Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Reviews

Amazing movie!! a different concept

A premissa de Scott Pilgrim Contra o Mundo é um mero disfarce. A pacata vida contada como um jogo de videogame parece um tema de interesse somente para jovens nerds e geeks. Lutar com os “sete ex-namorados malvados” da garota - literalmente - de seus sonhos, pode parecer ainda mais absurdo, mas é apenas o artifício ideal utilizado para aplicar, de forma bem humorada e inteligente, inúmeras tiradas sarcásticas ao filme.

Scott Pilgrim, interpretado sem muitas dificuldades por Michael Cera, segue a linha dos exemplos a não serem adotados. Com 23 anos, está desempregado, não faz faculdade, além de ter um amigo gay como roommate. Para completar, mantém uma banda com amigos do Ensino Médio, a Sex Bob-Omb. E “namora” uma colegial. Tudo muda quando encontra a garota que havia aparecido em seu sonho - Ramona Flowers, papel de Mary Elizabeth Winstead. A moça acaba de chegar à cidade e seu ar misterioso atrai ainda mais a atenção de Scott – o que é muito, para um garoto distraído como ele. Porém, para ficar com Ramona, ele precisa enfrentar a liga dos sete ex-namorados dela.

Através de metáforas bem elaboradas, inicia-se o ‘jogo’ para permanecer com a garota. Ao adaptar a série de quadrinhos de Brian Lee O’Malley, o diretor Edgar Wright faz bom proveito dos recursos do cinema para deixar o enredo ainda mais emocionante. Não descarta elementos do videogame - cada duelo é marcado pelo “VS”, além da clássica barrinha de vida.

Uma das características marcantes do longa são as piadas aplicadas por intermédio dos sete ex-namorados. O terceiro, Todd - vivido pro Brandon Routh - ganhou poderes especiais por ser vegan. Chris Evans interpreta Lucas Lee, um ator que tira proveito da fama de vilão e dos incontáveis dublês, mas não é esperto o suficiente para recusar o desafio proposto por Scott. Como nos games mais conhecidos, a personagem principal precisa conhecer as táticas especiais para combater cada oponente - e, claro, adquire vantagens ao fim de cada disputa. Além das moedinhas adquiridas ao eliminar cada oponente, as conquistas são criativas - como uma “Espada do Amor Próprio”, que dá direito a um bônus pela confiança na própria personalidade.

Caso se tratasse de um filme fraco, o humor ácido presente na maioria das cenas seria suficiente para ofuscar qualquer defeito. A perspicácia de Kim Pine, encarnada por Alison Pill e as falas do divertido Wallace, - papel de Kieran Culkin - amigo gay que divide o quarto com Scott, são dois bons exemplos da presença do gênero comédia.

A escolha das músicas para a trilha sonora também é impecável – inclui canções ‘moderninhas’, como Black Sheep, da banda Metric e clássicas, como Under My Thumb, dos Rolling Stones.

Através de diálogos espertos e incontáveis referências à cultura pop, Scott Pilgrim Contra o Mundo diverte sem cair nos clichês das comédias comuns, atribuindo faceta bem-humorada ao ordinário cotidiano.

Scott Pilgrim has got to be the most inventive, unpredictable and action-packed movie to ever come out in recent years. One of the best parts of the movie was the fight scenes. They were unlike anything I've seen before. The movie constantly switched from comic book action to video game action to straight up comedy and had a bunch of crazy shit flying all over the screen leaving me with a bery satisfied experience. See Scott Pilgrim Vs the world. You won't regret it.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a highly immaginative film directed by Edgar Wright, the emerging talent behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. As with his previous films this too is a genre mashup of sorts, this time a 20-something slacker Rom-Com meets video-game inspired comicbook madness with a bit of Kung-Fu flavor. The result is a quick moving, stylish visual feast, unique in its visual storytelling, and extraordinary in its ability to maintain a cohesive identity all the way through. To be sure this film knows exactly what it is and it is well researched in everything it mimics, parodies, and pays homage to. Scott Pigrim vs. The World greatly benefits from this self-awareness. Even so, I'm afraid that there is far more style than substance going on. At no point in watching the film did I feel there was much at stake for any of the characters, despite all the melodrama and endless Street Fighter-esque show-downs. Most of the actors turned in strong performances and yet I had trouble attaching myself to any of these characters. And while there were a few laughs here there just wasn't much in the way of real joy or humor to be had. Chalk this up to largely shallow and formula-driven subject matter I suppose. While worth seeing for its ambitious visual handling and commentary on all things "Trending Now", I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed at the amout of oridariness also going on here.

"If you want something bad, you have to fight for it. Step up your game, Scott."

