Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Release date: August 13, 2010
Director: Edgar Wright
Graphic Novel Series by: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Screenplay by: Edgar Wright, Michael Bacall
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Ellen Wong, Alison Pill, Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Satya Bhabha, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Mae Whitman, Shota Saito, Keita Saito, Jason Schwartzman

I’m sure that most ended up watching Scott Pilgrim vs. The World because the trailer reminded them of old-school video games and looked visually amazing. You can’t deny that. Or maybe you watched this because you’re a fan of Michael Cera. Anyways, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an action/comedy/romance film based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, created by Bryan Lee O’Malley, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz), and starring Michael Cera as the main character.

Right off the bat, the Universal logo and theme is 8-bit, giving you a Nintendo feel (many VG references here). And then we’re introduced to Scott Pilgrim (Cera).  He’s a Canadian musician who plays the bass in his band, Sex Bob-omb. He lives in Toronto with his gay friend Wallace (Culkin). Once he started dating high school girl Knives Chau (Wong), American delivery girl Ramona Flowers (Winstead) comes into his life. Scott falls in love with her. He has trouble trying to break up with Knives, but he tries to seduce Ramona at the same time. They hang out, talk and make out, but if he wants to date her he’ll have to defeat her “7 evil exes” (three of them played by Brandon Routh, Chris Evans and Jason Schwartzman). That sounds video game-esque and it is a pretty fucked up condition in order to get a date and a girlfriend (plus juggling two women and avoiding getting killed off by the exes), but Scott does it anyways because he’s in “lesbians” with Ramona.

It’s kind of hard for me to decide if I liked this or not. It can be either an awesome film or a very stupid one. On one hand, it’s flashy, fast-paced, visually amazing. It is captivating, has great fighting scenes for the most part and pays tribute to video games that I enjoyed playing. On the other hand, Michael Cera is annoying here, but he’s doing his usual hipster routine and the Scott Pilgrim character is pretty much a dick. And there isn’t much character development here, but the main drawing aspect of the film is the video game feel. And you might feel burned out halfway through the film because watching Scott fight seven exes can get tiresome. And it’s like an A.D.D. type of film, but at times the main storyline dragged.

If I had to pinpoint the best part of this movie, visual effects and video games references aside, it would have to be the film’s soundtrack and the other cast members, especially Kieran Culkin. In the graphic novel you see and learn more from the other characters, and it’s a given that you can’t showcase them a lot since the main storyline is about Scott fighting for Ramona’s love. But they seemed far more interesting than the main character and Culkin is pretty much a great scene-stealer.

This is not a film for everyone. It is kind of similar with the Kick-Ass film in style and genre, but I enjoyed Kick-Ass more than Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

PS: This film made me hate Michael Cera even more than I did before.

Rodrigo

YAM Magazine contributor, has a B. Sc. degree in Science/Pharmacy and is a very lazy person.

10 Responses

  1. amy says:

    Pilgrim is a very hard film to watch because you’re constantly reminded how crappy Michael Cera is throughout the whole movie, which sucks because the film requires you to root for Pilgrim to get the girl he likes.

    Though your comparison with Kick Ass is fair, I think the only highlight for me in that one was Hit Girl. The visual eye candy on this one was too much xD

    • Rodrigo says:

      @amy, Yeah. I really wanted to enjoy the film, but Cera was a big problem. I did said that the Scott Pilgrim character was a dick. But I can enjoy unlikeable characters. Cera is not only boring, but he tries too hard to be hip.

  2. Castor says:

    I was pumped to finally get this on netflix a couple months ago after hearing such grand praise of the movie. So that left quite disappointed with the final product. I was really quite bored and I thought the movie was bland, repetitive and annoying (thanks in great part to Cera)

  3. Julili says:

    Yet you gave the movie a decent rating, why?

    • Rodrigo says:

      @Julili, It’s decent despite having Cera on it, the only problem is Cera for a big part of the film. Everything else in Pilgrim ranges from good to amazing. I nearly lowered my rating more than I already did, lol.

    • amy says:

      @Julili, without Cera – Pilgrim could reach 3.75 or maybe hit 4’s territory. As a designer, blown away by all the graphics that was going on throughout the film.

      I think Culkin and Kendrick might be the best thing in the film ;D

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