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Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010)

Time Out rating

Average user rating

17 reviews

Synopsis

The first American offering from British great-white-hope Edgar Wright which sees Michael Cera having to earn the right to date his new girlfriend by defeating her seven evil exes.

Movie review

From Time Out London

‘Scott Pilgrim vs the World’ might be a US studio movie and have cost more than three times the combined budgets of ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’, but for British director Edgar Wright it’s no huge leap from ‘Spaced’, the ’90s TV series which made his name, to this. Like ‘Spaced’, ‘Scott Pilgrim’ trades in the messy lives of twentysomething slackers and springs from the world of the comic book. The characters in ‘Spaced’ often felt like they tripped off the pages of a graphic novel (and Simon Pegg’s Tim was a fledgling comic artist), while the original Scott Pilgrim was the hero of a six-volume Canadian comic-book series published between 2004 and this year.

‘Scott Pilgrim’ also has a similar relationship to realism and fantasy as ‘Spaced’: what we get are down-to-earth observations on everyday lives explained with wild flights of visual and narrative fancy, with plenty of nods to films and TV shows, loud music and daring edits.
Whether you like or just admire ‘Scott Pilgrim’ will probably rest with how you feel about Scott, as played by Hollywood’s favourite nerd, Michael Cera. Scott is the 22-year-old jobless bass player in a garage band called Sex Bob-omb and is the kind of role that Cera regularly plays. But he’s also likeable, adorable at times, and free of the super-cool jive-talking that mars films like ‘Juno’. He’s self-centred and emotionally childish, but no more, we think, than most of us, and we enjoy the company of his friends, especially his vicious gay flatmate (Kieran Culkin). It means that when the frosty, unreachable Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) enters his life and he gives his try-hard younger girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) the brush-off, we’re running along with him.

Which is handy because most of the film invites us to take a trip in Scott’s head, a place heavily influenced by computer games.Ramona warns that he’ll have to defeat her seven evil exes before they can get together – a classic gaming challenge – but the way the film flows between dream and reality, straight drama and crazy flourishes, makes it clear that it’s mostly happening in Scott’s mind.

And so the seven battles come one by one, complete with on-screen point scoring like an arcade game. Two fights stand out: Scott’s showdown with Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), a film star making a movie in Toronto, and his dispersal of a vegan rock star (Brandon Routh). The later battles are a bit less engaging, and it’s a relief when one of Scott’s adversaries turns out to be two: a pair of twins.

‘Scott Pilgrim’ feels like ‘Ghost World’ in its honouring of young people with spikey, interesting personalities. There are hints of Woody Allen in its navel-gazing. And there’s a dash of ‘The Matrix’ in its sneaky affection for pyrotechnics. It could have been a noisy, flashy mess, but luckily it’s got heart, which makes it feel fun and unique, and more like a lo-fi, endearing mess instead.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2088: August 26 – September 1, 2010

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User reviews of this film

Andy Bullemor said...

Posted on Mar 07 2011 21:18 Well I thought after loving Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz that this film would be just my cup of camomile! Oh how wrong was I dear friends!! Now don't get me wrong the music in this film is fantastic and so are the visuals and there are parts were I started to think I might like this but I couldn't help feel it was too self indulgent on Edgar Wrights part and that a film of him kissing the graphic novel with some fights breaking it up would have had the same effect! Alas I fear the same for Paul as I suspect Wright works best with Pegg. I hope I'm wrong!!

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Ben said...

Posted on Jan 04 2011 20:05 A highly enjoyable film, but it wasn't until the 2nd watching of it that I realised.
This Film, for me, starts off slow. First time of watching it I almost left halfway through, was wondering why so many critics had rated it so highly. But I persevered, and at the end thought that it was okay, fairly good at best. But then my girlfriend wanted to watch it, so we did together. And I loved it! Something about the cartoon-ish aspects, the quick cuts, the overall bizarrity of it just seemed so much better when I was expecting it than when I wasn't. If you go into this film with no idea about it and don't enjoy it, watch it again. Trust me.

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Ed King said...

Posted on Sep 19 2010 23:49 Faithful to the sarcastic tone of the original graphic novels I was worried this might get bogged down in meaningless visual fight sequences but it is actually a lot of fun. Took a little bit of time to warm up but once it got going the story and characters hook you into their world.

