The Land Before Time

Following the release of An American Tail in 1986, Don Bluth’s follow-up feature film would be The Land Before Time in 1988 in a continued partnership with Stephen Spielberg. This time, however, the film was further co-produced by George Lucas, in notably his only collaboration with Spielberg outside of the Indiana Jones series. The Land Before Time has since notoriously spawned a long-running franchise of direct-to-video sequels (13 as of this writing) and a short-lived TV series, all of which are inexplicably musicals in stark contrast to the original film. While I was aware of this franchise as a kid, the only one I wanted to see above all the others was the original The Land Before Time, which I finally got the chance to see for myself after receiving a Blu-ray copy as a Christmas gift. While the film is really good on its own merits, I found it to be an improvement over An American Tail in many areas.

An American Tail

Although Don Bluth’s directorial debut, The Secret of NIMH, didn’t do well financially, with a box office of $14.7 million against a budget of $7 million, it attracted the attention of Stephen Spielberg, who collaborated with Don Bluth and Universal to produce An American Tail. Despite production troubles, which included creative differences and Spielberg learning just how complicated animation actually is, the film, notably co-produced in Ireland, released in late 1986 and made $104.5 million on a budget of about $9 million, which made it the most successful non-Disney animated film at the time. Critics were mixed on the film at the time, but its popularity would increase over the years, namely from those who watched it as children and retained fond memories of it. We never watched it ourselves until over thirty years later, which gave us more a fresh perspective and the opinion that while the traditional animation is still impressive to this day, the story is a bit choppy.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Note: This review contains spoilers for How to Train Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

With the success of How to Train Your Dragon 2, it would be another five years before DreamWorks Animation would release the third, and currently final, installment, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Due to real world circumstances, this film would also have a separate distributor from the previous two, this time Universal Pictures as opposed to Paramount Pictures or 20th Century Fox. Since the sequels to the original How to Train Your Dragon were written with a trilogy in mind, it made sense to finish watching the films and see how they concluded the story. Though the ending does deliver emotionally, the flight path has a bit of turbulence.

Sing

While Illumination Entertainment is best known for their Despicable Me franchise, they have also worked on a few other projects unrelated to this series. Relevant to this review, between the release of the Minions spin-off and the recent Despicable Me 3, the studio released two movies within the same year, The Secret Life of Pets (Pets) and Sing; this review is about the latter of these two films. Admittedly I hesitated to watch Sing at first due to a dislike of Pets, but I decided to finally watch it while on a flight as part of my in-flight entertainment and ended up liking it better than I thought I would, more so than the aforementioned Pets.

In a Zootopia-like world, a koala named Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) is trying to attract customers to his fledgling theater, deciding he can bring in more animals by holding a singing competition with a grand prize of $1000. Due to a typing error by his assistant, Miss Crawly (Garth Jennings), the prize is instead listed on the flyers, unbeknownst to Moon, as $100,000. Amongst the flood of attendees to the auditions, this attracts the attention of Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), a housewife pig trying to raise 25 piglets; Mike (Seth MacFarlane), a self-centered street performing mouse with major debts; Johnny (Taron Egerton), a gorilla son of a mob boss; Ash (Scarlett Johansson), a porcupine performing in a punk rock duo; and Meena (Tori Kelly), an elephant with stage fright.

Though the movie has 1 main plot with 5 sub-plots, they manage to be balanced fairly well, since the sub-plots all tie into the main plot in some way. Each of the main characters is written decently for whatever screen presence they have, plus the overall story is still fairly easy to follow for how stuffed with plot it is. The animation and voice acting are some of the best to come from an Illumination production, which help sell the premise and the trials that each of the main characters are going through; in particular, I didn’t even realize that Seth MacFarlane was voicing one of the main characters, as I had come to expect his voice acting to sound like one of his Family Guy characters.

Rather notably, the movie features 64 songs, one of which is an original song, “Faith,” performed by Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande. All of these songs are present to varying degrees, most of which are snippets, though they are used well in their appropriate context. Two recurring songs during the movie include “Golden Slumbers” by The Beatles, acting as the leitmotif for the different points in Moon’s story; and “Kira Kira Killer” by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, performed by a group of recurring Japanese red pandas. When major songs are performed in the movie, the voice actors take the opportunity to display their singing talents, which evidently seemed integral to the casting process.

Sing is one of Illumination’s better non-Despicable Me movies, beating out The Secret Life of Pets in terms of overall quality. Though there is a large amount of plot stuffed into ~90 minutes, the movie still manages to balance everything well, perhaps better than the later Despicable Me 3. The 60+ songs featured in the film are sure to attract different types of music fans just to hear their favorite song. Those disappointed by Pets may find this to be a better example of how Illumination can handle a movie that’s not related to Despicable Me, though those looking for an enjoyable animated feature should still give this one a try. Things seem to be looking up for Sing since a sequel has been announced for release in 2020 (though I’m personally not as enthusiastic about a Pets 2 announced for 2019).

Despicable Me 3

Of the many films Illumination has animated over the years, their most well-known are related to the Despicable Me franchise. So far, this series has spawned three movies and a spin-off, though nothing that could quite capture the magic of the original Despicable Me film. The most recent entry, Despicable Me 3, prominently advertised Trey Parker’s involvement in early trailers. While the most recent outing is more ambitious in its plot, it too ultimately falls short of the original.

Following the events of Despicable Me 2, Gru (Steve Carell) is working with Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) from the Anti-Villain League (AVL) to prevent a supervillain named Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker) from stealing the world’s largest diamond from a cargo ship. Although Gru prevents Bratt from stealing the diamond, he is unable to capture Bratt himself. As he has continually been unable to capture Bratt, the AVL fires Gru and Lucy, leaving them jobless until they can find something else to do. Because Gru refuses to return to villainy, all but two of his Minions (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud) leave him. In this time of need, Gru learns of the existence of his long-lost brother Dru (Steve Carell), who leads a wealthy lifestyle in the country of Freedonia. Meanwhile, Lucy is trying to adapt to her role as mother for Gru’s adopted daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Nev Scharrel).

Gru (Steve Carell) learns of his brother Dru (Steve Carell) and
decides to resume his previous life of villainy.

