Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) - Wright's comic book nonsense is a terrible and costly studio misstep

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

 

Michael Cera appears on this poster for Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to be a rock guitar-loving kid (in a mysterious movie that promises 'epicness')

 

Scott is a lazy teenager who is dating another lazy teenager, but to win her over, he must beat her seven evil exes.

 

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is an adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's (Lost at Sea (2003)) first five (2004-09) Scott Pilgrim comic books, which very quickly grows very tiring. It appears to have been created for the more irksome segment of emo youths as a busy, speed-talking explosion of colors, graphics and chop-chop editing, which is all over the place and nowhere at all at the same time. The film is not fundamentally about anything and what's worse, it isn't exciting, romantic or funny.

Michael Cera (Juno (2007)) has lots of fight scenes (...!), but most of all I felt like punching him in the throat during Scott Pilgrim. Quite a few talented actors have been attracted to the film's nonsense material, (probably by handsome studio paychecks and co-writer-director Edgar Wright's (Shaun of the dead (2004)) previous films.

Wright co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall (21 Jump Street (2012)). From watching Scott Pilgrim, you'd think the two must be as immature as their awful teen-pandering turkey.

Piece of advice: The outtakes on the DVD last less than 10 minutes and are a lot more fun than the film itself.

 

Related posts:

 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Around 60 mil. $ (down from 85-90 mil. $ through Canadian tax rebates)

Box office: 47.6 mil. $

= Huge flop

[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World premiered July 27 (Fantasia Festival) and runs 112 minutes. Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from March - August 2009, reportedly the biggest film identifiably set in Toronto to date. The film opened #5 to a 10.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, behind The Expendables, Eat Pray Love, The Other Guys and Inception, dropping to #10 in its second week and grossing 31.5 mil. $ (66.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 8.4 mil. $ (17.6 %) and Australia with 2.8 mil. $ (5.9 %). Strangely for a film that is a US/UK/Canadian/Japanese co-production, the film has no Japanese gross listed on Box Office Mojo. The film made in excess of 27.3 mil. $ on DVDs and Blu-rays in North America, which, if taken into account, changes the film's status to big flop only. Although the film was lambasted by several critics, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World?