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Dolphin said...

Posted on Sep 16 2010 14:47 I enjoyed this film. It was very funny and had good visuals. Would see it again.

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AndyJackdaw said...

Posted on Sep 09 2010 22:54 Many films have tried to do this stchtik - but the wit and warmth of this just puts it in a different league. Ok so it is not art and is not perfect -but it put a warm smile on my face and left me grinning for hours afterwards. Something of a minor classic

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Natasha said...

Posted on Sep 08 2010 16:51 This is the most boring,stupid,silly and idiotic film of the year! it has no point really looking forward to seeing it after the great write up im 15 and its compleat hell to sit though the 112 minuets its on. highly NOT recomemded!

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_Matt_77_ said...

Posted on Sep 02 2010 22:58 This is a silly film. It got a few laughs out of me, but not nearly enough. Am I too old for this offering? Maybe. But if that's the case, so was the 19-year-old girl I saw it with who was bored and fidgety for almost the whole movie. Sorry to rain on your parade guys, but really, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything more pointless. Quite often mildly amusing, which earns it its two stars in my book, but doesn't begin to justify the huge sums of money and man-hours which must have gone into making it.

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STEVE said...

Posted on Sep 02 2010 17:58 This film is a must see! i didn't have high expectations and it really delivers! a good fun and very different than what you've seen before, go see it and judge by yourself!

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Absinthe said...

Posted on Sep 02 2010 08:35 Ok so I was expecting your typical teenage cult drama being an actual fan of the comics I was expecting a let down (such as twilight had been) but when the film had finished I actually couldn't decide whether I liked it or hated it. My friends adored it and kept quoting parts from the movie and the more we talked about the film the more I realised I loved it! We have decided to go and watch it again. I really enjoyed the cleverness of the film and of course the fight scenes which brought back memories of being 10 playing mortal kombat and street fighter in the arcade. Will definately buy on DVD.

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Sutton said...

Posted on Aug 31 2010 13:27 I enjoyed this film but think it should only get the 3 stars. It is amusing and original in places and has some good dialogue. It had the potential to be so much more. For me the fight sequences became tedious and over long and I was also grateful re the twins! I thought one of Scott’s band’s tracks resembled a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club track.

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Phil Ince said...

Posted on Aug 30 2010 22:38 I agree with Andy B. Disappointingly heartless. Michael Cera's shrill voice and intense diffidence don't help the film. There is some good stuff here, though. It starts dully and doesn't catch fire until Satya Bhabha's sensational turn as Matthew Patel; he's British, I see, and did us proud in gloriously mad fashion. The other Ex’s, including Chris Evans with what looked like a head full of Botox, are ok. Maybe Bhabha made me laugh because he was the first on but I don’t think so, I think he was just better (though the peroxide blonde was good, too. Oh!, and Ellen Wong as Knives Chau is frequently tremendous, particularly when given the chance to be bonkers). Edgar Wright’s direction or the performances or something I couldn’t identify quickly enough don’t work until the thing becomes parodic or comic-ic. Enjoyable but I drifted towards the end.

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AndyB said...

Posted on Aug 29 2010 08:26 Some great ideas, great visuals - I can see why this movie would be appealing for some.
For me, the film lacked a heart. The Scott character is played a little too casually and unemotionally - and the hookup with Ramona is just not believable - there's no chemistry at all. Scot isn't an appealing character... and the film doesn't work if you're not rooting for him.
While I've loved Edgar Wright's previous work, I failed to see the comedy in this - and with few laughs and unappealing characters it just scrapes 3*s for me.

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rob said...

Posted on Aug 26 2010 20:33 Didn't live up to the hype - it's aimed at my age group but for some reason didn't have much of an effect on me but almost clicked...
Enjoyable and visually original as scrumpy said, but not by any means a 5-star which is reserved for the classics.
7/10

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Aug 26 2010 20:24 This film is obviously not aimed at me so I was not expecting too much from this over-hyped film. However, this is a more than worthy cinema watch with charming performances and visually original (even though it can be a little smugly tiring later in the film).
So to summarize, worth giving it a go!
7/10

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Ginky said...

Posted on Aug 26 2010 19:31 What a great movie! A cult classic in the making, For shame that more people didn't go see it.

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