Although the story presents some interesting ideas, the presence of six plots, one main plot and five sub-plots, leads to some issues. Despite Illumination’s best efforts to balance all of them within 90 minutes, they all end up diluting each other as they fight for precious space. For instance, two of the sub-plots, which are related to Lucy’s plot of becoming a mother, resolve themselves very quickly and end with the introduction of what they may hope is another marketable character. Additionally, although the Minions are handled a bit better here than they were in their own movie, their plot escalates rather quickly each time they’re onscreen until they inevitably become relevant to the main plot again. The end result might have been stronger if they had removed at least one sub-plot to better develop the others. Either way, it may be worth noting that Edith has had the least character development of the three girls after three movies.

The most prominent plots involve two original characters, Balthazar Bratt and Dru. Dru’s existence is a bit surprising, partially since it comes from a pool of stories usually reserved for when you’re out of ideas. For the most part, he and Gru have a chemistry (helped by Steve Carell voicing both characters) and have a number of differences which help them feel different from one another. When all is said and done, however, it seems that Illumination plans to have Dru appear in a potential Despicable Me 4, which may feel like a blessing or a curse depending on how the viewer reacts to Dru’s personality. Still, Steve Carell is able to voice the brothers differently enough in tone and mannerisms that they are distinct from each other in conversation.

As for supervillain Balthazar Bratt, he is by far the most entertaining new addition. He has a very interesting backstory as a child star who suffered endless mockery in puberty, angering him to the point where he actually believed he was the supervillain he played on TV. His obsession with the 1980s ties into this, being when he was at his peak, and gives him an interesting array of gadgets, including a smoke bomb triggered by a self-solving Rubik’s Cube, and his habit of singing and dancing popular songs from the decade. Trey Parker is a perfect match for the character, as his voice acting makes him a very likable villain. However, viewers familiar with his previous work may recognize his distinct vocal range, which may make one very small twist in the middle of the movie less effective. I’ll also admit that my enjoyment of Trey Parker’s character may be informed at least somewhat from being a fan of his more adult-oriented collaborations with Matt Stone, including South Park, Team America: World Police and The Book of Mormon.

Trey Parker is entertaining as supervillain Balthazar Bratt.

As with other movies from Illumination, the animation is rather impressive, especially with their ability to make certain shots feel like they’re in 3D even though it’s a 2D print. However, while downplayed from previous installments, Despicable Me 3 still unnecessarily indulges in toilet humor every once in a while. Additionally, as more of an observation, it continues the trend of using Pharrell Williams for pop songs.

Despicable Me 3 is an immediate improvement over Minions, but still cannot completely recapture the magic of the original Despicable Me. Both the stellar animation and Trey Parker’s enjoyable take on a creative villain are not enough to balance out the film’s overabundance of diluted plots. While the ending somewhat overtly sets up a sequel, one can only wonder what direction a Despicable Me 4 could possibly go in. If you’re a fan of the Despicable Me series and can’t get enough of it, this is the movie for you. Alternatively, if you’re a fan of Trey Parker, you’re in for a great performance.

Back to the Future Part III

In honor of Trophy Unlocked’s fifth anniversary, we have decided to finish off the trilogy of re-reviews of the Back to the Future film series with a look at Part III. This movie was originally released in 1990, just one year after its more iconic predecessor, but filmed at the same time as Part II; both movies were then edited and released separately. Previously I had stated that Part II wasn’t as good as Part I, but still somewhat enjoyable. However, I couldn’t find myself feeling the same way with Part III.

Back to the Future Part III begins exactly where Part II left off: 1955 Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) had just sent Marty McFly from Part I (Michael J. Fox) back to 1985, but Marty shows up again almost immediately and tells Doc that he’s back from the future. The shock of this moment causes Doc Brown to faint. Doc Brown later wakes up in his house and Marty shows him the letter he had received from 1885 Doc Brown to prove that the events of Part II occurred. By following the instructions in the letter, Doc and Marty recover the DeLorean damaged during Part II in an abandoned mine so they can repair it and send Marty back to 1985, where the time machine is to be destroyed. However, Marty discovers a nearby tombstone that shows Doc Brown as having died within a week after the letter from 1885 was originally sent and 1955 Doc Brown helps to send Marty back to 1885 to prevent his temporal counterpart from receiving a fatal gunshot.

The tombstone which kicks off the plot.

While the story of Part II ended up being sillier than Part I, it seems that Part III manages to come up short even compared to the previous installment. For the most part, it seems to be going through the motions, resulting in an overall weaker story through even more repetition which, in some ways, mirrors the first movie. To wit: Marty goes back in time to prevent Doc Brown’s death and wakes up in a McFly residence after going unconscious somehow; Marty runs into a Tannen who later gets covered in manure; Doc and Marty come up with a plan to send Marty back to the future despite not having a proper fuel source and it pays off at the last possible millisecond. There are other little things as well, like constantly looking at a photograph to determine success with altering the timeline or Marty donning a fake name to blend in with the past and not screw up his ancestry, as well as the movie ending with the exact same shot from Part I, but with a train instead.

There are some elements which keep the movie from feeling completely like a carbon copy of the first installment, but they do little to alleviate how underwhelming it is. The most notable would be the introduction of Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), who serves as a love interest for Doc Brown and was the one who originally erected the tombstone discovered by Marty in 1955. While not a bad addition to the cast, she sadly doesn’t have much characterization apart from supposedly being a schoolteacher and sharing a love of Jules Verne with Doc Brown.

Of course, there are some questions that bugged me a little as I was watching the movie regarding certain bits of time travel logic. “Thinking fourth dimensionally” has been shown to be important to using the DeLorean, but as far as I know, this is the first time Doc ever mentioned it. If it really was that important, why wasn’t it mentioned to Marty in the previous movies? I guess it was at least a little more straightforward than Part II in any case. As for the “time train” at the end of the movie, why did Doc Brown make it in the first place if he was so hung up on time travel being far too dangerous after what happened with the DeLorean? Also, how was he even able to make it in the first place when he said that suitable replacement parts wouldn’t be available until 1947, 62 years after 1885? Was there a second DeLorean floating around when Marty showed up that Doc cannibalized and the movie couldn’t be bothered to tell us about? Outside of the time travel, why did Doc and Marty actually test out pulling the DeLorean with horses when they easily dismissed other means of acceleration later? It seems they just wanted that shot to be in the film somehow and just went for it.

How is Doc Brown able to do this in the old west?

