You absolutely need to be a certain person to enjoy this film...

Rating: Null/10 (1 December 2013)

I was very much looking forward to "Scott Pilgrim". It's set in my hometown, it stars Canadian actor Michael Cera, it was directed by the brilliant Edgar Wright who has made films that I absolutely adore like "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz", and my college friends loved the comic book series.
But thirty minutes into it, it dawned on me that I just wasn't the demographic this movie was targeting. I'm in my late 20s, and this movie seems definitely geared toward people in their late teens to early 20s, as well as people of all ages who can't focus.
The storyline is not so much a storyline but a setup for the awesome special effects that pay homage to retro video games, Japanese animation and comic books. Scott Pilgrim, a bassist in his early 20s, meets a girl with wacky-colored hair who he falls head over heels for, but has to fight off her seven exes one after another before he can be with her. Let it be known that the special effects are VERY good and you'll see amusing sound and visual effects peppered throughout the entire movie that you'll be able to relate to if you've been even slightly interested in the things the film pays homage to. The film may not be much for your brain, but it definitely is a treat for your eyes.
But that might be the only thing that holds it up. I felt myself coming out of the movie several times due to the sloppy screenplay. Similarly, the characters were all cardboard cutouts that I didn't care about. Even if characters are one-dimensional, they can still be endearing. Here, not so much. Most of them randomly appear to throw out some quip for its own sake without adding anything to the film, and then vanish just as inexplicably as when they appeared. This in itself isn't a problem, but this device just keeps happening way after it's stopped being interesting.
I've never read the original comic, so something tells me my gripes with the film have everything to do with the fact that the source material just isn't that good. After seeing the film, I really can't imagine it being worth reading, since my main problem with the film was a lack of a story I could really grab onto. And really, unless you're a film student, isn't that what movies are for?
If you're under 25, chances are good that you'll enjoy this film, because I can definitely see why it'd be fun to watch some random battles with lots of sfx that hark back to Super Mario and Street Fighter days. But if that's all there is to it, then I'll just play the video games! It just felt so long for lacking so much substance. Lots of style, though, so kudos to that. An extra point for being set in Canada, too, but a glossy dud is still a dud.