The good and the bad and the Super – Scott Pilgrim vs The World

I know nothing about comic books – I can barely tell Spider-Man from Superman and don’t know my Avengers from my Furies and I thought Iron Man was an American Civil War battle ship. The last comic I read was Whopper or Topper. I couldn’t even read Patches (does that count?) as it was banned in in my home along with the Bay City Rollers and TV after 7pm. Robert Downey Jr did much to introduce me to the Gravity Does Not Apply world of the superhero just as Heath Ledger lured me into Superbaddie territory. I even went to the London premiere of The Dark Knight – I can still hear the sound of the Batmobile backfiring as it prepared to rocket itself into Leicester Square and onto that bat-covered red carpet.

My Batmobile picture from the London premiere of The Dark Knight

Where was I…? Oh yes, what I’m trying to say is that, for someone like me, a comic book movie or a superhero movie has to have something a little different about it to get me in to see it. These movies are rare but when they come along I’m chomping at the bit for opening day. Today the second trailer of Scott Pilgrim vs The World was released – after the film got the right number of Facebook fans (I count myself among them) – and without doubt, this is it!

Normally, with a superhero movie I get caught at the first hurdle – I find nothing in them to relate to. Heroes with superpowers in outrageous costumes save the world in a setting I’m supposed to recognise, such as (usually) New York City. It all seems so implausible… But that hurdle appears to be removed in Scott Pilgrim and the way is left clear for me to immerse myself. No pretence is made here – we have Pow! Thump! Crash! smashed large across the screen and I don’t have to believe in the power of the 11 Evil Exes because they’re polite with it – and one feels they’re not out to destroy the world, they’re just testing a boy’s love for a girl. So it’s a love story and that I can relate to. And sometimes love really does play out in technicolor 2D/3D action and you really can take a Whallop! and it really can make you feel that you can throw someone twenty storeys.

It was not a surprise to see that this film is made by Edgar Wright, who also made the only zombie movie that I’ve been able to watch and laugh my head off at: Shaun of the Dead. This skill of bringing the most unbelievable happenings into our streets, homes and hearts and minds (not to mention pubs), where the extraordinary is simply accepted as the ordinary… and everyone just gets on with it. Updated to add and correct that the original books for Scott Pilgrim were penned by Bryan Lee O’Malley (a comparison here).

I’ve not seen Scott Pilgrim vs The World and so I have no idea if the film will live up to the promise of this second trailer but I am very happy to give it a go in August. I can even cope with the idea of a school band…

Talking of superhero/superbaddie movies – there’s another one on the horizon and this one I feel very unsure about: Green Lantern. Its premise is baffling (IMDb: ‘A test pilot is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe’). Ryan Reynolds, an actor I enjoy, is the eponymous hero but all my concerns are centred around the baddie, Hector Hammond. Peter Sarsgaard is one of my favourite actors – but what have they done to you, Peter?!

Picture from Splash.