It is interesting that they attempted to integrate the Western genre, more specifically the Spaghetti Western, into Back to the Future, complete with all of the trappings. Unfortunately, that only makes the execution more lackluster, as it feels rather silly to watch, especially when there’s a performance by ZZ Top in the movie where they play an original song. At the same time, the movie seems to have the problem of trying to be a prequel to every joke in Part I, including, but not limited to, Tannens being bad with colloquialisms, the origin of Principal Strickland’s heavy discipline and, naturally, the manure scene. This only bogs down the plot further, as these jokes start to feel a little old.

On the topic of the comedic aspect, I still thought Part III was funny, but not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as Parts I and II. Repetitions aside, the character interactions are still enjoyable and there are a couple funny science jokes here and there. Unfortunately, the franchise also veered a little more into the lowbrow humor this time around by having Marty’s great-grandfather, a baby in 1885, urinate on him. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but the scene could easily have been done without that joke. The same could be said for when Marty dodges a stagecoach and accidentally steps in a pile of horse manure while still wearing his Nikes. Again, the scene could still have occurred without resorting to the cheap laugh.

With all of that said, the movie is still well-acted for the most part. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd still have amazing onscreen chemistry as Marty McFly and Doc Brown respectively, which serves as a primary motivator to keep watching. Christopher Lloyd gets credit especially for being able to convincingly portray different versions of Doc Brown with different memories and worldviews. Michael J. Fox also gets the opportunity to finish off Marty’s character development from the previous movie and show the lesson that you shouldn’t let others get under your skin, as forced at it may have been into the story. Thomas F. Wilson is also good at being able to perform yet another Tannen, but with a more murderous personality.

Christopher Lloyd (left) and Michael J. Fox (right) are the best part of the movie.

Then there’s Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton and Elisabeth Shue returning as Jennifer Parker. Steenburgen shows some clear talent and she does have a good amount of screen time to show it off, but Clara unfortunately suffers from a lack of solid characterization. Elisabeth Shue has almost the opposite problem, with almost no time until the last 15 minutes or so to show off her acting skills and the movie being obviously unsure of what to do with Jennifer in the end.

I also found the special effects to be quite good. The DeLorean’s time travel effects are still great to look at, as are Doc’s Rube Goldberg machines. However, there are times where the green screen effects are a little obvious. Perhaps this is because of how far we’ve come with special effects these days, but this also results in the “time train” coming toward the screen at the last moment of the movie look far less convincing than the flying DeLorean at the end of Part I.

Before I conclude, I would like to mention some interesting trivia about Part III. One of the most notable incidents occurred behind the scenes. While filming the scene where Buford Tannen tries to hang Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox was nearly hanged for real, as his hands had slipped from under the noose while trying film shots where the actor’s face is visible. At first the crew thought it was good acting, but when it was noticed that he had passed out, he was taken down from the noose and resuscitated.

On a minor, but interesting, note, Ronald Reagan nearly played a minor role in Part III as mayor of 1885 Hill Valley. A former actor, he had actually been a fan of the films, enough to quote the original movie in one of his speeches. Robert Zemeckis thought it would be funny to have him in the movie and contacted Lew Wesserman, Reagan’s former agent, to contact him about the part. Though Reagan had actually considered the offer, he ultimately turned it down.

Then there are the connections between the movie and Clint Eastwood, apart from Marty assuming his name in 1885. The location where Part III was shot was actually the same one used to film Pale Rider (1985), starring Clint Eastwood (humorously enough, Back to the Future Part I outperformed Pale Rider at the box office). During the latter half of the movie, Marty is also seen wearing an outfit similar to what Clint Eastwood had been wearing in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and A Fistful of Dollars (1964). The scene where Marty is shot by Buford Tannen is also ripped from A Fistful of Dollars, where it is discovered that he had been protected by a cast iron plate on his chest. Observant viewers will notice that this was foreshadowed as early as Back to the Future Part II, where the aforementioned scene from A Fistful of Dollars, although different, is being viewed by 1985-A Biff Tannen.

The scene from A Fistful of Dollars as seen in Back to the Future Part II.

Overall, Back to the Future Part III is the weakest entry in the trilogy. The story is nearly a carbon copy of the original, the characters are a little underwhelming apart from Doc and Marty and the humor isn’t up to par with previous entries. Plus, the Western elements don’t seem to gel quite well with the rest of the film. This is alleviated somewhat by decent special effects, but that doesn’t completely save it, as even then errors can be spotted more easily by modern audiences. Its only purpose for existing is to round out the (largely unnecessary) trilogy created through the success of the original. It may be enjoyable by hardcore Back to the Future fans, but those seeking a good Sci-fi comedy or Spaghetti Western may find it underwhelming. Personally, I’d just stick with the original.

Back to the Future Part II

To continue our series of re-reviews of the Back to the Future trilogy, we’re going to cover Back to the Future Part II, released by Universal Studios in 1989. However, the timing of this review is also to commemorate a milestone, for if the posting has been timed right, it will be the exact date and time that Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrive in the future (or at least the future depicted in the movie): Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 4:29 PM. This exact date and time will only occur once, so what better way to celebrate it than by posting thoughts on the movie itself?

Back to the Future Part II begins exactly where Part I left off, where Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) is arriving at 1985 in the DeLorean to take Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Jennifer Parker (Elisabeth Shue) “back to the future” to prevent their future children from doing something disastrous. When they arrive in 2015, Jennifer is knocked out and Doc Brown gives Marty clothing to help him blend in, as well as specific instructions on what to do at Café ‘80s to prevent his (Marty’s) son from getting into trouble. Though the plan works, they later find out that an elderly Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) has stolen the DeLorean and used it to create a dystopian version of 1985, aka 1985-A, where his younger self is a multi-billionaire. Marty and Doc Brown must now figure out what exactly happened to cause this and use that knowledge to fix the timeline.

Behold, the proper day on the time machine.

Compared with the first movie, I felt that Part II was a bit sillier. While the movie has become more iconic over time for its unique vision of 2015, more on that later, it relies a little more on the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief than before. For instance, how is it that Marty wouldn’t have been able to hear or notice the DeLorean being stolen by an older Biff Tannen? How is it that in the return trip to 1955, no one notices the various things that Marty does even when logically he would be heard, such as the case of communicating with Doc Brown via walkie-talkie while in the back of 1955 Biff’s car? The plot in general also requires Doc and Marty to be very inattentive with the Delorean, as they so easily leave the door open, creating an opening for 2015 Biff to steal it in the first place. Because of the number of these moments that can pull someone out of the film, it’s pretty obvious at times that there wasn’t meant to be a sequel and the only way to cover it up is to go through several time hops. For that, I’d conclude that Part II just simply isn’t written as well as Part I, which had a much tighter and better thought-out script.

