i'll take anna kendrick or aubrey plaza please...thanks.

Yeah, I loved the movie, but thought the trailers, especially the quicker TV ads, were pieces of shit. Although I trusted Wright enough to know that the movie would be far better than what what portrayed in the ads - his editing is such a crucial part of the movie, which just cannot be recreated in the ads.

I agree 100% with this statement. Give the movie a chance -- you can't really know what to expect from this movie just based on the ads alone.

Since this is a reviews thread 8 pages long, can we post without spoiler tags? No big spoilers below, but there are some small ones.


Saw this tonight. Loved, Loved, LOVED IT. I've read the books, but honestly, it doesn't matter! There are so many changes, it's like the movie and the book are both loosely based on the same subject matter. And there were no negative changes, IMO. They ranged from parallel (Roxy being the subject of the knee fixation, not Envy) to being slightly better than the books (i liked this resolution with nega-scott), to being a lot better than the books (the fight additions - Stunt Double fight with Lee and Scott actually having something to do with the Vegan Police appearance in the Todd fight instead of a complete deus ex machina intervention), to being WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the books (the fight with the twins).

Well, only one thing the book was better for sure - Ramona should have been more involved at the end. That part of the book was definitely better, but not by leaps and bounds.

It is absolutely a manic-paced movie. I have already warned some people to be ready for it - stuff happens fast. but the editing for those fast scenes is brilliant (conversations bridging multiple scenes).

really my only 2 complaints - the opening credits (good lord i was about to go into an epileptic seizure... plus, maybe they could have used that time for actual scenes?) and Winstead's hair. I know what her hair was like in the books, but come on. it wasn't the color changes, it was the, i don't know, poofiness? kind of distracting after a while. especially cause the actress is pretty hot. But maybe they were trying to downplay her by putting a muppet on her head? (stole that line from someone else here at DVDTalk, can't remember who). Also, the pee bar - who pees that fast?

Casting was amazing, especially for the exes (notably Schwartzman, Whitman, and Evans). I thought Cera was actually pretty good and didn't "play himself" as so many people claim. Stephen Stills, Knives, Young Neil, Kim (loved the scene of her smiling), Julie (loved the recognition of the censor bar) were all great.

i will probably be commenting more and more.

Really good review. But Knives is Chinese.

who oddly has a father who's into Samurai swords...and she uses a sai too! But she's still Chinese...

Thank you! For both pointing this out and complimenting the review. I've updated it to reflect this.

I went to see it again tonight and I think my subconscious noticed this because I was thinking "Wait, Chinese?! What did I put in my review again?"

I regret to report that the theater I was in was close to empty tonight. I went with a close friend who hadn't seen it. He loved it too but the rest of the theater was scarily close to silence. It was actually somewhat like this when I saw it the first time as well.

I saw the movie today and enjoyed it, but I can see how it was destined to fail at the box office.
Michael Cera leading.
Too many video game references for the average 35+ crowd and female crowd.

It came off as a quirky video game, indie movie.

And then they opened it against a chick flick starring Julia Roberts that's based on a bestselling book, and a film with a some of the best action stars in the last three decades.

Again, I enjoyed it, but it's not something I would pay to watch again. I'd throw it on the Netflix list, but I wouldn't pop it to the top of the queue.

And this right here, ladies and gentleman, is exactly what is wrong with this film and why it failed, financially speaking. Too many video game references for the average 35 year old?? Seriously? This movie was made for the average 30-35 year-old, roughly Wright's age. How many teenagers these days do you think have actually played Zelda? The ORIGINAL Zelda? Or "A Link to the Past"? Or knows what a bomb-omb is? How many high schoolers do you think actually recognized the Final Fantasy II theme when Scott played the basslines? How many teens do you think are excited that Black Francis has a song on the soundtrack? Or even know who he is or what band he started?

Can't get enough of the Metric song "Black Sheep" that was the one that Clash at Demonhead performed. Good Stuff.

Exactly! People think a videogame reference is intended for an audience that currently plays videogames. Young whippersnapper gamers of today wouldn't get those references. They would wonder why the effects for Gideon's sword were so bad, and why the universal logo looked so crappy at the beginning. Heck, how many young people today even know what tetris is (it's old and the iPhone app for it isn't free )?

I think this film will have legs in the coming weeks. It is absolutely a word-of-mouth movie.

That was a great song. I was trying to figure out who sang it. Thanks for the info.

I'm of that age and played video games but wouldn't get those references. I think they're going a little too niche if they are aiming for a target audience who will be in to those particular things (or rather used to be). I've not seen it yet but judging from the various trailer I've seen it looks like the geekiest movie I've never seen!

you wouldn't get a reference to zelda? really?

I really enjoy the entire soundtrack, but yeah, this song is my favorite.

Time for me to seek out Metric's other albums...

Ironic thing is that SP had more resonant things to say about relationships than the Julia flick and had more interesting action scenes than Expendables.

You're projecting a minimal worldview onto a majority. Big mistake.

I grew up with videogames (39) pretty much my entire life -- Atari, Colecovision, Apple ][, Commodore, Nintendo, Sega, etc. -- but I didn't recognize many of the references by cue. However, I did relate to the milieu as a whole. You don't have to know the Final Fantasy II theme or a Zelda reference to understand that the movie takes it entire tone from an 8-bit incubator.

Whether or not it resonates with you, on the other hand, is another bag of hammers entirely.

I agree with this completely.
Scott Pilgrim was a great time and I'll def. be going again. I know one of the comics was named "vs. the world" but it really doesn't seem to make any sense for this movie. The title should have been changed to "vs. the evil exes" IMO. Just wish there was more Chris Evans.

They'd get a lot of them. The 8-bit generation has a large overlap because of the GB, GBA, and DS.

But I'm doubting that this film has legs. How do you convey this movie by word of mouth with good reception?

"Scott Pilgrim was an awesome film, you should see it!"
"What's it about?"
"Michael Cera fighting a girl's exes, video game-style."

When he said that, it made me think of the Otter forum.

In describing this to my friends/family, I haven't even talked about the plot. I just tell them it's a great, FUN movie. I do warn them that it's manic, though. So if they can't handle that aspect, so be it.

I understand what you're saying, and i don't have a problem admitting that I didn't get all the references either. I wouldn't have recognized the FF II bass line by itself, but once scott mentioned it, my brain activated.

But Zelda is Zelda!

"They all deserved it for one reason or another. But more importantly--can I have your number?"

Awesome.

We saw it today. I loved it. I hadn't read the books.