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Scott Pilgrim Vs the World Directed by Edgar Wright.
(http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Scott-Pilgrim-poster.jpg)
Edgar Wright, godly British director of classic films Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead returns with another epic film of epic epic-ness.

First up this is a hot contender for my favourite movie of the year.  They be fighting words indeed.

Wright decides that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost deserves a break, and as such casts indie it-kid Michael Cera in the role of Scott Pilgrim, band member and heart-breaker.


View the trailer here to get the basic idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoFqatfEFrw



You watched it?  Great!  The plot centres around Scott's pursuit of Ramona Flowers, the girl of his dreams.  But as their relationship starts to take off he discovers that he is to fight her 7 evil exes, all in mind-blowing video game style battles.

The film essentially is littered with video game references and crazy edits and effects that Wright is somewhat known for.  An unusual visual style permeates the film that is incredibly appealing to me and really hails to the potential digital cinema has for making some visually engaging pieces.  Along for the ride is Scott's 17 year old 'sort of' girlfriend Knives Chau, who he has to somewhat dodge in his pursuit of Ramona, his band members who both hate him and love him at the same time, and his housemate Wallace, via an excellent job by Keiran Culkin.

This is very much a Gen X/Gen Y film though I'm sure others will appreciate it as well [it helps having a healthy appreciation for video games in general]  From the start we are littered with video game references [an excellent 8-bit version of the Universal logo being the first thing we see] and the film style very much shoots by at a relatively fast pace [we Gen Yers being somewhat known for our limited attention sp...]

Casting was great and in particular Keiran Culkin and Ellen Wong [Knives] pull in great supporting roles.  Being a big fan of Michael Cera from his Arrested Development days, I got exactly what I expected: more of the same, but in this film in particular his awkwardness works in spades.  Combined with plenty of action, Cera forms somewhat of an Anti-action hero: he can kick ass, but boy does he make it look painfully awkward.  I'm fairly sure this is also the first film I've seen where being Vegan is legitimately used as a super power.

This film succeeds in almost every area: The humour is right up my alley, the visuals are so darn pretty to look at and the music is alot of fun too.  Did I mention the visuals?  They are the standout piece here: watch it just to have your brain explode from all the bright colours.  The only real weakness of the film is the relationship between Ramona and Scott in which they seem to have not too much chemistry.  Whether that was an actor problem or a scripting problem, I can't tell, but, much like Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up, I struggled at times to believe in their relationship too much.  Luckily Wright's fast paced editing style generally pushes the story forward before you can dwell on that point for too long.


Great cameos from Chris Evan and Jason Schwartzmen as two of the seven exes in particular, and did I mention the visuals?  For those who aren't a fan of Cera's or that style of humour, it may be a bit of a bore, but to everyone else it should be a fun ride.


A must-see that doesn't seem to be getting anywhere near as much interest as it deserves.  Destined to be a cult classic, go see it while you get a chance and vote YES for more of these type films by seeing it at cinemas.

I give it a strong 4.9/5 and a big  :thumbup:

Did I mention the awesome visuals?  I haven't been this visually stimulated by a film since Sin City...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgOLmjhxVVU
 :teddyr:

I was a bit surprised there wasn't more talk about this one on the board.  Yes, it's a very good movie, it will probably end up on my top 10 list for the year.  And yes, it has "cult classic" written all over it; it's not doing well in theaters but it will find a huge audience on video.  People will remember this movie nostalgically ten and twenty years from now.  I agree that you should try to see this in theaters while you still can.

I'm going to definitely catch this one on DVD when it comes out.  I'll undoubtedly dig up this thread then.  I liked the kid playing Scott Pilgrim as George Michael in Arrested Developement. 

Its funny that the trailers tend to dwell alot on Scott and Ramona, but in reality thinking back to it now, we don't actually see alot of them together on screen: its more Scott talking to his friends/fighting with her exes.  Maybe that's why I felt their relationship was a bit underdeveloped.

But yeah, I'm definitely surprised by the lack of response from most people on the board here, especially with so many video games threads. 

I can't stress it enough though: if you get a chance, see it at cinemas.  Whilst it'll work quite well on DVD, going to see it at cinemas does two things: it tells studios that movies like this are capable of making money so they may make more, and its just so darn pretty to watch.

Caught this one during the opening week.  No one else was in the theater to see it.... A bit of an odd viewing.  I loved the film.  The script is hilarious and fast, the acting is decent especially from Cera who really plays these down and out loser roles almost perfectly.

The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at.  It feels like it did just come straight off of the page.  The only thing I can remotely compare it to, in terms of visuals is the Wachowski bro's Speed Racer. 

I hope this is one that ends up catching an audience eventually.  It's been doing terribly at the theater, and it's a damn shame.  This film deserves to be huge!

Out of the few 2010 releases I've seen this is probably my favorite.  It's a shame that audiences are missing out on such a fun film, but hopefully home video sales and rentals will do nicely.

At times like this, I just love living in Hungary...s**t like The karate kid and The A-team gets released almost instantly, and when do we get Scott Pilgrim?
Never. It won't f**king get released in the theaters. It breaks my heart to see such a thing.

Yes, but you have extremely beautiful women in Hungary, which sort of compensates for the lack of new releases.   :wink:

Hmmm...that actually makes a lot of sense...Thanks for pointing out the good things in Hungary! :cheers:

Funny, but sadly quite true:
http://www.cracked.com/funny-4739-scott-pilgrim/ (http://www.cracked.com/funny-4739-scott-pilgrim/)

One thing I will say is Kick-Ass's DVD sales have been incredibly high - beating expectations.  It also took in almost $100 million at the box office off a roughly $30 million budget.  Even with marketing costs, it was a theatrical success, just not a gigantic one.

Scott Pilgrim looks to be a bomb though, quite possibly even with DVD sales and such.  Much higher budgeted, around $60 million.  I thought it was decent entertainment, really good visuals.  Great performance by Cera.  It's also one of the strangest genre mashups and weirdest movies ever to get a mainstream theatre release. 

But, I found a lot of the story sort of uninvolving.  I think a lot of this has to do with a lack of emotional connection to any character.  Scott's a jerk, Ramona is blah, Knives is cute but little else, and the others are pretty sketchy.  Still, I enjoyed it for what it is.

7/10.

I'd give this a 3/5

I just don't like Cera.
Everything else very good.

Vegan police though !  :thumbup:  :teddyr: