Starring Michael Cera, Alison Pill, Mark Webber, Ellen Wong, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" is a trippy, action packed popcorn flick with a heroic and comic aspect. It takes place during the present day in one of my favorite cities, Toronto, Canada.
Initially, Scott Pilgrim (Cera) is a 22 year old unemployed guy from Toronto living with his friend because he doesn't have enough money for a place of his own. He's dating a 17 year old high schooler named Knives Chau (Wong). Nobody is really sure how to react to this so his band mates all say he's got a fake girlfriend. While at a party one night, he sees Ramona Flowers (Winstead), a girl who just moved to Toronto from New York and works for Amazon.ca and tries to say something to her but his nervousness gets the best of him. He orders a package from Amazon and she delivers it to him and it's at his doorstep that he gets the idea to ask her out. Scott's band is playing a gig at a local club and she is in attendance (after Scott asks her to attend) and finds out that in order to date her, he's going to have to defeat her seven evil exes. These seven evil exes include a punk, an actor, a rockstar, a girl, two twins, and her current boyfriend Gideon. While attempting to defeat all these people, he must wrestle with seeing Ramona and trying to break up with Knives.
I find that Toronto is an interesting place to not only film this movie but to feature as well. If they didn't mention anything about the city, you wouldn't have any idea that that's where it takes place. I didn't like the fact that they didn't show some of the landmarks of the city until the very end. So many films take place in cities that everybody expects would be in films, places like New York or Los Angeles. It's cool that this film traveled to a place like Toronto, a place off the beaten path of films. It seems like Edgar Wright likes to show the offbeat places in this film because only some of the clubs that maybe the locals know are featured, not the tourist places like the CN Tower (until the last scene). Michael Cera seemed more at home in this movie because he's from the suburban Toronto are. I felt his performance was better in this film than in any other film I have seen him in.
This film offers a unique style of film. It combines a graphic novel with video games. Any time something like the telephone rings, the word "RING" shows up like it would in a graphic novel if the same thing was happening. This style isn't used that much. Where the movie seems like a video game is when the impromptu duels happen and when each of the players are introduced. It looks like it is straight out of one of those Pokemon games. It's a really cool idea and works really well with this story. It adds a lot to Scott's character because he looks like the kind of guy who spends most of his time playing video games.
Overall, the style and location of the film adds to this exciting story based on the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. I enjoyed the performance by each actor. The special effects are not bad. It's worth seeing if you have nothing better to do or if you like seeing a popcorn flick like this or even if you like the city of Toronto. Either way, it's pretty cool. Four Stars.
Initially, Scott Pilgrim (Cera) is a 22 year old unemployed guy from Toronto living with his friend because he doesn't have enough money for a place of his own. He's dating a 17 year old high schooler named Knives Chau (Wong). Nobody is really sure how to react to this so his band mates all say he's got a fake girlfriend. While at a party one night, he sees Ramona Flowers (Winstead), a girl who just moved to Toronto from New York and works for Amazon.ca and tries to say something to her but his nervousness gets the best of him. He orders a package from Amazon and she delivers it to him and it's at his doorstep that he gets the idea to ask her out. Scott's band is playing a gig at a local club and she is in attendance (after Scott asks her to attend) and finds out that in order to date her, he's going to have to defeat her seven evil exes. These seven evil exes include a punk, an actor, a rockstar, a girl, two twins, and her current boyfriend Gideon. While attempting to defeat all these people, he must wrestle with seeing Ramona and trying to break up with Knives.
I find that Toronto is an interesting place to not only film this movie but to feature as well. If they didn't mention anything about the city, you wouldn't have any idea that that's where it takes place. I didn't like the fact that they didn't show some of the landmarks of the city until the very end. So many films take place in cities that everybody expects would be in films, places like New York or Los Angeles. It's cool that this film traveled to a place like Toronto, a place off the beaten path of films. It seems like Edgar Wright likes to show the offbeat places in this film because only some of the clubs that maybe the locals know are featured, not the tourist places like the CN Tower (until the last scene). Michael Cera seemed more at home in this movie because he's from the suburban Toronto are. I felt his performance was better in this film than in any other film I have seen him in.
This film offers a unique style of film. It combines a graphic novel with video games. Any time something like the telephone rings, the word "RING" shows up like it would in a graphic novel if the same thing was happening. This style isn't used that much. Where the movie seems like a video game is when the impromptu duels happen and when each of the players are introduced. It looks like it is straight out of one of those Pokemon games. It's a really cool idea and works really well with this story. It adds a lot to Scott's character because he looks like the kind of guy who spends most of his time playing video games.
Overall, the style and location of the film adds to this exciting story based on the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. I enjoyed the performance by each actor. The special effects are not bad. It's worth seeing if you have nothing better to do or if you like seeing a popcorn flick like this or even if you like the city of Toronto. Either way, it's pretty cool. Four Stars.
Great, quirky movie. Def four stars.
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