite this, the actor who played the Pilgrim clearly encapsulated all his professional skills in the character and gave the hero the usual role of a courteous guy who exudes confidence with all his heart. And due to the talent of either the actors who took part in the film, or the screenwriters who came up with a love story, the second bottom is gradually revealed in it. Reflections on the detrimental effect of selfishness on others and the desire to renounce the past in search of a new life, albeit indirectly, have a place to be in this film. Although, due to the naive nature of the work, everything is seen on the surface and runs the risk of being rejected by an audience that has forgotten their youthful problems.

Unfortunately, such brilliant advantages of the tape as excessive uniqueness and lack of belonging to the standard genre framework, did not play into its hands and did not help to fulfill its fundamental goal – to become commercially successful mainstream. Perhaps the studio bosses will not encourage Edgar Wright for this fiasco, but ordinary viewers who are not indifferent to the theme played in the film will clearly show the director a real “power of respect”. And his work will someday gain cult status. After all, the work “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ”is not so much an adaptation of a comic book as a story about the values ​​of modern society and their interests, subtly expressed through the prism of a generation that grew up on interactive entertainment and indie music. But above all, this is a stunning video game that has been honored with cinematic incarnation. Aesthetic art that does not seek to make one reflect on problems of a universal scale, but instead is capable of giving pure fan and visual pleasure for the eyes. Enjoy every moment, because this is the main movie bonus of recent years.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (45.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1, 1.85:1

Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish.