A really bold premise and smart execution, but also some major weaknesses

Rating: 6/10 (25 June 2017)

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is an American 110-minute movie from 2010 written and directed by Edgar Wright based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. This is the story of Scott, a young man who falls in love with a girl, but has to defeat her seven evil exes for them to be together. Fittingly with these mission, you can see the film is divided into 7 levels almost and this is where the video game component comes into play. Not only do the characters frequently look a lot like video game characters, but there are also effects and movements in here that really make it obvious that this film is as much of an interface between gaming and filmmaking as it gets. And I must say I enjoyed a lot of it. The antagonists were fairly interesting and the ways in which Scott beats them were just as exciting to watch, but it also needs to be said that the film itself when it does not focus on the video game connection has some fairly weak moments. The major mistake here was casting Michael Cera. He proves without a doubt that he is not lead actor material. He may have been tolerable on Arrested Development, but he simply is not bearable in this film we have here and the fact that he is in basically every scene is not helping matters at all. Kieran Culkin is just as bad in my opinion, plus his character added virtually nothing. Wes Anderson regular Jason Schwartzman was better playing what you could call the big end boss.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character however, the object of desire, is really great and perhaps the most memorable aspect about the entire film. Aubrey Plaza and Ellen Chau add some solid scenes too, even if the latter's character is definitely overdone a bit. Anna Kendrick is one of the finest actresses of her generation, but has simply too little to work with here playing the protagonist's nosy sister. Back to Cera, his presence, line delivery and also the way the character was written makes it incredibly difficult for me to cheer for him get together with Ramona to be honest. I personally also found it really strange how she indeed developed some kind of attraction for him despite being completely out of his league. Then again, looking at all her ex-boyfriends, she clearly had a tendency to go for losers, so this explains it perhaps. And some of them are almost as unlikable as Scott. So Scott Pilgrim is definitely not Cera's typical role as a likable loser as there is absolutely nothing likable about him. You could quote a dozen scenes for that. It's also one reason why I find the ending so highly unrealistic where it is he who picks her and not the other way around. But yeah, it is another universe and that's how things work there. This is not a Planet Earth movie. I know it is a desperate explanation, but lets just leave it like that.
Back to the video game component, occasionally they overdid it in terms of Street Fighter jump and kick moves for example, but apart from that honestly these scenes and gimmicky aspects are the heart and soul of the film. Highly enjoyable for fans of video games as the movie is packed with references to the world of (online) gaming and many of the supporting characters elevate the material by quite a bit. Like these effects I just mentioned, there are also other weak moments, like the device reference towards the end, but it's all no negative deal breakers and it is certainly possible to see the good surrounding all the bad as I believe the good moments are more frequent. However, it is essential that you watch the entire movie exclusively as a fantasy film and do not expect any great romance or relationship comedy. From that perspective it is a failure. I will still be generous and give it a thumbs-up because I remember liking it more the first time I watched it years ago. With a better lead actor, this could have been one of 2010's best, the way it actually turned out it is just one of 2010's better films.