Now Playing: Scott Pilgrim vs the World

I was really surprised to see that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World didn't even crack the top three on its opening weekend. I had heard so much hype about it. Of course, I guess it helps that I live where I do, so I may be benefiting from a geographical hype. Anyway - I went to see it because I'd read (and liked) the graphic novels.

Poor Michael Cera - will he ever play anything but a slightly befuddled young man who hapless and loveable despite flouting social norms? So, he's good, but when is he not? There a tonnes of recognisable people in the movie too, who I'm not going to list because I'm too lazy to link to their IMDB page. Just check out the cast listing. And the style is just perfect for the geek-chic culture that is now one of the new cool kid cliques, from script to music to super-pixellated animation. (who'd have thunk it?) There may be some complaints about the number of exes poor Scott has to battle (seven!) and while I do agree that some of them are pretty lame in movie-form (the twins? boo.), I didn't think they were too over-the-top, relatively.

The real star of the movie, though, is a little city named Toronto. It was so nice to watch a movie that unabashedly Canadian and see the city without its many disguises (Tdot has probably stood in for every major city at some point, I'm sure). From Casa Loma to the red velvet TTC buses, from Lee's Palace to the Drake Hotel. I mean, I've walked up those stairs! And though it was filmed all summer and they had to fake the snow (why didn't they just film in the winter and save themselves the hassle), the movie perfectly captures the slushy goodness that is Toronto in winter.

This is a cult movie wiating to happen. 4 out of 5 stars.