Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

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Few films have filled me with equal amounts of anticipation and dread as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The anticipation came from the marriage of an intriguing premise and a director that had shown immense promise through having a hand in some of the best comedy of the past 10 years. On the other hand, the over-the-top style and hipper-than-thou vibes looked to be a double-edged sword that could bring the whole thing crashing down in bright computer-generated flames.

Let's get the plot out of the way - for those who haven't heard anything at all about this, the titular character is an unemployed musician living in Toronto who ends up meeting the girl of his dreams one night. As he gets involved with her, he discovers that she has a hell of a past - she's left behind "seven evil exes". For no adequately explained (or particularly necessary) reason, they each come after Scott and engage him in ludicrously over-the-top battles. In between fights, Scott still has to deal with the various ups and downs of his relationship and how it affects the rest of his life.

Right, let's move on the film proper - well, those feelings I mentioned in the first paragraph? By and large justified in both respects. On the good side, stylistically the film is sublime. Despite having never read the source comics, I still enjoyed the film's heavy-handed usage of comic-book conventions such as visible sound effects, split-screen panels...the works. That's going without mentioning the copious references to videogames, whether it's the subtle use of sounds from other games or the blatant references to such things as getting lives or winning points. The visual effects are also top-notch, going above and beyond expectations with colourful clashes and blistering battles. If nothing else, Scott Pilgrim looks a million dollars.

Now comes the bit where I follow up a paragraph full of earnest praise with a little bit of honest criticism...while the film is great visually, I'm not really a fan of everything else about the film. Michael Cera does his usual "awkward goofiness" schtick, while most of the other cast deliver undemanding deadpan performances. On the other hand, the hamminess of the exes comes close to making up for it it.While I don't deny that these different styles genuinely fit in the right sequences, sometimes it gels and sometimes it doesn't. The same goes for some of the references that the film tries to jam in, especially one scene that parodies a certain popular sitcom that really isn't quite as funny as it should be. I could probably rattle off a list of the stuff that falls flat, but I'd probably have to list the stuff that didn't as well, so the non-action sequences are something of a mixed bag for myself.

If you're familiar with any of Wright's other work, this will definitely amuse you to one degree or another. If you're not, well, I daresay all the promotional materials give you the right idea - it's a fairly lightweight romantic comedy plot wrapped in a few layers of unbelievable fantasy and cooked to a crisp. Ultimately it suffers from one very extreme case of style over substance, but what a style it is. Definitely worth seeing in theatres, if nowhere else.




Sounds like the kind of flick I will most likely enjoy. Thanks Iro.
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Thanks for this man.

It's middling on Metacritic right now unfortunately. Not that many reviews yet though. We'll have to wait and see.
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Good stuff, Iro.
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28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
I had to give up my advance tickets to this (which was two weeks ago) because I was on vacation.
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Loved it. Gonna see it again tomorrow.
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scott pilgrim vs the world 2010



edgar wright turns 6 long graphic novels into a less than two hour movie, with time to spare. While at blazing speeds it may feel hard to view the interior, it's indeed finely crafted, bursting with comedic wit and glorious showdowns.

the plot is a play on super mario bros (and a million others). Beat the bosses, save the girl. With jason schwartzman as bowser and michael cera as a lazy, sleazy mario. All of which happens in this hybrid video-game / comic book world.

cera is playing his usual role, but this one's more of an *******, and lazy, and a fighting master. I don't think the cera in juno was very likely to pull as many counter hits and combos as this one. This world is full of characters though and it would take me too long to evaluate all 100 performances, i'll just say whether they're a face or a big time character they get the job done. What may rub people the wrong way is how unappealing to the audience scott's love romana is. She's hot i guess. Even scott has doubts.

this is over everything an action movie though and it delivers there. Each fight is vastly different than the last, with tons of stuff bound to get destroyed. Just when you think you've seen it all, a battle of the bands turns into a giant monster brawl. Even tom jane lends a hand in the ass kicking.

from the hyper 8 bit soundtrack to the black info box's, wright is still a director who never leaves a frame behind. Like all of his work, scott pilgrim vs the world is hilare, detailed, brutal, and entertaining as hell.



