Scott Pilgrim vs the World was made in 2010 and directed by Edgar Wright. Based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley, the film revolves around Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) who meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but in order to win Ramona, Scott discovers that he must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends, who are coming to kill him.
The film itself is adapted from a graphic novel and the film plays on that theme throughout the movie. This is shown in the introductory scene through the use of anchorage. The text, which appears in the top left and bottom right corners (much like in a graphic novel) has a cartoon-esque font.
During this introductory scene, Scott and 3 of his friends (2 of which are his fellow band members for their band, Sex Bob-omb) are talking in a low-key lighted kitchen. Scott‘s three friends are sitting round a table, as he has his back turned making a drink. The house they are in is clearly quie cheap as the kitchen is very basic, also using garden chairs around the table. The group is discussing Scott’s new girlfriend, Knives Chau, who is 6 years younger than him. The group are all looking at him whilst his back is turned, as if they are judging him. A shot reverse shot is used in this scene between Kim (the band’s drummer) and Scott, as Kim asks him difficult questions about the age difference in his relationship.
Although the contraversial topic of the socially acceptable age difference in dating is being discussed, the scene is still very light-hearted due to the comic relief provided through the use of dialogue. When Scott's asked if he's even kissed Knives yet, he replies "We almost held hands once but she got embarassed.", to which Kim dryly replies "Well aren't you just pleased as punch."
Also playing on the theme of graphic novels/video games is the cartoon-esque style of the black text boxes which appear next to each character as they are introduced, displaying various statistics about themselves such as their age and name. This is a feature that commonly appears in video games, another key theme of this movie. Also adding to this effect is the use of 8-bit/video game music which can be heard in the background throughout this scene.
When the doorbell rings, the words „ding dong“ float across the scene and fade out, which is used in graphic novels to display sound effects. A shot reverse shot is used between Stephen (the singer/lead guitarist of the band) as he answers the door to Scott’s girlfriend, Knives. Steve lets Knives through into the front room, which is heavily centered around the band’s instruments, consisting of a drum kit, bass guitar and acoustic guitar placed towards the back wall.
When they‘re rehearsing a song, there are extreme close ups used on the instruments such as the drums and guitar. When the various band members strike the instruments, lightning bolt shaped impact lines fly off in different directions, to show the power of the music, but also to emphasise the the theme of cartoons/video games. Also, when an extreme close up is used on the Steve‘s mouth, the lyrics he’s singing appear from his lips and fly/fade out off screen. The camera then cuts to a medium shot of the band, then begins to track to slowly include the whole room, including all three walls which they’re playing against and a full view of the band.
Editing is used during this tracking back shot. The camera shot is a first-person view of what Knives is seeing, as she is watching the band rehearse from the couch, placed on the opposite wall to the band. The actual space between the band and the couch is around two metres, but as this tracking back is used, there’s a much larger gap shown of at least 10 metres. This is to give the impression that Knives is watching Sex Bob-omb perform live at a gig.
After the band finishes rehearsing, a close up shot of Knives Chau is used to show her facial expressions, that she is in awe of the band’s talent. It then zooms in closer on her mouth as she is mid-speech to show her being open-mouthed.
During the scene’s transition change, the word „Afterwards“ can be seen in white text in the top left corner in the same font as the text in the introductory scene, much like how it would be shown in a comic book.
More comic relief is offered through Scott’s roommate Wallace. Wallace plays the role of the quirky best friend, as he is gay and Scott’s age.
Most scenes in the film have a quiet backing music to go along with the scene, so when a scene does not have this backing music, it has a more intense/serious atmosphere, which is shown in the phone conversation between Scott and his sister. During this scene, the screen is split vertically down the middle to show both of their facial expressions throughout the conversation. The slightly more serious atmosphere is in use here due to the conversational topic of his sister asking him if he’s truly moving on from his ex-girlfriend, or if Knives Chau (who still goes to school) is part of his mourning period of his previous relationship.
