Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Movie Review – Featuring Twilight Actress Anna Kendrick

I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World last night after many good recommendations from friends, and it did not disappoint. What a visually dynamic movie that had a lot of originality (hard to imagine based on movies that come out today). As many of you probably know it was adapted to film from a graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O’Malley so the visuals are very graphic-novel style and the content is very story-like in terms of transitions and progression. I also went to see this for Twilight Connection purposes as our lovely Anna Kendrick has a role in the movie playing Scott Pilgrim’s (Michael Cera) sister Stacey Pilgrim. The movie is a wild ride of quick quips, memorable characters and bold bright graphic-novel style music performances and battles.

The storyline of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World follows the lives of Scott (Cera), his lovable roommate Wallace (Kieran Culkin), Scott’s high school girlfriend Knives (Ellen Wong), Scott’s band mates and of course the highly coveted Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Scott falls hard for Ramona and goes through a series of hilarious run-ins with her including bad pick up lines at a house party, ordering something on Amazon.ca (because she works there) so she’ll deliver it to his house and finally their awkward first date on a snowy night in Toronto. You can’t help but like the main characters – Scott with his complete lack of understanding of the dating world, and Ramona with her edgy blue hair but soft spot for her dorky admirer.

The story takes shape when Scott finds Ramona has a past he didn’t necessarily account for including seven evil exes that he must defeat in order to continue dating Ramona. This of course gets complicated with Scott’s high school “girlfriend” Knives Chau on the scene as well as the arrival of Scott’s ex Envy Adams (Brie Larson) who is back in town to perform with her own band. To make matters worse, one of Envy’s band mates is also one of Ramona’s exes. The characters start to get embroiled in emotional turmoil and the battles begin.

This is where the story delves more into graphic novel/gamer land as the movie screen lights up with power bars, points, gold coins, blasts and descriptive sound effects. It’s a really cool movie just on a visual level, especially when they do split-screen style shots to create a “gaming” feel for certain moments. Amidst all of the crazy of the evil exes debacle, Scott is also trying to forge a future with his band mates of “Sex Bob-omb” – a rock band that is trying to break out onto the music scene but also trying to retain their integrity as an indie band.

We also get a Twilight Connection with Anna Kendrick‘s appearance in the movie as Scott’s social scene savvy older sister Stacey Pilgrim. She provides Scott with advice on the trials and tribulations of his love life in a sassy manner reminiscent of some of her moments as Jessica Stanley in The Twilight Saga. We get some quiet moments between brother and sister as Scott opens up to her about his love life, as well as snarky banter in scenes where she mocks his ridiculous choices and behaviour. She always seems to bring something different to the table for each of her roles will still remaining recognizable and constant as an actress working with various genres. From Twilight to Up In The Air to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – Anna’s movies suggest she has a really bright career ahead of her.

There’s a bit of something in this movie for everyone which is why I’d recommend it to all of my friends. If you love Michael Cera (which many people seem to already from films such as Superbad, Juno and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) then this is a must see. He’s so good at playing these goofy guys who just sort of bumble their way through dating and social awkwardness yet make no apologies for just being themselves. He is such a lovable guy that you can’t help but like him. Of course there’s Anna Kendrick‘s appearance for Twilighters to check out and support, and there is tons of good music and graphic-style visuals in the movie. Add in plenty of humour, diverse actors, original plot and good music and what’s not to like? Go see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, you won’t regret it!

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