While this movie may not be as well-written, that doesn’t stop it from being funny, albeit not quite as laugh-out-loud funny. The jokes still aim for smart humor that doesn’t stoop to appealing to the lowest common denominator, save for maybe the repeat of the famous manure scene. Character interaction is still a great source of humor, especially when it’s between Doc and Marty or between the 2015 and 1955 Biff Tannens. As with Part I, the science jokes are pulled off well and the minimal swearing that exists is done in a humorous fashion.

I also wish to point out that the movie seems to like hitting a lot of the same notes from the original. These include Marty regaining consciousness in a McFly residence and being confused about his temporal location, a Biff Tannen being covered in manure, Mr. Sandman playing when visiting 1955 and Marty being chased by Biff and coming out on top. For that last one, I could see the repetition of the hoverboard chase being justified as both versions are in different time periods and feature Marty against different technology. Whether these repetitions in general are good or bad is up to you.

With that said, I have to commend the special effects during the revisit to 1955. The scenes that were reshot are generally pretty convincing replications and it was very interesting how they were able to incorporate multiple copies of Doc and Marty into the appropriate scenes. Though it’s not perfect, it does at least help to sell the idea that the Doc and Marty of Part II were running around during Part I as well. As for the effects in general, the time travel is still good to look at and the variations in the sets for Hill Valley are rather impressive. The effects are also good enough to sell the 2015 technology as plausible, so it’s no wonder an audience watching it at the time would’ve wanted their own hoverboard or self-lacing shoes (or “power laces” as Marty calls them).

I should talk about the movie’s time travel logic, which is still fairly consistent from Part I. However, it seems to work a little differently despite this. Doc Brown mentions that 1955 seems to be a very crucial point in history, as 2015 Biff’s tampering skewed the timeline to create an alternate 1985, dubbed 1985-A. The idea, then, is that by going back and stopping 1955 Biff from maintaining control over a future copy of Grays Sports Almanac, the timeline created by the events of Part I will be restored. In some ways it feels like it shouldn’t work that way, but you have to be able to gloss over any inconsistencies for the sake of the plot, tying back into how this installment further stretches willing suspension of disbelief.

Despite what I have said already about the quality of the writing, the movie is still well-acted. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd still have a great onscreen chemistry that sells the friendship between Marty McFly and Doc Brown. If nothing else, you’d want to watch Part II just to see them act. However, I find it a little odd that Marty was suddenly given a trait where he doesn’t like people calling him a coward. It does help to reinforce the message that you shouldn’t let your emotions get the better of you, and Fox incorporated it into the character in a believable way, but it still felt a little out-of-character in comparison to the first movie.

Michael J. Fox (left) and Christopher Lloyd's (right)
interactions are the best part of the movie.

Newcomer Elisabeth Shue also proved herself in the role of Jennifer Parker, playing her with more of an onscreen presence than Claudia Wells. In this way, she seems to be better suited as Jennifer, but it’s unfortunate that she doesn’t really get to do much of anything in the movie to show off her skill. It’s fairly obvious that the writers didn’t know what to do with Jennifer as a result. Thomas F. Wilson had his own challenge as well, having to play multiple versions of the same one-dimensional jerk, Biff Tannen. Though Tannen is still a pretty flat character, Wilson manages to succeed in at least making each version of the character feel a little different, such as having 2015 Biff be noticeably smarter than his younger 1955 self. The other returning actors play their roles in reshot scenes very well and sell the revisit fairly convincingly.

Elisabeth Shue (right) replaces Claudia Wells (left) in the role of Jennifer Parker.

Before I conclude, I would like to take this space to talk about the movie’s vision of 2015, more specifically the way 2015 has turned out in real life versus what’s depicted in the movie, at least at the time of this posting. For the sake of brevity, I won’t mention everything that was depicted, as there’s too much background detail to get into, but I will focus on a select number of items.

For non-technology matters, we first have the idea behind Café ‘80s. We don’t have such a location today for ‘80s nostalgia, but we do have a Café ‘50s, which covers nostalgia for the 1950s. While Café ‘80s in the movie can be seen as a cover for a lack of inventing 2015 culture, it does serve a purpose in suggesting that people would be very nostalgic for the ‘80s by this time. People in fact are, although interestingly some ‘90s nostalgia has been slowly creeping in.

In the background of 2015 Hill Valley, one can see a poster that says “Surf Vietnam.” In real life, it is not as unlikely for people to take a vacation in Vietnam; the inclusion of this in the movie was probably a joke relating to the fact that when it came out, 1989, we had just gotten out of Vietnam. On a different note, the fashion sense displayed in 2015 Hill Valley isn’t exactly the same as it is in real life. Some things are still around, like acid-washed jeans, but the film could not have predicted the various “hipster” trends that have cropped up and we certainly don’t wear hats like the one Marty Jr. wears. Part of the fashion sense in 2015 Hill Valley also included self-adjusting jackets, which we don’t have, and self-tying sneakers with power laces. While Nike did end up making shoes that look like those in the movie, they were a limited run that was auctioned off and they certainly didn’t have power laces.

One thing that certainly didn’t match up is the rate of inflation. Marty is depicted as purchasing a Pepsi Perfect drink at Café ‘80s for $50. While Pepsi has released a limited run of Pepsi Perfect for $20.15 (essentially regular Pepsi but in the Café ‘80s packaging), regular soft drinks can still be bought at a price of ~$1-2. One other particularly notable thing displayed in the movie is the Cubs supposedly winning the 2015 World Series in baseball. While the 2015 World Series has yet to occur at the time of this posting, the Cubs are participating in the 2015 National League Championship and are also the favorite to win the World Series, though they won’t be able to face Miami.

