Coming at it as someone who never read the comics, I’d say that he also found himself in video game situations and that’s what you do in a video game. And not only was he fighting because people told him to, he never started winning until his gay roommate told him to fight. It’s like the roommate was his fight muse.
At the very end, he had to say that he was fighting for himself in order to win.
One question for those who disliked the movie: do any of you play video games?
Except that the action is so video-gamey that it’s entirely in his character type to be able to fight when it’s basically a big arcade game and not a “real” fight. I never had the impression that if he was just jumped in a dark alleyway by common thugs that he’d be able to bust out the same moves.
Not that I had an issue with the arcade style; I enjoyed it. It just didn’t break the Cera mold.
I kind of suspect that, in Scott Pilgrim’s world, getting jumped by thugs in a dark alley looks something like this. I don’t think there’s “real” violence in Scott’s world - all physical conflicts in his world play out like video games. (We can assume, therefore, that the Allied forces in their WWII likely consisted of just one guy. Probably in a bandolier.) In the context of the world in which he inhabits, Scott is an incredible badass. And that’s definitely against type for Michael Cera. Admittedly, this is the only context in which bas-ass Michael Cera doesn’t instantly destroy the picture’s credibility: while it’s still an unlikely position to see him in, if there were any universe in which Cera could be a bad-ass, it would have to be the Scott Pilgrim-verse. But it’s still an amusing subversion.
Loved it. Maybe you have to be in to video games to like it.
I like Cera in general, even though I must admit that he does play one role over and over again.
I think we all play PC games.
I hate video games, and, as I previously mentioned, I liked it.
This is the only thing I’ve ever seen with Michael Cera, though.
I loved it, possibly because I haven’t got a bee in my bonnet about Michael Cera playing the same role over and over again, so I could watch without comparing him to Juno or Superbad.
The music was great, I noticed enough of the video game references to be entertained by them, and Edgar Wright’s blending of comic book effects and live-action film meant that it had its own unique style.
I watched it in the cinema twice, and I can’t remember the last time I did that. Seeing all the effects on the big screen, the whole audience laughing - it was a proper film-going experience.
I enjoyed it. Video game violence, and as for personality…hey…he was a bass player.
This. Did you not see the way Ramona instantly looked a whole lot more interested the second he mentioned the was in a band? the way she looked at him when he was playing? pick up a guitar, get on stage, you’ll have girls like Ramona begging to blow you every night.
I kind of agree with RickJay about the utter lack of personality in Scott Pilgrim (Cera had more personality in Juno, for Pete’s sake), but thought the movie overall was OK.
I mean, if you’re asking why this slacker guy fights the Evil Exes, don’t you have to start asking how he can survive being throw through a brick wall, and wonder how he can jump 30 feet in the air, and so on? I mean, this is the point at which the movie turns on the “Please suspend your disbelief” sign, sends a disbelief suspension request to your facebook page, and has you sign a six-page waiver suspending your disbelief. Kind of misses the point to say you don’t find it realistic there.
Maybe, but that didn’t impress itself on me. I saw Pilgrim’s fights as more of a one-off but then I’m not at all familiar with the comic or whatever so I could very well be wrong or have missed something. Not that it ruined the movie or anything for me, I just didn’t get any “funny juxtaposition” vibe from the character.
I do play video games. The first thing I recognized was the Zelda music! I loved that aspect of it, just thought a couple of the characters were dull so it threw off the whole movie. Maybe there will be a second one…
I used to play lots of video games, yet I still really didn’t like the movie.
I see he also did Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
LOVED Shaun of the Dead, HATED Hot Fuzz.
I don’t play much in the way of video games anymore, but I did as a child – so I really appreciated the movie’s aesthetic, the effects, the musical references. But, no, I didn’t like the film itself very much, although I can’t recall what my specific criticisms were. Michael Cera wasn’t one of them; I thought that his performance was if anything at least slightly different from his standard cerachtor (ahem) and not badly done. Maybe perhaps a bit too wimpy.
Thinking back on it, I believe it all just seemed too … pat, too easy, too cloying, particularly the ending.
(For whatever it’s worth, I really enjoyed Shaun of the Dead and probably Hot Fuzz even more.)
I find the entire concept, that you have to physically fight someone’s exes, to be quite juvenile and asinine.
I’ll never go out of my way to watch it.
I mean, the comics are really awesome.
But they’re attacking the protagonist, against his will; he’d prefer to avoid fighting. This isn’t something that normally happens in that universe.
I didn’t hate it, but I definitely felt like it wasn’t for my generation. I didn’t know anything about it going in, and don’t think I ever really got it. I still don’t understand why they all had superhuman powers. It had some inventive visual elements and some wit (I liked the vegan guy having his powers defeated by milk), but it felt really “young” to me. I never felt so much like a parent watching something my kids liked and going, “What’s going on. Why can he fly? Is he super? What’s going on with that magic door? I don’t get this.”
I was also put off right from the start that the Michael Cera character was dating an underaged girl. Couldn’t get past it (although I know from long personal experience that it’s commonplace for slackers in bands. High school girls are easily impressed).
This one time at band camp, there was a girl I was interested in. But all she wanted to do was play with her flute.
