I'll be honest, I'm way to excited for this movie. Like honestly, there is almost no way it can live up to the hype I've generated in my head (even more than Kick Ass). This is set up to be my favorite Comic-to-Movie ever. So yeah, to excited...
If the trailers are any judge (which lets be honest, they usually are NOT… but lets go with it) Scott Pilgrim is well on its way to becoming the most pixel perfect translation of comic to film ever. Now I'm sure they will have to cut a few corners here and there, adding and subtracting, but the fact that Brian O'malley was on hand for most of the filming bodes well. So in anticipation of this hopefully awesome film I decided to toss up a few cliff notes on the books.
The Scott Pilgrim Comic (yes, I'll refer to it as a comic, not a manga) runs a brisk 6 volumes and actually just recently concluded. I know what you're thinking, that means they were done filming before the books were finished. Luckily as I said just one paragraph prior, the creator of the series was on set for most of the pre-production and production, so the story was in good hands.
Volume 1 picks up with Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life. This book is really a lot of set up. We meet Scott, his roommate, friends, bandmates, his "girlfriend", and Ramona. Several future events are eluded to such as Scott's previous jobs and girlfriends. This is all just a window into Scott's very normal, slightly self absorbed life. We get to know him as a character.
Things start getting weird when he begins dreaming about a girl on roller blades, Ramona Flowers. Eventually he meets her in real life, scores a date, and she tells him he has an inter-dimensional gateway in his head that's a wicked short cut. This quirkiness is very reminiscent of FLCL and I absolutely loved it.
When I picked up this book I figured Scott would be the all around righteous hero who must fight for Ramona Flowers love. Instead what I found was a much more realistic twenty something slacker who was dating a high schooler (to both cheers and jeers). O'Malley wrote Scott to be an under achiever and honestly in most cases it would be an uphill battle to are about Scott.
He's basically leading on a teenager while falling for Ramona and then ends up in a tight spot. What's really cool is that all the characters are so likable. Knives Chao (Scott's other high school girlfriend) comes on a bit strong, but you can tell she earnestly cares for Scott. Poor Mr. Pilgrim thinks he likes her, until he sees Ramona skating through his dreams. He doesn't want to hurt Knives, which is fairly obvious, so he tries his best to work awkwardly around the situation.
Scott is a flawed character in many ways, but also redeemable. O'Malley did a great job writing him through his mis-adventures in Volume 1. At times the quality downgrades a bit to almost "web comic" humor, but it still works. The book keeps up a brisk pace so when I say downgrade its really more of a jog, honestly still funny stuff. So onto Volume 2 we go!
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