On the subject of technology, there are a number of things I can quickly get out of the way. While hydrators for fast meal prep are used in Marty’s future household, we do not yet have the technology in real life, though scientists have been working on 3D-printed food; Pizza Hut is still around. Cars in real life 2015 still run on fossil fuels and we have yet to create the Mr. Fusion technology; although Mr. Fusions do exist in real life, they are merely prop replicas. 3D movies are rather popular at the moment, being prominently advertised and integrated into newer television models. In that vein, widescreen TVs are pretty much standard and we do have the ability to watch multiple channels at once, but only through channel mixes where you can only hear one source at a time. We also do not have Jaws 19 in the theaters, but we do at least have an official faux trailer.

"The shark still looks fake."

Fax machines, though still used, have been all but phased out at this point, with texting and email taking its place. Landlines are still heavily used, but videophones haven’t really caught on, unless you count video chat through smart devices or other internet services such as Skype. Food kiosks like the ones shown in Café ‘80s are becoming more of a reality, with McDonald’s testing them in the US after finding success in the UK. Lastly, although we are capable of playing video games without a controller with such devices as Sony’s EyeToy and Microsoft’s Kinect, they haven’t really caught on as much as the companies had hoped and controller/mouse and keyboard use is still very predominant. And while we don’t have Doc Brown’s rear-view glasses, we do have Google Glass as well as the Oculus Rift and other such devices.

With those out of the way, I can mention the two biggest technologies shown in the movie, those being flying cars and hoverboards. Flying cars have been around for a while as a concept but at this point there are no consumer models. I found out there is a company called Terrafugia that is working on making one as the wave of the future, but they have yet to create something ready for purchase. I’m also aware of the idea of flying ambulances, but as far as I’m aware they’re also not ready for widespread use. As for hoverboards, which was introduced as a concept in this movie, models are being developed, but are still very much in the prototype stage. Lexus released a video about a fully functional super-conductor model they have created, but it only works within a specially designed skatepark that has magnetic rails built underneath. As such, it may be quite a long time before the public can get their hands on one. Until then, there are replicas of the Mattel hoverboard from the movie, but it could set you back a small fortune.

Back to the Future Part II, while iconic and somewhat enjoyable, isn’t quite as good as Part I. The characters may be well-acted, but the story has a looser plotline and requires more willing suspension of disbelief than before to work out. Often, it is very obvious that Part II wasn’t intended to exist. If you’re watching this unnecessary sequel for pure entertainment and can overlook the logical errors and inconsistencies, you’ll likely enjoy it. For others, the logical flaws could be enough to break the immersion, which is something that a good movie shouldn’t do. It’s fun to see the futuristic vision of 2015 from the perspective of 1989, but you’re otherwise better off sticking to the original film. Of course, the ending of Part II also contains a teaser reel for Part III, so if you watch it, you’re pretty much committed to finishing the trilogy anyway.

Back to the Future

As we continue forward through the years, there will always be new movies to entertain and appeal to a wide variety of interests, some more niche than others. Similarly, as Trophy Unlocked continues operations, we will strive to review whatever movie catches our eye and inspires us to not only view it, but write out our feelings about it. We’ve been doing our best to accomplish this goal for three years now, but back when it was solely updated by me, I had been pretty enthusiastic about the idea of reviewing. I still am and I love to write down how I feel about a given movie, game or comic, but the very early days of this blog are what I would consider my worst, since I had almost no idea of what I was doing and my writing style hadn’t begun to take shape just yet. That was how my second review became devoted to not just one, but three films all at once; you may know this as the Back to the Future trilogy. Looking back at how I went about it, I’m not entirely satisfied with my treatment of the franchise. My writing seems more amateurish compared to what it is now and I was, somewhat obviously, a much more hardcore reader of TV Tropes (side note: I still read TV Tropes, but I’ve saved my extensive reading periods moreso for after I’ve already seen/played/read something), which may have had a large influence on that earlier style. Now that my reviewing abilities have improved drastically, I’ve decided that for Trophy Unlocked’s third anniversary, I’m going to go back to the original Back to the Future movie and give it a more proper treatment. If you’re still on board, then let’s turn on the flux capacitor and set the time circuits for the year 1985, back when it was okay to like Robert Zemeckis.

Behind them, all hope Zemeckis had of remaking Yellow Submarine.

The year is 1985. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) lives with his family in Hill Valley, California. His family isn’t particularly ambitious, as his father, George McFly (Crispin Glover), works under an old bully named Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson); his mother, Lorraine Baines-McFly (Lea Thompson), is overweight and has a problem with drinking and smoking; and his siblings, Dave (Marc McClure) and Linda McFly (Wendie Jo Sperber), are on the lower end of the totem pole. The only thing Marty has to look forward to is his date with Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells), but unfortunately his plans are in jeopardy after Biff has nearly totaled George’s car and tries to get out of paying for the damages (in fact adding damage to his suit to George’s potential bill). As his life is falling apart around him, Marty delivers on a request made to him by Dr. Emmet “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd) to meet him at the Twin Pines mall at a particular time. There, Doc Brown shows Marty a time machine he created out of a DeLorean and has him help document its first test run; with his dog Einstein buckled into the front seat, Doc Brown’s experiment is a success. Things quickly turn sour, however, when Doc Brown reveals to Marty that the flux capacitor, which makes time travel possible, runs on plutonium, as well as how he obtained it by essentially stealing it from Libyan terrorists. Right on cue, after plutonium is placed into the DeLorean, the terrorists show up and gun down Doc Brown as an act of revenge. In a last ditch effort to save him, Marty manages to escape into the time machine, where he travels back into the year 1955, completely unaware as to what is about to happen to him over the course of a single week in the past.

Above: Where Marty ends up.
Below: Where Marty starts out.

This premise is actually pretty unique, at least for when the movie came out in 1985, and the execution turns out to be pretty well done. This film is first and foremost a comedy, but there’s a good amount of suspense to keep the viewer interested as Marty races to not only get back to 1985, but also undo everything he’s done wrong to alter the timeline from its original state (more on that later). The more serious moments play out in a surprisingly realistic way, helped by exposition brief enough to not only fill us in on how certain characters behave, but also not interrupt the natural flow of the story.

Back to the Future’s sense of humor is also of the variety that I prefer, which is to say that it is smart and doesn’t go for the cheap laugh. Much of this comes from how the characters interact with each other, coupled with perfectly timed responses, casual but somewhat restrained swearing and some science-related jokes which are accessible to a wider audience yet don’t make the speaker the butt of the joke. One particular gag may not seem to fit in with the smart humor, that being the famous manure scene, but its execution and the fact that it is merely one joke of many helps to really sell it and make it a classic moment.