Based on the six-part graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a hard movie to explain. In essence, it's a cheesy young adult novel mixed with a kung fu movie that's been spiced up like an MTV music video, and the entire narrative proceeds with the visual logic of a Nintendo video game. For daring audiences, this audacious, refreshing, hilarious late-summer blockbuster provides plenty of eye candy to enjoy, yet more cynical or traditional movie-goers may feel that the film is akin to experiencing an acid trip. Similar to 2010's Kick-Ass, Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is bold enough to be original in this cinematic age governed by brainless big-budget blockbusters, but its meta disposition made it a tough sell at the box office.

The titular Scott Pilgrim (Cera) is an unemployed 22-year-old Toronto native whose biggest accomplishment is playing bass in a punk rock band called Sex Bomb-Omb. While he's dating cheerful 17-year-old high schooler Knives Chau (Wong), Scott meets and instantly falls head over heels for the elusive, sarcastic, beautiful, seemingly unattainable New York transplant Ramona Flowers (Winstead). Though at first highly stand-offish towards Scott, Ramona fast grows weak to Scott's understated charms. However, when Scott finally convinces Ramona to go on a date with him, he discovers that he's in way over his head. A happy romance with Ramona will come at a price: he must battle each of Ramona's seven evil exes, all of whom have joined together in a league and are out to get Scott.

This plot synopsis barely scratches the surface of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and does no justice to the film's outlandish narrative detours, yet that's a good thing because the movie should be experienced firsthand rather than spoiled. Your response to the film will either be giddy enthrallment or baffled exasperation, depending on your taste and tolerance for this form of postmodern abandon. If, for instance, you perpetually wonder how the socially awkward Scott is able to defy physics like Superman and fight as gracefully as Bruce Lee, you're in the wrong place for entertainment. Simply going with the flow is required; otherwise you'll be ridiculing the movie for the wrong reasons. However, it's a tad disappointing to report that the film is more of a frenetic overview of O'Malley's graphic novels rather than a fully-fledged adaptation. Perhaps the graphic novels should have been adapted into a couple of movies, as opposed to all six books being compressed into a single two-hour motion picture. As it is, there's not enough depth to the characters - most of them are just ushered in and out of the film far too rapidly to make an impact. Fortunately, though, the main players are allotted a commendable amount of effective character development, and consequently end up feeling like fully-fledged humans rather than caricatures.

In all likelihood, the more familiarity one has with video games (particularly those from the '80s & '90s) and comic books, the more one will appreciate everything that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has to offer. After all, the story does concern a geeky young adult living out his life in a world governed not by the laws of physics but by the laws of Marvel/DC and Nintendo. All of the battles disregard gravity and logic, with characters confronting each other using blazing swords and unexpected superpowers before the opponent bursts into a shower of coins. The always-reliable Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) was an ideal choice to translate O'Malley's graphic novels to the screen. Wright's brilliant, highly creative mise en scène is bursting with all the tropes from the last twenty years of pop culture - there's 8-bit music, video-game logic, funny-book captions and wacky sound effects. In fact, the all-but-the-kitchen-sink approach feels more authentically 3-D than all of the actual 3-D failures Hollywood has recently inundated us with. Furthermore, Wright even had fun with the film's profanity. In order to deliver a PG-13 product, amusing ways were concocted to censor the word "fuck" without eliminating it.

After attempting to display a certain degree of range in Youth in Revolt, Michael Cera has returned to his comfort zone: the typecast part of the geeky, awkward dweeb. The persona fits the actor comfortably, though, and it works in this particular instance. Cera's detractors will no doubt complain that he's merely playing himself again, but Scott Pilgrim could be the definitive Michael Cera role. In fact, Cera's wide-eyed innocence and dry line deliveries have never been more appropriate. And in the role of Ramona, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is fabulous. The beautiful actress is a perfect fit for the role, and it's easy to believe Scott falling in love with her at first sight. In the supporting cast, Kieran Culkin is endlessly watchable as Scott's roommate Wallace, whose straight-shooting personality is the only straight thing about him. Meanwhile, Ramona's evil exes are portrayed by a range of colourful, famous actors, including Brandon Routh and Chris Evans. Jason Schwartzman is a particular standout as Gideon, while Mae Whitman is authoritative and funny as Ramona's lesbian fling. Honestly, the name-drops and compliments could go on and on for one of the strongest ensemble casts of 2010.

