The trailer for Scott Pilgrim, an upcoming movie directed by Edgar Wright, generated a lot of excitement when it released last week. Based on a comic book filled with over-the-top action and video game elements, many wondered how the film could possibly stay true to the source material. Edgar Wright put those worries to rest by completely embracing the exaggerated fight scenes and imagery, working the trappings of comic books directly into the film. The result appears to be a comic book movie unlike nearly any other.

Part of that novelty comes from Wright’s decision not to tone down the fight scenes. In the trailer we see the titular character sent sprawling by brutal punches, flung hundreds of feet into a castle tower, and slammed into a roof by an uppercut. He also gives as good as he gets, blocking a flying punch with his wrist, stopping his opponent dead in the air in order to deliver a brutal haymaker. These fantastic scenes, increasingly common since The Matrix, are enhanced even further by the sound effects and action lines that are pulled straight from the comics. Huge, dramatic words appear as part of the environment, occasionally interacting directly with the actors, as when Scott’s head shatters an on screen ‘SMAK!’

Visual sound effects and action lines are used in comics because of the medium’s static and silent nature. They aren’t needed in a film, but their presence in Scott Pilgrim manages to emphasize and enhance the fantastic elements without looking cheesy. It’s an impressive feat, and one that is rare in film. While many modern films use similar effects to weave their credits into the on-screen action, once the last name fades the visual typography and design are never seen again. If it is, it’s used as an overlay or a freeze frame, distinctly separate from the actors and sets. Very few films embrace visualized design as strongly as Scott Pilgrim.

Fight Club, a movie that experimented in a number of ways, uses the effect well in one particular scene. As the narrator describes the emptiness of his modern life the camera pans through his apartment as it fills up with Ikea-esque furniture, complete with catalog descriptions hovering nearby that the narrator walks between. It’s a quick and subtle use of the technique, but helps emphasize the materialistic life he is living.

Perhaps the most pervasive and effective instances of visualized design occur in the Will Ferrell film Stranger Than Fiction. The movie follows Harold Crick, a man with an extraordinary talent for numbers whose life is being narrated, and perhaps controlled, by an author. Many scenes throughout the movie, particularly in the beginning, visualize Harold’s mental processes as graphics and text that become part of his environment. Lines, numbers, charts and icons fill the air as he knots his tie, counts the steps to work, or estimates the remaining soap in a dispenser. The well-executed effects establish, perhaps better than the acting or narration, that Harold projects an infographic onto the world around him.

As a graphic designer it’s always exciting to see design and text incorporated so deeply into a film that it becomes a part of the environment. If Scott Pilgrim succeeds hopefully it will encourage other directors to use similar techniques. In the right film it can enhance a story or scene beyond the limits of reality.

(Scott Pilgrim trailer, Edgar Wright’s blog, Scott Pilgrim comics)