While we’re still on the subject of the story, I’d like to add that though the movie is well done, I am aware of certain inconsistencies, plot holes and possibly questionable morals. However, I’m not going to really touch upon those because there are already like a million Cracked.com articles which cover these subjects extensively and I don’t want to come off as parroting their informally informative findings. Therefore, I suggest that you look to them for such info after reading the rest of this review.

For instance, a California license plate can't have eight characters.

To get back to the subject of the movie’s time travel logic, I found it to be very consistent with itself. Back to the Future’s logic works as such: As soon as you make any major change to the timeline, such as running into your own mother in the past and causing her to inadvertently become enamored with you, you’ve created a completely separate timeline. In other words, Marty started off in the unaltered Timeline A, but through all of his changes he has created the new Timeline B, which is what he experiences through the rest of the movie (and he can never go back to Timeline A even if he wanted to). To that end, they did a good job keeping true to this and showing how it all worked out in the end. This is helped by the many well-framed shots which display fully how different 1985 and 1955 are from each other in ways that seem like they’d fit with each time period; clearly the filmmakers really did their research. In fact, it becomes a sort of fun game to try and find all of the subtle changes made as a result of Marty’s adventures through the time stream once he inevitably gets back home.

One thing which must also be praised is the acting in Back to the Future. Michael J. Fox does a very good job as Marty McFly. His expressions and body language are enough to sell a teenager living in 1985 with a family as socially low-ranking as his. As a result, all of his actions and reactions come off more realistically and help him feel pretty relatable as well. Fox’s ability as an actor may waver between roles, but he plays the part so naturally that I can’t imagine any other actor playing Marty McFly on the silver screen. In a similar vein, Christopher Lloyd positively nails his role as Doc Brown. Lloyd brings a certain amount of energy to the part that I don’t think anyone else can replicate. Doc Brown is very enthusiastic about his work and is more than willing to share his discoveries with Marty. While we don’t know how the two exactly met, the two characters have perfect chemistry onscreen, also being good foils for each other’s personalities, to the point where their odd friendship is wholly believable.

Christopher Lloyd (left) and Michael J. Fox (right) have great chemistry.

The other actors are good for their respective roles as well. Crispin Glover manages to make George McFly a pretty embarrassing character to watch, though he does have a couple well-timed moments of humor, and Thomas F. Wilson’s Biff Tannen is pretty imposing as a bully. While Claudia Wells is known for her part as the original Jennifer Parker, she doesn’t really do much in the film despite having some solid acting ability (it’s possible the writers didn’t know what to do with the character). Unfortunately she hasn’t appeared in any Back to the Future film since, as she was unavailable for the sequels, but due to my visits to Comic-Con, I’m aware that she hits the convention circuit, offering autographs in exchange for money (whether or not the autograph is worth a trip is up to you).

Also notable are the music and effects. I felt that, apart from the good score by Alan Silvestri, the music was chosen rather well. The placement of Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes is well-chosen and Earth Angel by The Penguins works for the time period (incidentally, both songs were released in 1954, so it would be believable for those songs to be used in a 1955 setting). While Earth Angel and Johnny B. Goode, the latter of which is by Chuck Berry, are covered well in the film by the in-universe Marvin Berry and The Starlighters (with Marty filling in on guitar), the most interesting songs to me are the original songs by Huey Louis and the News; The Power of Love and Back in Time. The former captures the romantic portion of the film quite well, though it is the latter that I associate the most heavily with Back to the Future due to its use in capping off the events of the film; In a way, I feel that any experience with the franchise is complete if it features this song.

Marty McFly in the process of inventing Johnny B. Goode.

As for the effects, they hold up surprisingly well. The visuals used for the time travel are very fitting and all of the practical effects related to the DeLorean are very rightfully iconic. It’s easy to get lost in the detail on the time circuits and the way the flux capacitor looks is always fascinating in its simplicity. While I’m sure some aging stands out more for some, there is one particular effect that doesn’t really look good when I see it and that’s when Marty watches his hand disappear while playing Johnny B. Goode. It sort of just looks like a third arm suddenly appeared in front of his body thanks to the very awkward rendering of the moment.

When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shit!

Back to the Future is an example of a movie where all of the right elements came together in just the right way. The story is well-written, despite spawning a ton of Cracked.com articles, the chemistry between the characters is believable and the music and effects are done brilliantly. While there may be a problem here and there, these don’t ever detract from the experience and each subsequent viewing is still worth going through. Though a bit dated, this film is an instant classic that should be viewed by anyone curious about 80’s pop culture.

Despicable Me 2

It seems that every year now I see trailers and ads for movies that are either sequels or reboots for existing franchises, usually to be released in the summer; if it's not in these categories, these same trailers and ads often give me something to groan about regardless. In 2013's sea of reboots and sequels, there are some movies that I know I am going to see, but there are only a few that I'm legitimately excited for, one of them being Despicable Me 2. I liked the original Despicable Me when I first saw it in theaters as well as later on DVD and when I saw advertising for the sequel, I became more optimistic about how it would turn out. Seeing it on its release day felt like something which had to be done, and walking away from it I feel glad that I did, though it was a little different than what I expected (in a mostly positive sense).

Following the events of Despicable Me, a secret research base in the Arctic Circle is stolen out of the blue by a mysterious villain with a giant magnet. In response, the Anti-Villain League, an organization that does what you probably think they do, sends agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) to bring Gru (Steve Carell) to their base for briefing. After he is forcibly abducted, Gru at first rejects, and later accepts, a mission to act as an undercover spy to locate the one responsible for the theft of the Arctic base, as it contained a valuable experimental fluid which mutates those injected with it. As Gru goes undercover in a shopping mall, since the culprit works there, he also finds out that he's beginning to fall for Lucy, his partner on the job.

The hot-blooded Lucy Wilde, voiced by Kristen Wiig.

In terms of execution, Despicable Me 2 is pretty good and manages to tell a solid story from beginning to end. While the ending does a nice job of wrapping everything up, I found that the movie was more ambitious than the original, as it introduced quite a few plot threads, not all of which lead somewhere. For instance, Edith (Dana Gaier) seems to have some ninja thing going on, as she carries a sword at least twice in the movie, but we never learn anything more than what is implied. Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) also has a relationship with a boy named Antonio Perez (Moisés Arias), though their time together is pretty much there merely to establish the kind of father that Gru has become, possibly as a result of his rather tragic childhood. There are probably some others that I'm not thinking of at the moment, though my point remains. A couple of twists from the movie could also be predicted thanks to the context of some of the plot threads, which I won't go into due to spoilers. I also thought it was interesting that literally everyone who worked on the previous movie came back, though I'm not sure why they felt they needed Kristen Wiig again; Lucy seems to be included just so they could have a reason to bring her back for another go.

