For YMMV tropes that apply to the comic book, go here.
For YMMV tropes that apply to the video game, go here.
- Anticlimax Boss: Nega-Scott. Not that that's a bad thing.
- Applicability: After facing off against the first couple evil-exes, Scott gets into a short argument with Ramona talking about her love life and how many more people he will have to fight. This turns the Shōnen inspired action/comedy into an analogy of bringing baggage into a new relationship.
- Audience-Alienating Premise: According to this article
, that is why the movie didn't do well on it's release in 2010.- The emphasis on the problems of millennial 20-somethings born in the late 1980's alienated everyone older than the youngest of the Gen-Xers, with the film gaining no traction at all with people aged over 40.
- The allusions to video games and pop culture from the 1980s and early 1990s pushed away the cohort of those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s who were under the age of 20 and were either not born yet or were too young to have any memory of those subjects.
- Michael Cera was subject of some Hype Backlash thanks to the perception that he'd been playing the same meek hipster characters over and over (a notion that the trailers did little to dispel, heavily featuring Scott's meeker moments and omitting his more jerkass ones). It also feels laughable that he would in any way be the "strongest fighter in the city" and his acting outside the specific typecasting was another source of disdain for the film.
- Even as streaming platforms make it more accessible than it was in 2010, the original target audience of millennials haven't celebrated the film beyond the small cult audience. The film being built around a nerdy Dogged Nice Guy chasing after a girl feels too reminiscent of the more cringeworthy aspects of late 2000s "nerd culture" they would rather forget.
- Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Literally—when Bryan Lee O'Malley released a color edition of the books after the movies, some of the coloring matches the movie rather than the original black-and-white books, such as Young Neil having dark hair instead of light hair.
- Awesome Music: See here.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- Probably that song Matthew Patel was singing while he was summoning those demon hipster chicks. In canon, even, it seems.Stacey: [after Patel breaks into a Bollywood-style number] What?
- Even though he was a big deal in the graphic novel, the Nega-Scott came completely out of nowhere in the film, except for an incredibly brief moment of probably the vaguest foreshadowing you could do. The deleted scenes on the DVD show Scott seeing Nega-Scott's reflection in the mirror twice, so it looks like there was more foreshadowing planned, it just got cut—which would have probably made the eventual punchline (they're exactly the same) even funnier.
- Probably that song Matthew Patel was singing while he was summoning those demon hipster chicks. In canon, even, it seems.
- Common Knowledge: It's widely "known" that Ramona Flowers is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, to the point that she's practically become the poster-child for the trope... even though she's not actually an example. This misconception probably comes from a joke where Scott describes her as "fickle, impulsive [and] spontaneous", even though the whole point of the joke is that Scott is jumping to wildly inaccurate conclusions based on Insane Troll Logic. The movie's dynamic is actually closer to an inversion of the trope, as Ramona is the brooding, emotionally distant partner in the relationship, while Scott is the hyperactive, childish one whose obsession with her leads her to open up and start enjoying life more.
- Cult Classic: The movie may have had a rather niche premise, but it attracted a devoted if equally niche fanbase. Thankfully, it has developed good word-of-mouth and a healthy home video life.
- Ending Fatigue: Scott goes to Gideon's club, getting past the bouncers with impromptu passwords. He goes inside and makes amends with his band before beating up Gideon's mooks. Then he has to gain the Power of Love and fight Gideon. After that, Knives and Ramona briefly fight so Scott has to break them up and apologize for being a Jerkass. Then Gideon comes back and kills him. He goes through Sub-space, learns of Ramona's control chip, and uses the one-up he earned earlier to come back. He then has to do everything all over again. He gets past the bouncers (this time by punching them instead of going through the passwords), fights off the mooks again, makes amends with his band again, gets the Power of Self Respect, defeats Gideon's demon cheerleaders, beats Gideon, stops a fight between Knives and Ramona again, apologizes for being a Jerkass, frees Ramona from Gideon's control, and the three of them beat Gideon again. [deep breath] Then Gideon sends Nega-Scott after him but that "fight" is at least off-camera. After all that, he goes outside to Knives and Ramona and chooses which one he wants to be with. Whew. And all of this takes more than a quarter of the whole film.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Most people walking out of the theater could be heard praising "that drunken gay guy" which fans will know as Wallace.
- The Vegan Police had quite the following, to the point many would like a Spin-Off movie featuring them be put into work. Thomas Jane playing one certainly helped cement them in this status.
