Your usual love story with a lot of style

Rating: 5/10 (18 August 2010)

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and stars Michael Cera ( Superbad, Arrested Development) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Death Proof, Live Free or Die Hard). The film takes place in modern day in Toronto, Canada and the genre I would say is a fantasy/rom-com AKA fantaromcom.
The film is about how a boy, Scott Pilgrim (Cera), who is depressed due to the fact that he still really likes a girl who broke up with him a year ago and currently is dating a 17 year old high school girl. But then he sees a girl, Ramona Flowers (Winstead), who he instantly is attacted to and is obsessed with. Little does he know though is that in order for him to date Ramona Flowers he has to defeat, not fight but defeat, her seven evil ex boyfriends (and one happens to be a girl, ooh my). As the film goes on he has to balance his romantic life with his band and also has to have many fights (who new Michael Cera was the next Arnold Schwarzenegger?). Don't forget about his high school girlfriend though, who in my opinion is the best part of the film.
The first aspect of the filmmaking I want to talk about is the writing. It is an extremely traditional storyline with a little spice in it. It was boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Extremely predictable. The only thing different is the obstacle Scott Pilgrim had to go through was to defeat the seven evil ex boyfriends and that was pretty straight forward (just extremely stylized). This film was not very funny. The only funny parts of the movie were with Scott Pilgrim's Asian girlfriend. Also, it was very unrealistic how Scott Pilgrim just happened to be such a talented fighter, at least if after the first fight he made a little joke that he used to take Karate it would have been better. Edgar Wright's previous films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were much better written because they were so clever, but then again those films had actual funny people, not Michael Cera. Maybe Wright should stick to spoofs when he writes.
The direction of this film was the strongest part of the film. While the writing was boring and the comedy was weak there was some very interesting special effects to watch during the fight scenes and all the little captions that came up were interesting. This film was extremely stylized and it truly overpowered the writing of the film. Edgar Wright proves that he is a noteworthy director, but has not yet proved that he is a great one.
The acting in this film was subpar, Cera proved that he can only play one part for the rest of his life and will stick with it. Winstead did nothing special just reading her lines with a not caring tone. Chris Evans gave a good performance for his minor role as Lucas Lee, the second evil ex-boyfriend, being like a Steven Seagal like actor. All the other supporting characters acted decently no one really stole the movie maybe the Asian girlfriend did a little better than decent.
Overall, this film is not very good a weak 5/10 I give it. The only reason I don't give it a 4 is because of the direction by Edgar Wright, he was very good at that. I'd recommend this film to those who enjoy comic book adaptations, fans of Michael Cera, and those who like extremely stylized films.