“Scott Pilgrim VS The World” is my personal favorite movie and one of my favorite book series of all time. “Scott Pilgrim” is the one true example of bringing a graphic novel to the big screen. Everything about this movie seems to be ripped straight from the pages of the graphic novels, the amazing comic book like visuals, special effects and a script that sounds like it was taken straight from the books. The movie truly gives an authentic representation of the books, and probably the best comic book movie to stick to its source material. The visuals of this movie seems like it was ripped right off the pages of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s novels. The visuals are amazing, and like most of Edgar Wright’s films, this movie is filled with Easter eggs. I have seen this movie too many times to count, and it seems every time I watch it I notice something new. I bet you haven’t noticed Edgar Wright riddling the entire movie with numbers. For example, Todd Ingram, evil ex numero tres had a fight sequence filled with the number three, such as the large three located on his shirt and the triple three’s seen as graffiti on the trashcans in the alleyway behind the club.
Do you remember when Captain America, the second evil ex, came out with a skateboard and started kicking Canadian butt before grinding to his death? You remember that weird symbol he had as the logo for his skateboard company? What about that symbol he had tattooed to his neck? Well it turns out that his tattoo is the Tibetan symbol for the number two. Yeah, Edgar Wright went all out for this movie. This movie is filled with hidden pictures and meanings. Many people are very aware of the hidden Easter eggs all around this movie, leaving fanboys drooling in their seats, but what many people don’t seem to notice is the actual meaning of this movie, and the sad thing is that it has been there the entire time, hidden under all the boss fights and themes of romance.
When Scott starts dating Ramona, he learns in order to keep his newfound relationship he must defeat her seven evil exes. Now we all see this as ridiculous: fight your seven evil exes to the death just to keep dating the strange American chick with the cool hair? Why would anyone put themselves through all of that? What many people don’t realize, is that anyone who’s fallen in love before knows the wrath of The League Of Evil Exes. These books and the movie are all told from Scott’s perception on the events around him. Evil ex number three, Todd Ingram, doesn’t really have mind reading powers or the ability to punch holes into celestial bodies. He’s just another rockstar in another band, except his band is more popular than Scott’s, and to throw salt in the wound he’s dating Scott’s superhot, super talented ex girlfriend. Scott feels that he can’t compete or keep up with Todd and his dream lifestyle. Only when it is revealed that Todd’s been cheating on his vegan diet and Todd loses his girlfriend, his cool factor, and his band does Scott realize that Todd isn’t perfect and essentially defeats his feelings of jealousy over the guy.
Relationships are tough and have their terrifying moments especially the most meaningful of relationships. One of the scariest things going into a new relationship is thinking about your significant other and their most recent ex. This is represented by Gideon Graves, the most recent ex that your romantic partner is still emotionally attached too, and if that exe plays their cards right, might just be able to lure them back into their web. You know that weird mind control thing that Scott finds on the back of Ramona’s head before he uses his extra life to absolutely wreck shop on the Chaos Theatre? This chip represents that Gideon is still in the back of her mind and still has control over her. Then Scott tries to defeat Gideon for Ramona’s love and is tragically defeated at Gideon’s feet in front of a huge crowd. Only then does Scott realize that he shouldn’t have been fighting Gideon for Ramona, he should be fighting Gideon for himself and earn The Power Of Self Respect. Only then will he be able to truly defeat Gideon, move on and actually get Ramona back and be happy with his life. Now that were past what the evil exes represent, let’s take a look the strangest character in all of this.
NegaScott represents all of Scott’s past forgotten mistakes, his ignorance and his flaws all manifested in this dark evil clone of our protagonist. These feelings surface a total of three times in the books in the form of NegaScott. During the first two encounters, Scott ignores him and continues with the task at hand, further pushing away his problems, making NegaScott even more powerful. Only during his third encounter in the forest does Scott actually fight him and realize he can’t defeat him does Scott realize his only chance at getting Ramona back is to accept his faults, not fight them and finally grow up. With this realization, NegaScott stops fighting Scott and merges with him, making Scott more powerful and making him mature enough to take on Gideon. Scott is finally mature enough for a real relationship, not something “easy” that he had with Knives Chau. When you enter a relationship you must deal with your partner’s baggage, their faults and overall their very own personal seven evil exes. No relationship is easy or perfect, it takes hard work, confidence, trust and love. When you manage to get past all that the only thing you have to look forward to an uncertain future through a Cosmic Doorway and hope for the best.