With all of the stylistic choices in mind, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World could have been a garish, tonally confused, tedious mess, but it's not. With the boundlessly talented Edgar Wright at the helm, the picture is infectiously energetic and well-balanced between the earthbound reality of the story and the anything-goes flights of fancy that Scott undertakes to win Ramona. Sure, it would have been better if the graphic novels were adapted into a couple of movies, but complaining about the nature of the adaptation seems like too much of a critic-ey thing to do - taken as a standalone piece of summer entertainment, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is more than satisfying; it's very enjoyable and very, very funny.

8.5/10

Vibrant, hilarious and relentlessly creative, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD is nothing but a ceaselessly joyful cinematic experience. Some have already branded it as the type of film that can only be enjoyed by gamers, members of the Nintendo generation or people who are familiar with the comics, and while those people may get one or two of the inside jokes more easily, the truth is that this is a film that can easily be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone who's open enough to the wittily frenetic piece of work that is Edgar Wright's latest offering. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD is blessed with one of the year's funniest scripts and with some of the most creative, well-choreographed action/fight sequences I've seen in a long time.

Scott (Michael Cera) is a 22-year-old guy who's "sort of between jobs" (as he explains), which means he doesn't have much money for a place of his own, so he shares a room (and bed) with Wallace (Kieran Culkin), who serves as a sort of confidante for Scott, as he listens to him talk about all his toils and troubles... except that the information isn't really confidential, because Wallace usually relays it by text immediately to Scott's sister, Stacy (Anna Kendrick), who then calls Scott to nag him about whatever it was she just found out about. The latest "outrageous" development in Scott's life is that he's dating a high school girl, Knives (Ellen Wong). Things start to get complicated, though, when Scott loses interest in Knives when he meets the pink-haired Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who has that "I'm too cool for you" look and seems to be totally out of Scott's league. Surprisingly, Ramona gives in to Scott's geeky charms, but the bliss doesn't last too long, as Scott soon discovers that, if he wants to continue the relationship with Ramona, he has to physically defeat all SEVEN (!) of her ex-boyfriends. The film's dramatic core focuses on the relationship between Scott and Ramona and on each of the two characters' emotional demons, while the action-based scenes feature Scott battling with all the guys (and the inevitable lesbian) that Ramona previously dated, with all the fights being choreographed in the style of a video game.

It has to be admitted that the premise sounds totally ridiculous and that I would've had serious doubts about seeing this were it not for the director and cast. Silly as the synopsis might seem, the truth is that SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD is a delightfully colorful, nimble piece of film-making, and on top of that, it's got a spree of immensely hilarious lines. Scott is in a band, and there's a guy whom people refer to as Young Neil (Johnny Simmons), who is not really a member of the band, but he's there to fill in for Scott whenever Scott can't be available. The movie relishes how dumb and simple-minded this character is (there are some soft-spoken lines you have to pay attention to, like his repetition of the word "sucks," and the way he gets the lyrics wrong at one point when he's singing along with the band). A lot of the hilarity in this film comes from unabashed sarcasm which at times makes some of the characters seem insensitive... but let's be honest, niceness isn't very funny, and a sarcastic/insensitive personality is what led to the success of excellent works of comedy like the TV show Seinfeld, which director Edgar Wright happily pays tribute to during the film (in a brilliant sequence that starts out with the show's theme music and even features a laugh track).

One of the ways in which comedies succeed most often is in poking fun at little things through pop culture references that everyone in the audience will understand. There's a line that indirectly ridicules the Uma Thurman film MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND and it is delivered pitch-perfectly. Later, there's a sequence in which a character says "fuck" repeatedly during a conversation, but it gets bleeped out (and her mouth is covered with a black square, a la EYES WIDE SHUT)... but the movie goes further than that in its knowing brilliance, by having a character ask her, "Why are you doing that with your mouth?" The film also constantly features title cards that are "supposed" to be helpful to understanding the plot, yet are really just ways of further tickling the funny bone. Oh, and a word of caution to vegans: you may be offended by one of the sequences in which satirical jabs are aimed at your, um, "lifestyle" (if it can be called that), but I'm confident that you'll be open-minded enough to take the joke (plus, it's freaking hilarious, and the punchline features a cameo by two actors you'd never expect to see in this movie).

If there's a problem that sticks out in SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, it's the number of ex-boyfriends that Ramona has. I realize that the number 7 is frequently used for purposes of symbolism and whatnot (and the movie has a witty quip about this, in relation to a phone number), but the problem is that, as expertly-choreographed and delightfully frenetic as the fight sequences are, it's impossible for a sense of repetitiveness not to kick in during the last act (a feeling of "ugh, why won't Jason Schwartzman's character just die already" isn't unwarranted). The film is definitely about 15 minutes too long. In addition, the subplot of Knives' jealous rage in wanting to get Scott back is initially effective, but gets too played out during the final act (and it's resolved a little too easily at the very end).

After the misfires that were both YEAR ONE and YOUTH IN REVOLT, Michael Cera is finally back to giving yet another delightfully sweet and endearing performance. I'll never get tired of saying this, so I'll repeat it here yet again: it's not correct to criticize an actor for playing basically the same role in every movie, AS LONG as he/she does it WELL. In the case of Michael Cera, he can play dorky/awkward/adorable better than a lot of people, and he deserves much credit for it, unlike other actors, who play the same character in every movie and always do a bad job at it ::cough:: Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl ::cough:: The rest of the cast is equally good, with Kieran Culkin, Alison Pill and Johnny Simmons having the most scene-stealing moments. My beloved celebrity crush Chris Evans has a few minutes in the film as one of the ex-boyfriends, in a role that was tailor-made for him, as he plays a smug, quintessentially American action movie star, and gets to kick Michael Cera's ass for a little while.

This year has seen two films that have accomplished the amazing feat of both glorifying and satirizing a genre (with the balance never tipping in favor of one approach over the other), while also being relentlessly entertaining. The first one was KICK-ASS, and now we've gotten SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. I could easily make a comment here about how it probably means something that neither of the two films was directed by an American... but it'd make me sound prejudiced, so I guess I won't do it. :) The fact remains, though, that they are two of the year's most well-crafted films. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, in particular, deserves an immense amount of praise for its savagely clever writing and for its incredible visual creativity.

Well, at first before I saw it, I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect going into this but Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World shocked me as it shocked critics and the public all around because it is indeed a film of absolute genius! It is a film adaptation of the comic book series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. To be honest, I could see it going two ways: either going to be an epic disaster or an epic surprise and it obviously turned out the latter. It has its original side like the humour between boys and girls and teenage hormones and feelings but now there is something new that Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has come out with. Everyone who was in the cinema with me laughed their heads off at this so that seems pretty convincing that its a funny film as well as a film of top-notch entertainment.


Scott Pilgrim plays in a band which aspires to success. He dates Knives Chau, a high-school girl five years his junior, and he hasn't recovered from being dumped by his former girlfriend, now a success with her own band. When Scott falls for Ramona Flowers, he has trouble breaking up with Knives and tries to romance Ramona. As if juggling two women wasn't enough, Ramona comes with baggage: seven ex-lovers, with each of whom Scott must do battle to the death in order to win Ramona.


The plot is very simple at first but when you read about it on the internet or in a magazine but as you watch it, it gets deeper and deeper and really surprises you! So the basic way of describing the plot is ''Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's ''seven exes'' to win her heart.'' I mean, Michael Cera in another teen comedy was another reason why I wasn't sure of what to expect but even though this is no ordinary teen-comedy, Cera has FINALLY shown that he is no ordinary actor in just teen comedies. I mean, yeah he plays that kind of character but Scott Pilgrim is a guy with a big heart and is very brave so that is what we see out of Michael Cera that we've not seen before. His best performance so far, I think. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was pretty damn hot in this film but she was pretty damn awesome too! Ramona was (perhaps to most of those around her) a pretty dodgy and odd girl to be friends with at first but when she meets Scott, we see a side to her that changes. We also see a big change in Scott as well when he almost instantly falls in love with her. Good performances from Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Ellen Wong and the rest of the cast.


Edgar Wright goes somewhere a tad bit different from his previous and notable works Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead and makes something that is perfect towards its target audience and was just absolute genius all around! In some scenes, Edgar still filmed scenes which'd be like his traditional style such as very fast shots and sharp music. He has always been a director of entertainment obviously but he has always tried to takes things a little step further to make his films blow away the audiences and creates something new every time. I loved it with the original video game key sequences such as the coins/credit when you defeat an opponent, earning an extra life and earning weapons. The script was, admittedly, at times pretty silly but I mean, in a film like this it was bound to be a little. That didn't jeopardise my liking for the film.


Overall, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a film that I absolutely adored and has deserved its rightful place as one of the best films of 2010. It is like a video game merged with a film and it is a teen comedy that doesn't just overload us with sex innuendos and kinky soppy stuff but we actually have emotion and a soul in this film which makes it a fantastic success to me and probably to most critics out there. It also goes to a whole new level that none of us had seen before. Edgar Wright is a genius!

It's a clever movie but has trouble consistently funny. I lost count of the number of video game references there were. Once the novelty of the video game invading the real world wears off, the story or the characters aren't enough to see it through to the end. Kieran Culkin nearly steals the show as Scott's gay roommate. He's about the only character that is consistently interesting (and surprising). Overall, I have to say this was a disappointment.