QZ qz thoughts
a blog from Eli the Bearded

Scott Pilgrim


There seem to be not posts about Scott Pilgrim here. I'll post something later, but right after I saw it, I commented to my wife, "All comic book movies should have those sound effects." By which I meant not the 80s video game actual effects in the movie, but the Adam West Batman ✦POW✦ amd ⭑WHAM⭑ words superimposed upon the action.

Having just been to see a movie which had a teaser trailer for the next Batman flick, I am still sticking with that statement.

I thought it three quarters out of a dollar. I have never read the comic source though I have seen it at the library and considered reading it. I enjoyed the odd mix of dated and modern: Scott has a trimline (rotary) phone at his house, but everyone uses modern cellphones on the go. There are sound effects out of 8-bit video games, and modern CGI effects.

But the inclusion of standards from other media in the movie was the best trait. Characters literally get black boxes and garbled speech when cursing. At one point someone asks "How do you do that?" The story centers on Scott wanting to date a particular girl and all of her exes coming to fight him over her. Everytime one of the foes is vanquished, instead of a body there is a burst of coins. The first guy is almost enough for bus fare. Major foes (ie, exes) go up from there.

I thought Michael Cera as the title character was a weak choice. He plays a typical Cera character, and doesn't really seem capable of growing as the movie progresses. Others casting choices seemed good.

I was displeased that the Netflix DVD of the movie has a special features menu that does not include special features, but instead all of the items just give a message to buy the release version.

Final thought: I know rental versions are different but don't like them being obnoxious