GeekReads

Chris Hemsworth has beefed up from his Home and Away surfie days

Here’s the latest Marvel comic-to-movie adaptation, another cog in the machine will eventually become The Avengers. For those not in the know (which included me prior to the movies), one of the business strategies used by the comic industry is to introduce fans of one hero to others through “crossovers” that featured multiple superheroes teaming up with each other. It was hoped that these partnerships would result in fans of one series also taking an interest in the others. Thor is the latest Avenger to get his own feature, after The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man (and soon to be followed by Captain America).

The movie itself is surprisingly good, of the same calibre of Marvel movie releases since they took back control of their own brand from the greedy, uncaring Hollywood studios. It’s definitely cheesy, but in a way that shows they’re not taking themselves too seriously, making it a fun experience rather than a cringey one.

Chris Hemsworth, of Home and Away TV series fame, is yet another suprisingly good Aussie male lead – although exactly why this is still surprising is beyond my mere mortal understanding. Maybe it’s because Australian stuff is generally so crap that the surprise comes from discovering (again and again) that this country actually possesses people with talent. The other surprise comes from Natalie Portman, who played a character that pretty much spent the entire movie with nothing better to do than lusting over Thor. If this was Marvel’s way to win over Portman fans from DC Comics’ excellent V for Vendetta, then I’d have to say it was a wasted opportunity.

An epic of epic epicness indeed.

In some ways Scott Pilgrim vs. the World‘s is like a Pilgrim’s Progress for Gen Y – a modern morality tale about love and self-esteem cleverly masked by fast-moving scenes and dialogue dripping with wit and irony. In order to win the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers, Scott must defeat her “seven evil exes” in videogame styled combat.

Scott Pilgrim is directed by Edgar Wright – the guy behind Spaced, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead – so as you would expect, the movie is a triumph of fan service, pop culture references, comic-book cred and general awesomeness. The unfortunate side-effect of this of course, is that the movie has only very limited appeal to anybody who’s mental age is more than 16 – evidenced by its terrible box office earnings (in spite of largely favourable reviews).

Michael Cera in the lead role is a contentious but unsurprising choice, since he must be the only currently bankable actor with the right amounts of charisma and dorkiness to play the role of Scott. Other highlights were Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, who looks like she stepped right off the pages of a Japanese manga, and Kieren Culkin as Wallace, Scott’s gay roommate, who deadpans all of his (hilarious) lines and steals every scene that he’s in.

Frenetically paced and possessing of the highest meme density of any movie I’ve watched so far, don’t forget to put on your 80′s geek hat when you go and see it.

Here’s the trailer: