Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.


Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010, Edgar Wright)
B+


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice review, I agree with a lot of what you say but just a few observations that I made.

1. Despite my love I was not sold on Cera's acting in the film completely until the second viewing. He has a few scenes where he is doing his shtick, but that scene following the vegan fight at the bar is phenomenal, as are most of the action scenes, and the ignorance he has of the world around him is played in a way considerably different from his general awkward style. The opening scenes and the bar scenes during the battles of the bands stand out for me as examples. Plus there is the fighting, selling that choreography takes talent, both physical and acting, and Cera blows that out of the water.

2. I think part of the point of the music is that much of the songs that Sex Bob-omb play should sound similar as they are not a polished band, and are supposed to kind of suck. The unrefined sound was actually really refreshing I thought. There is a great song by song breakdown interview in a recent LA Times article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/08/beck-nigel-godrich-emily-haines-bryan-lee-omalley-edgar-wright-dissect-the-scott-pilgrim-soundtrack.html

Great review

thevoid99 said...

Excellent review Ed.

I liked this film more than you did. I know Cera has a limited range but he managed to work around that for the film. Yet, I think Mary Elizabeth Winstead & Ellen Wong were the real stars on that film. They both give characters that are both good for Scott Pilgrim.

BTW, what did you think of the Vegan Police?

That got me laughing harder than anything I had seen in over a year.

Anonymous said...

I like the clever structure of your review. Nice way to approach it. For me, it's a victory on all fronts as the film just nailed everything for me. I might concede that Cera isn't great in the role, I think another actor might have done better (but I cannot for the life of me think of who) but he hardly hampers the film and I love the fantastic, over the top supporting cast.

edgarchaput said...

@richardthorne: I do think there were moments when Cera broke out of his usual style (I thought I had mentioned that in the review). It was a cardboard cutout replica of what he's done in the past, but there are a plenty of scenes where he comes across as George Michael Bluth again.

@thevoid99: Ellen Wong was fantastic in her role, but I don't think Elizabeth Winstead did much with hers. Maybe it was because her character was far more subdued than everyone else around. I kept thinking how for a person who doesn't really seem to do anything, 7 ex-boyfriends sounds like a lot.

@cinemasights: Yup, the supporting cast almost steals the show.