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Yall really like it that much, eh? I think I'll have to check it out as well...



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Nevermind TUS, I doubt you're missing much.
Yeah, this is going to be total crap compared to the upcoming masterpiece that is Going The Distance.



I've never declared that Drew's films are masterpieces, just that I'll see them so long as she's making them.

For me, this is a film featuring Michael Cera (so I'm already put off) directed by a guy who's previous work I didn't care for (Edgar Wright). It's premise sounds goofy, but that's not a bad thing and, with different people involved, I may've taken a look at it.



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This is a difficult film to review, because, while I watched it, I was trying to dislike it and ended up liking it.

Mainly, I want to criticize it for its shallowness, but I think, in many ways, it's an implied critique of that shallowness, and works wonderfully on that level. Life is precisely NOT a videogame, the film warns.

One visual that worked spectacularly was the first kiss between Scott and Ramona. I also appreciated the closing visual, which I thought was beautifully done.

The rest was somewhat average, albeit much more clever devious than your normal comedy in attempting to subvert action/drama film tropes themselves. The numerous references to the film industry are made in jest, but one has to wonder if this is not part of some hipster "ideology" about film like Juno and Scott Pilgrim---a.k.a. films with Michael Cera---as being inherently different or better than other films. SP is a hipster film by all means and stresses its music as "good music", music being the formative force behind hipsterism itself.

Perhaps this ultra-ironic action film loaded with "good music" is really the way we are meant to enjoy action films, Scott Pilgrim says.

What does it say about romance and baggage? Merely a fair, post-ironic warning about the jealousy and resentment love can cause between people. In other words, not much, and even if there was more, none of the characters are capable of being uncool enough to show it.

6.0/10



I went into viewing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World with not many expectations and came out with a little more than what I went into the film with. The action scenes were a bit far fetched and silly, but I imagine that is what it was suppose to be. The big surprise was the great soundtrack that came along with the film. This helped me through the shallow story and just plain old absurd action.

5/10



\m/ Fade To Black \m/
I loved this film


For those of you who liked this film the soundtrack is also great
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Movies made for the current generation like Scott Pilgrim Vs the World and Kick-Ass are not doing well in the box office, it makes me sad. I really think movies like these should do better at the box office but the audience that it's made for doesn't pay for anything. Illegal downloading is making a big difference with these movies. I feel that if you are going to download any movies illegally (nobody can stop you) you should be legally blight by law to go to the theater and watch at least two movies that you like.

Now i am not saying i don't download but i go to the theater more, and also buy the DVD releases, i have no problem paying to see any movie and if it's a movie i like i will pay to watch it again. I am going to watch the Last Exorcism again later this evening.
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the audience that it's made for doesn't pay for anything. Illegal downloading is making a big difference with these movies.
Oi... can't really get around this one!



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I paid to see both Scott Pilgrim and Kick-Ass and I fit into the target demographic for both movies. I don't download movies for two reasons. First, it takes too much effort (wasting time and bandwidth by searching and downloading) for too little reward (like some low-quality filmed-in-a-cinema piece of crap). Second, because if I don't consider a movie worth paying for (especially a meager $6, which I paid for both the aforementioned movies) then it probably isn't worth it.



Not drawing the similarities between Kick Ass and Scott Pilgrim .... but uhhhh (comic adaptations ?). I wish I could download Scott Pilgrim, that'd be nice.



Great reviews by all. I think i'm going to bite the bullet and see this on the weekend (think it comes out Friday, not so sure). I was reading Empire's review of it and it said that it's perfectly ok to make video game films, as long as it's not based on an actual video game. Thought it was a pretty funny thing to say, heh.