Edgar Wright gives him some great stuff to work with, from the subtle screw-up as he’s singing along during their show against Crash and the Boys to when he responds to Knives’ question at band practice of “What do you play” with “Wow…ummm…Zelda, Tetris….that’s kind of a big question”.
#Scott pilgrim vs the world the game full level background movie#
In the movie there’s a tangible victory for the kid, and less of the off-putting personality that made me apathetic towards him in the comics.Īlso, he’s far funnier in the movie.
He can do Scott’s part, and seems to care more for the band than Scott. He clearly doesn’t care that much about the band in the movie, dropping practice in an instant and without warning (while in a competition for a record deal) to hang with his new girlfriend, and even states that “Neil knows my parts” like he can just fill in for the boring stuff. BUT, Scott is kind of bad for Sex Bob-Omb. When he refuses, the band seemingly betrays him in an instant. Gideon has stolen Ramona from Scott, and then proceeds to dangle the contract in front of the band to placate Scott. Now at first this is a rather dickish thing to do in context. But what he sacrifices in that areas he makes up for with one big win, namely becoming the new bassist for Sex Bob-Omb after Scott refuses to sign with G-Man. He also achieves this honour in the movie, albeit with less build-up to the change so its significance is lost a little there. It’s a victory but that’s basically it for him. There’s maybe some slight teasing that he and Stacey Pilgrim might end up being a couple at the end, but ultimately his moment in the comics is when Scott dubs him ‘Young Neil’ no longer, instead calling him ‘Neil’ (his response perfectly captured in the above picture). When you look back at him in the comics, he goes from inconsequential friend to an abrasive whiner and a bit of a dick (as described in the comics). If you consider the length of the two pieces he actually gets more focus in the movie than he does the comic series, and I also think Edgar Wright treats him better than O’Malley did. Young Neil is just a side character in both the movie and the comics. Oh, and just in case it needs to be said: Full spoiler warning for both the comics and movie. On top of that, there’s also a movie specific discussion to be found at the end of this, because once I get started talking about Scott Pilgrim, it takes a while for me to stop… Why seven? Because of Ramona’s seven evil exes! And I think it is important to acknowledge these aspects because while it is easy to say ‘oh but the comic is better’ it doesn’t mean it did everything better. But among the flaws are seven things that the movie did better than the comic. I still wish the movie could have properly built up Scott and Ramona’s relationship, or given proper time to important side characters like Kim Pine (as well as the many subplots they couldn’t fit in).
Edgar Wright did a great job of trying to squeeze a six book story into one movie and retain its charm, but he can only do so much. Now I’ll be the first to admit that as much as I love it and can practically quote it verbatim, it’s an incredibly flawed movie. Things that made me think that despite its faults, the movie adaptation actually improved on some aspects of the Scott Pilgrim world. As I periodically do I recently went through the comics and the movie for like the millionth time, and this time some things began to stand out to me. It’s no secret that amongst the vast spread of pop culture to consume and discuss, there are few I hold in higher esteem and importance to me personally than Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.
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