Monday, August 16, 2010

Film Review - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)


Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the latest film from director Edgar Wright and based on a graphic novel, the story here is that Scott Pilgrim played by Michael Cera is infatuated with a girl named Ramona Flowers played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but for them to be happy together he'll have to do battle with Ramona's seven evil exes.

As long time readers of my blog will know, Wright's 2007 film Hot Fuzz warmed it's way into my heart as a real favourite and as such, was eager to see what he'd have up his sleeve next, the early previews for this made me laugh but was it going to translate into a worthy successor to the Fuzz.

Sadly, not this time around for one crucial reason: Cera himself, quite frankly there is no real reason you come to care about him as most of the time he either gets the living daylights beaten out of him or he's whining about his own ex girlfriends, he doesn't quite get it that he has to fight in order to win Ramona despite everyone trying to get it through to him, contrast that with Nicholas Angel's arc in Fuzz, he was the top cop who grew into his role as a country lawman and his journey was worth following, here that doesn't happen.

There was some good stuff though, first off the battle scenes were expertly staged and edited, the 8 bit Universal logo is a hoot and Winstead, Brandon Routh and Kieran Culkin make the best of what they have, Routh in particular steals the show with his fast talking dialogue and powers that make him strong with the force.

But in the end, it added up to nothing, as Cera was a dead weight, normally if it's a side role that can be forgiven but this is your main man, there can be no excuses for this plus I couldn't help but feel that Edgar was out of his comfort zone here, hopefully Simon Pegg will be his co-writer again and the magic of Hot Fuzz will be back, as for this well it's a big disappointment overall, 1 and a half out of 5.

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