Later on, when Scott and Knives are in the library, Knives can be seen to be wearing fairly bland coloured clothing, along with her school uniform. The song „Garbage Truck“ by Scott’s band Sex Bob-omb can be heard quietly playing in the background. As they make their way out of the library, Scott sees Ramona Flowers for the first time, a girl who’s completely different to his current girlfriend, which can be seen through her brightly-coloured pink hair, her choices in clothing and her mode of transportation (roller blades).The music increases in volume during the eye contact between Ramona and Scott (which is also a shot reverse shot) and a close up of Scott’s face is shown, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
A very clever scene transition is used here. When the camera zooms in on Scott’s face, a focus pull is used to blur the background. This shows Scott wide-eyed and open-mouthed as he is standing in the library. The music quietens again as Ramona leaves the library, to represent this sense of liveliness and excitement that surrounds her and symbolises her as a person.Then, from off screen to the left, the band’s singer Stephen appears, shouting „Scott!“. This makes Scott snap out of his state of awe as he jumpily turns to face Stephen. The camera then cuts to a medium-long shot of Scott standing in the front room, rehearsing with the rest of the band. This shows Scott was having a flashback to when these events occured, which also tells us that he’s slightly obsessed with Ramona Flowers. Also adding to the idea that this was a flashback is when Scott’s current girlfriend Knives asks him something before the zoom in on his face is used, and her voice echoes as if he’s not focused on what she’s saying, that it’s just bouncing off him.
This scene transition is used again, moments later. This is used to show that Scott isn’t focused on anything happening around him, that he’s too busy thinking about Ramona to identify what’s happening.
Later on in the movie, Scott is at a house party where he discovers that Ramona Flowers will be making an appearance. During this scene, Scott is shown to be wandering throughout the house, frantically searching for her. Throughout this scene, the camera constantly cuts between a close up of his face, and what he would be seeing through his eyes. As he’s searching for her, the diegetic noises of the party are drowned, and the song „I Heard Ramona Sing“ by Frank Black is played instad. A hand-held camera is used during this scene to emphasise that the party would be busy, and he is trying to work his way through the crowds of people.
The general plot of the movie is that Ramona has seven evil ex-boyfriends, each of which Scott will have to defeat for him to ‚win‘ Ramona. The first evil ex-boyfriend appears at a battle of the bands show where Sex Bob-omb are performing. The movie plays on the theme of cartoons/video games, which can be heavily viewed in this scene.
The first ex (Matthew) flies in through the roof of the building and flies towards Scott. As Matthew’s fist is about to hit Scott, Scott blocks with his elbow. At this key moment, impact lines fly off in every direction to show the intensity and the force of the punch. Also, the onomatopoeic phrase „kapow“ can be seen to appear, then fade out, another element that is seen in graphic novels. Scott then punches Matthew after he blocks, as another onomatopoeic phrase „kroww“ appears and fades out.
As Scott’s fist impacts on Matthew’s face, editing is used to display several rings of flashing colours around the point of impact. This feature is heavily used in the fighter game Tekken. This can be seen below. The white ring of light which is shown in the below screenshot flashes between a multitude of different colours within a few seconds.
When Matthew recovers from that punch, Scott and he both land crouching, facing opposite from each other. The phrase „vs“ then appears between them, another feature used in the game Tekken to signify the beginning of a fight. This can be seen in the screenshot below. 
The fight that insues is that of classic Tekken style, focused around martial arts. Various camera shots are used in this scene, such as a shot reverse shot between the two fighters as they are speaking mid-fight, as well as close ups on the kicks/punches of each character. The sound effects in this scene are mainly the emphasised noise that the impact of the kicks/punches would make. At the end of the fight, the words „KO“ appear as Scott defeats Matthew. Following the theme of video games, instead of simply „dieing“, Matthew’s body spontaneously dissappears, and is replaced by coins. This is a feature of the Super Mario games on Nintendo. Interlinking with this point is the band’s name Sex Bob-omb, which is based on one of the enemies in Mario, the „Bob-omb“ and Tom Jones‘ song „Sex Bomb“.
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