Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Essay -- Film Review, Boy meets Girl

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World tells the classic story of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl but first must overcome problems which the girl brings from her past that interferes with their relationship. Initially defeated, sad boy realizes that this girl is â€Å"the one† and so goes into battle for her once more, and this time he is victorious. Where Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is fresh and unique is in the combination of styles and influences from comic books (Scott Pilgrim originally being a comic before being made as a film) and video games, particularly styles of video games popular during the early era of home video consoles in the 1980s and 1990s for which the intended audience of the movie, whose childhoods largely occurred in that period, would feel a deep nostalgia. Costume design, props, and the stylized gestures and vocal delivery of the actors (pp. 125-130, 139-146) all contribute to creating a feel reminiscent of said â€Å"old-school† video games. D irector Edgar Wright structured the editing of the film so as to create the feel of a continuous stream of action, as though the romance is seen as a never-ending, fast-paced conflict. Sound (pp. 279-280) and visuals (p. 118) are also used in such a way as to create the sense of a universe which is deliberately unrealistic and as direct as possible a translation of the original comic book into film format. Although the film uses a restricted narration (p. 93), with the audience only seeing events as far as Scott can see them, the extensive use of visual and sound cues, as well as the deliberately formulaic plot structure and references to many old video games and classic â€Å"boy-meets-girl† stories, the general structure and plot (pp. 80-82) of which the audience is assumed to b... ... and substitutes the common traits by the use of unique and innovative elements from a different medium. The style and the pop culture references (especially to video games) which the film is full of helps connect with the target audience, and also show the significant of how fantasy, video games and comic, can stylistically distribute a classical convention to the distinct overall formal system (pp. 56-58, 60-61). In other words, this film that incorporates stylistic elements of comic books and video games to tell a story which is already familiar fodder for movie audiences also makes it especially relevant to an audience demographic raised with video games and manga. Perhaps such prophetic in the integration of stylistic elements from different forms of popular entertainment media into film, can be something which audiences in the future may well come to expect.