Scott Pilgrim vs. The DVD

logan fowler looks at the blu ray release of scott pilgrim vs. the world

Going for the hat trick, folks…

For this blog, I wrote a review/retrospect of the Scott Pilgrim books, and not too soon after a book comparison/movie review of the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World theatrical release. Now, I’m closing up my Scott Pilgrim review shop (sorry to say, there will be no review of the video game for me) with one more discussion about our favorite Canadian slacker, this time the focus being on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The DVD

I’m assuming if you’re reading this you have already, seen, or heard what Scott Pilgrim is all about, plot wise at least. If not, check out my review of the movie. here

What I am here to review is the content of the dvd, and plus, gush about how much I: cough: lesbian :cough: the film. Let me start by doing the latter.

I arrived at Target at 8am (opening time) on Tuesday, November 9th to pick up the saga of Scott Pilgrim, knowing full well I was going to watch it later that evening. I don’t even know if watch it would be the phrasing; I made my own mini event, so to speak. At 8:30 that evening, I put on a Scott Pilgrim t-shirt, Super Mario pajama pants (perfect attire, don’t you think), and began running the dvd on my laptop, headphones on and lights turned off. I was so pumped to watch this movie in the comfort of my home that it had to take on a somewhat nerdy, yet somewhat memorable experience to recapture my initial viewing of the film.

While viewing any film a third time (saw it twice in theaters), is not going to recreate the first time of seeing it, believe me when I say that it came very close. Watching Mr. Pilgrim fight off evil exes in a huge cinematic scope was indeed awesomely epic, but there’s something very different (in a good way) of watching it on your personal computer or tv-you pick up on the little things that you don’t catch when your eyes are just trying to focus on the core content while viewing it on the silver screen.

Visually, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World still manages to dazzle me. The film is beautifully shot overall, showing off Canada, where the literary Scott Pilgrim also takes place. It starts normal, quirky, then BOOM-Evil Ex Number One Shows Up and director Edgar Wright demonstrates that not only did he make a fantastic comic book movie, he also made a great video game movie, even though Scott Pilgrim draws influence from the media but never initially was one. In any case, Wright’s implementation of sound effects, art styles, and pop culture references are in line with the books, and make the movie pop.

It may not be news to anyone at this point, but the film sank like a stone at the box office when released, being defeated by sludge like Vampires Suck, yet another parody film that parodies everything with no plot line whatsoever.

I blame the marketing for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’s failure, as it really did not demonstrate a good way to find an audience. In the end though, there were really only three possible camps going to see this movie-people who read/ loved the books, people who like Edgar Wright, and people who were/are into the video/comic book/anime style (the movie is influenced by all three sources).

I personally don’t know if I would’ve liked the movie as much if I didn’t read the books, but then again, that’s not a theory I can really take on since there is no realistic alternative. My friend, the newly married (congrats again bro!), and co blog founder Bill Bodkin (my first viewing of the film was in his company), did not read the comics, but he was in one of the camps, which was him being an Edgar Wright fan. His end result was that he didn’t like Michael Cera’s character being a whiner, but he loved everything else. So in that case, it found a fan in him at least.

Will this movie find a larger audience on dvd? Hard to say, but if we learned anything from the August 2010 DVD release of Kick-Ass, movies that don’t do so well box office wise still can make a killing in the home video market. Kick-Ass ranked up dvd sales so high that its sequel got the green light.

While Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will have no sequel (Gideon Graves was the 7th Evil Ex and he was defeated in the final book AND the movie), it seems to be gaining recognition. Edgar Wright tweeted (that’s twitter, for all you non internet linguists out there) a photo of racks at a Best Buy being empty. The tags on the racks read “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-Blu Ray.” We can only hope that this epic of epic epicness is being discovered by those who haven’t seen it, or people are just picking up multiple copies…

Like I did.

When I went to Target I got the bare bones edition of the DVD (which actually is more than sufficient when it comes to the special features. I shall discuss some of them soon), but I honestly can say without regret that I ordered the Collector’s Edition aka Level Up! Edition of Scott Pilgrim off Amazon. Appropriate, don’t you think?

The catch? I don’t own a Blu-Ray player. That of which I just mentioned is a Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack with a Digital Download Disc. So why did I buy that one, even though I don’t have a Blu-Ray player? Because Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’s Bonus Blu-Ray Disc is the first time I ever saw the special feature listing and said “This movie is going make me go get a Blu-Ray player.” Normally I would be content with some special features, but for Scott Pilgrim, watching all that behind the scenes stuff, making of, etc, makes me curious. I mean honestly, with all the effects and what not, how could you not want to see how they pulled some of this stuff off?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9nS9iDsaj8

So before I begin on what I saw on the DVD as far as special features go, let me offer some advice: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is not for everyone. It’s a video game/comic book/anime style movie with a love story to thread it all together, and if not one of those things appeal to you, then I’m afraid you probably won’t like it. However, if you have an open mind, like any of those things, or just want to see something fantastically inventive as far as effects go, give it shot. It also is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in 2010, so it has that going for it too.

Now, with that said, onto the DVD special features.

The big ones featured on my copy are most likely the deleted scenes, trivia track, and four-count ‘em, four-feature commentaries. There also is a blooper reel, showcasing that it took Mr. Cera 33 tries to nail the Amazon box getting thrown over his shoulder into the garbage bin behind him. Beyond that, it’s just actors goofing off, and they look like they had a lot of fun on this movie. Not as important, but still fun is a gallery feature.

The deleted scenes are very good. In fact, one wonders why SO MUCH was cut out. It would have extended the film for those who said they wanted more, and it showcased further character exposition, something severely lacking from the book to movie transition. Also, without revealing too much, there is an alternate ending deleted scene, and one doesn’t have to think too hard of what it would consist of.

As I had nothing to do this previous Friday night, I watched Scott Pilgrim again, this time with the trivia track on. It offers up little Easter eggs, music info, and shout outs to cameos and things taken straight from the books. Watching the film with this special feature on made me gain new appreciation for the cinematic Scott Pilgrim, as it shows that both Edgar Wright did his homework and that series creator Bryan Lee O’ Malley had a big part to play in the making of this movie.

Speaking of those two, they combined forces to do a commentary. Included in the following listing,, the commentaries are:

-Feature Commentary with director/producer/co-writer Edgar Wright, co-writer Michael Bacall and Author Bryan Lee O’Malley
-Technical Commentary with director/producer/co-writer Edgar Wright and director of photography Bill Pope
-Cast commentary with Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong and
Brandon Routh
-Cast commentary with Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Kieran Culkin and Mark Webber

I will definitely be check all those out. If you own a Blu-Ray player (lucky ducks), you get all of the above plus a ton more, including stuff like music videos, a picture within picture comparison, the “Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation” short cartoon from Adult Swim, alternate footage, visual effects, and documentaries, plus way more. Hopefully I get to view these in due time, but until then, I will pretty much soak up whatever special features I haven’t yet on the copy of the dvd that I own.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World isn’t perfect. It lacks substance that the books had, needed more character exposition and I totally wanted more movie-an hour and 53 minutes just didn’t cut it. Saying that, it’s clear that this isn’t my favorite movie. But I would say it has definitely cracked my top 10 favorite films, as one would say that creating an entire personal event around a DVD release isn’t done for every movie released on home video.

I’m going to say it: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a dazzling work of under-appreciated cinematic art. If any of this review appeals to you, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Well friends, it’s been fun. But this is my final anything Scott Pilgrim review. Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Game Over.