The humor in Despicable Me 2 is also very good, with plenty of moments that had me laughing out loud in the theater. However, it still has its fair share of crude humor, which is something I think more and more "children's" films need to get away from. The first five minutes have a joke involving a guy in a port-a-potty and the fart gun from the first movie has a more prominent role, which means the one fart joke that was actually funny gets old after it's used in, of all things, a 21 gun salute. Despite this, I think they still managed to nail the humor that works and any future movies Illumination makes should focus on that smart humor and stray further away from appealing to what kids stereotypically find funny. The antics from the Minions that occur during the end credits were also very amusing.

Gru's Minions continue to impress.

As for the animation, the quality is mostly the same, though there are some scenes that are done rather impressively and show some sense of improvement. For example, there is a scene, which is longer than what is seen in the trailers, where Lucy is driving her car underwater after is has converted to another mode. Other effects that impressed were realistic glare off shiny objects, thankfully not overused, and reflections off certain surfaces. This attention to detail, which includes paying attention to continuity on a particular object near the end, is what I always appreciate from studios that put the effort into it. I also don't really have complaints about the character designs, but I didn't really need to see their advanced chest hair rendering for one overly long scene.

Voice acting is as good as the previous movie, since the actors manage to fit the roles of their characters pretty well. Steve Carell still impresses as Gru and even though I didn't think they really needed to bring back Kristen Wiig, I admit that she still managed a solid performance. The music by Pharrell Williams and Heitor Pereira is also still pretty good and fits well at the right moments, though some of it is recycled from before, most noticeably the "Fun, Fun, Fun" song.

While Despicable Me 2 is a good film, even as a sequel, I honestly am not sure how to feel about it when comparing it to the first one. It's more ambitious with its more adult themes (relationships), but this ambition leads to a few plot threads not really leading anywhere and some crude humor that doesn't really belong. The individual elements continue to impress, but it is perhaps a little more mishandled than the original, but I don't mean to knock the quality by saying this. The film is great for fans of Despicable Me, as well as families looking for a good time. I liked going back to this world and its characters, but now I'm a little more worried as to how they'll be able to do a movie centered entirely around the Minions. I suppose only time will really tell on that one.

Battleship - Miss

Everyone knows what Battleship is. It's a game where you and another player set up ships on a grid and each one calls out coordinates to try and sink the most ships first. It started out in the 30's as a pad-and-pencil game, but since its release as a full-on board game by Milton-Bradley, Battleship has become somewhat of a household name in the board game community ("You sunk my Battleship!" should be a familiar phrase to you at this point). So naturally, after successful forays in adapting action figures into movies (financially at least), it was decided to begin adapting Hasbro's various board game lines, Battleship starting things off (I'm guessing that Candy Land will be getting a movie at some point). Now reviews of this movie haven't exactly been that great, but after recently viewing another movie based on a line of action figures, I decided I might as well give this one a shot. The result? Well, surprisingly, this movie was actually better than I was expecting it to be, but it's most definitely not a hit.

Upon discovering a planet similar to Earth, dubbed Planet-G, NASA sends out a signal in the hopes of being able to communicate with an alien life form (three guesses as to what happens later as a result). While this is going on, Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) is trying to impress a girl at a bar, Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker), by returning with a chicken burrito from a nearby convenience store within 5 minutes. However, as the store is just closing when he arrives, he resorts to a hi-jinks-induced break-in that results in his arrest. Upon waking up in an icy bathtub after a severe tazing from the police, Alex's older brother, Stone, (Alexander Skarsgård) tells him to join the Navy to get his act together. The plot that follows gets a tad predictable at times for those that have seen enough blockbuster films, but manages to muscle through to the end.

Like I said, the plot can get a bit predictable and slow at times, but one of the bigger questions is why they decided aliens were necessary to try and recreate the board game this movie takes inspiration from. Then again, this was probably so as not to offend any particular nation, so I guess this decision wasn't too much of a loss. What I can say however is that, like in the case of Super Mario Bros., this movie can actually get pretty clever. The primary weapons that the aliens use are explosives, which actually look and function much like the familiar pegs in the board game, and there's a sequence near the end that actually recreates the game board, with military language being used to call out shots. (Don't worry about the catch phrase appearing in the movie; a character in the last act actually delivers a nice variation of it.) While these scenes are nice to have to remind the audience why it carries the Battleship name, they are few and far between and only serve to make the naval battles the most exciting part of the feature.

Cora Raikes (Rihanna) and Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) witnessing the
surfacing of what will be their enemy for the next hour or so.

The acting of this feature isn't awful, but it is competent as the actors work with the dialogue they are given (this includes the surprise casting choice of singer Rihanna as a main character). Admittedly, a few things did make me chuckle, but this movie is not exactly a laugh riot. On the plus side of things, the music was good, bringing a sense of dread at times to the actions of the aliens and making the naval battles a little more epic. The effects are also amazing, given they were done by Industrial Light and Magic, the quality of which lead me to actually believe that the first ad I was seeing was for another Transformers movie (and believe me, you will be thinking of Transformers a few times while watching this film).

As a whole, Battleship was surprisingly decent for a movie based on a children's board game, but it does have its flaws. As far as plot goes, the most exciting parts are when it actually pretends that it's a board game, but you must tread through a rather predictable story in order to get to these parts. In any case, while the movie misses the shot, it doesn't miss completely and it's worth viewing at least once for fans of live-action movies based on Hasbro board games.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Why Haven't You Seen This Movie Yet?

If you were to ask me what my favorite movie of all time was, chances are that I would bring up The Avengers or even Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (my second favorite movie by the way) during the conversation. However, the most immediate answer would be Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a true gem from 2010 that worked its way into that slot as soon as the movie ended in the theater. While this was based on the graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley, I had not read any of its six issues before that fateful screening, but I did read it after the fact and enjoyed it all the same. For this review though, I'd like to forgo trying to compare this adaptation to the source, since they both go in pretty different directions while covering the same events, and instead look at this movie on its own merits. I'll try as hard I can not to gush, but after two years and multiple viewings, I find it hard not to like anything about this film.

You've heard this story before right, the story of boy meets girl? How about this then: In the mysterious land of Toronto, Canada, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meets a 17-year-old girl named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), whom he shares a nice stable relationship with, even letting her attend rehearsals for the band Sex Bob-omb, in which he plays Bass. One night in a dream however, he sees a mysterious girl and begins to obsess over her. He sees her at a library and then later at a party, thanks in part to a vague squiggle being correctly interpreted as an American named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). After learning what her job is, he orders a package for her to deliver, asking her to hang out after she comes to the door. The two of them hit it off and Scott invites Ramona to a battle of the bands performance, where his band will play against Crash and the Boys. While Sex Bob-omb is on stage though, a man named Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) attacks Scott as part of a bigger plot to eliminate him and control Ramona's sex life. Now, as Scott tries to defeat Ramona's seven evil exes, his relationships and his love life will be tested and his past comes back to haunt him.

The execution of this story is one of the reasons why it sits comfortably at the top of my personal list. While the events of the graphic novel are distilled in a way that suits the big screen, it still works incredibly well on its own. As more of Ramona's exes are defeated by way of bursting into coins, Scott and Ramona's pasts are explored at a pace that allows the audience to absorb the information in the best way possible. Nothing feels out of place or shoehorned in and there is certainly no filler; every bit of information and every major character is important in some way. The exposition feels more natural and the characters truly learn from their mistakes and experiences, creating proper character progression and development. By the end I felt satisfied with the story, especially how the ending (which I won't spoil) ties up every loose end and what road Scott decides to travel down next. While the first half hour may make newcomers wonder what makes Scott Pilgrim Scott Pilgrim, the arrival of Matthew Patel is where the movie really shifts gears and cranks the real essence beyond full blast.

This essence consists of both action and humor, which this movie blends together like peanut butter and chocolate. Action scenes featuring the evil exes are very creative, highlighting the individual skills of each villain and exploiting them when possible. While the close quarters combat Scott often engages in has some impressive choreography, the creativity shines through in such instances as the third evil ex, a bassist named Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), engaging in an epic bass battle with Scott while assisted by the psychic powers his vegan diet provides. Then there's the second evil ex, Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), a professional actor and skater with his own label, who fights Scott with incredible physical prowess as well as his stunt doubles. One more highlight would have to be the Ken and Kyle Katayanagi, aka the Katayanagi Twins (Shota and Keita Saito), who engage in another battle of the bands competition against Sex Bob-omb, using music as a weapon between stages to the point where a twin-headed dragon and a yeti made of sound are summoned to duke it out. I could easily go into more detail on what makes each battle so awesome to watch, but to do so would ruin some of the fun of watching them for yourselves. These fights go over-the-top to the point where you just want to yell in excitement and occasionally laugh.

Speaking of laughter, the humor of Scott Pilgrim is one of the very things this movie gets right. It is pitch perfect and timed without a moment of hesitation. There is not a single inappropriate moment, yet it is virtually nonstop even at the end. This movie simply refuses to let up, though what probably helps is how much of the humor is taken straight from the graphic novel (ie. almost all of it). Some of these moments involve Scott's self-centered attitude at the beginning of the film, played for laughs of course, but in this case it's also how everyone reacts to him, particularly his roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin). Comments about his past life and how he tries to juggle two girls for a bit are sprinkled throughout and the ways he reacts to both girls are absolutely priceless; in what other movie would you see a 20-something hide by jumping out a window and casually walking away? The behavior of the exes can also be very funny, including Matthew Patel activating his supernatural powers via a Bollywood dance number and numerous moments of the exes questioning exactly how much Scott knows, or remembers, about the League of Evil Exes.

What I like best about the movie however would probably be its unique visual style. Everything is constructed just so in order to have it resemble a living, breathing graphic novel. The looks of the characters and the environments are exactly what it would all look like in real life and takes almost no liberties in that department. Special effects are rendered in a way that styles of comics and video games collide into a world where video game physics are the norm and there is visible pixelation in the appropriate scenarios. Then there's the fact that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has the honor of the only movie in the world to have written sound effects that sometimes have a physical presence. This helps to set up a world that the filmmakers never fail to stay true to. In that case, this could arguably be considered a more accurate adaptation of a comic book than any other comic book movie (if only for that small detail), as well as the greatest video game movie of all time (that isn't based on a video game).

Then there's the music, which is important to both the original source and the movie. It's mostly original stuff, but there isn't a song from there that I wouldn't listen to again. Most of it is available on the soundtrack, which you should be buying right now, with some highlights as any song by Sex Bob-omb and the version of Ramona performed by Beck. Heck, Clash at Demonhead, in the movie at least, even performs a pop song better than any modern artist on the market. The songs and fight music all help make every moment all the more memorable and bring the right amount of emotion or energy to a scene.

But who could forget the characters themselves, specifically the actors who play them? Michael Cera does an excellent job portraying the title character by bringing forth his aloofness and making his character development seem more real. Ellen Wong is cute as Knives Chau and displays her believably, while Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the perfect choice for Ramona Flowers; I can understand why Scott would want her. Kieran Culkin helps Wallace Wells be as humorous as possible, bringing a lightheartedness to absolutely any scene he's in. He could almost steal the show as Scott's roommate, but is good enough to not take away the spotlight and keep it more focused on our main character. The other supporting characters and the exes are cast perfectly and resemble the characters physically, but in a way that this is what they would look like in real life. Their interactions are given the depth of the actors' talents and every character feels different thanks to their personalities being illustrated to the fullest onscreen.

As a movie on its own, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World gives me every reason to want to watch it over and over again. It's awesome, emotional, funny and gives us a world resembling comics and video games. Though it's now more of a cult classic, thanks to initially running against The Expendables, it's a movie that I would recommend to everyone I meet; it just has to be seen to understand why anyone who watches it has a smile on their face. If you have the DVD, be sure to also watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation, an animated short that faithfully adapts part of the graphic novel in its original style which explains why Kim feels cold towards Scott Pilgrim during the movie. If you're curious by now about what Scott Pilgrim is like and have your finger hovering over your mouse to purchase the original source, I would suggest you do so only after viewing this; it's better to go in with no expectations.