- Kim Pine had quite a couple of followers too.
- Of the evil exes, Todd was seen as the one people liked most. Apparently, being vegan does make you better than other people!
- Evil Is Cool: The Evil Exes retained this from the comics, who all have a wide assortment of ridiculous skills including veganism-induced psychic powers, being a half-ninja, summoning dragons from amplifiers, and more.
- Fan-Preferred Cut Content: In the end, Scott and Ramona both got together, with Knives approving of their relationship. While many fans are receptive towards the ending, an alternative ending was filmed that featured both Knives and Scott together. A lot of fans felt that this was a better send-off for the movie, since it focuses on developing Knives as much as Ramona and Scott, compared to the books, where she's a more minor character, and the buildup seems to be for both of them finally getting back together.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Ramona's line when she fights Knives, "I didn't steal Scott! I didn't steal anyone!" becomes this after her actress, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, received a lot of backlash online after it was revealed she and Ewan McGregor had had an affair while working together on Fargo, with the two leaving their significant others to be together. Even McGregor's daughter voiced her (very negative) opinion about the two, although she has since admitted that posting the comments was "not her finest hour".
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The script describes Scott hurling one of Kim's cymbals at Matthew Patel, defeating him, as "Captain America style". The next Evil Ex, Lucas Lee, is played by Chris Evans, who would not a year later become the official movie face of Captain America himself. This coincidence is actually commented on by the cast (Evans included) during the 10 year anniversary table read.
- The TV Safe edit changes Wallace's line during the Roxy fight from "kick her in the balls" to "kick her in the blight". Mae Whitman, who plays Roxy, would go on to voice Amity Blight.
- The script describes Scott hurling one of Kim's cymbals at Matthew Patel, defeating him, as "Captain America style". The next Evil Ex, Lucas Lee, is played by Chris Evans, who would not a year later become the official movie face of Captain America himself. This coincidence is actually commented on by the cast (Evans included) during the 10 year anniversary table read
- Hype Backlash: Not a huge amount, but at least a number of people were vocal about their dislike of the film, mostly out of chagrin towards members of the nerd crowd endlessly going on about it being the best movie ever.
- Jerkass Woobie: Scott. His jerk traits are a lot more visible in the movie, surprisingly. It's (arguably) fairly justified for most of what we see since a lot of it stems from the whole "have to fight Ramona's Evil Exes" thing.
- Misaimed Fandom: A lot of people seemed to miss the part where Scott isn't really supposed to be a great guy for most of the movie, and only actually starts making up for it the second go around of the final battle.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: The endless pop-ups for this film if you visited Canadiandriver.com at the right time. Yes, pop-ups for a film!
- One-Scene Wonder: The Vegan Police. The Exes generally have few scenes. In the strictest sense, Matthew Patel and the Katayanagi Twins qualify; we see a short clip from a Lucas Lee film before his one other scene, and Todd Ingram's scenes all lead directly into one another in a ten-minute sequence.
- Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Scott/Knives in hindsight; originally, the intended ending was for Scott to get back together with Knives, and her increased role in the film was meant to build up to this. Then Edgar Wright learned of the ending to the comic and ended up changing the film's ending based off of this. So, we're left with all this subtext between Scott and Knives without them becoming a couple again. On the home versions, the Scott/Knives pay-off was actually released as a full alternate cut of the ending.
- Questionable Casting: Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. Sure, they're both dorky, but Scott is an overly-dramatic, outgoing idiot while Michael Cera is known for playing meek whiny intellectuals, two very different kinds of dork. Bizarrely enough, this decision was made by the author himself.
- Refrain from Assuming: The second song Crash and the Boys play is NOT called "We Hate You, Please Die" - that song was actually cut from the movie, despite the announcing of it being left in. The song that plays in the movie after the announcement of that song is actually called "Last Song Kills Audience" - this can be found in a deleted scene on the DVD.
- Retroactive Recognition:
- The second evil ex is played by Chris Evans, who would go on to play Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Envy Adams is played by Brie Larson, who years later would win an Oscar for Room and go on to play Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- There's also Anna Kendrick (Stacey Pilgrim), Aubrey Plaza (Julie Powers), Mae Whitman (Roxy Richter), Ellen Wong (Knives Chau), Kieran Culkin (Wallace Wells) and Alison Pill (Kim Pine), all of whom had already begun to make names for themselves at the time the film was released, but who have since cemented themselves as respectable (and, in some cases, award-nominated) actors. The result is a Retroactive All-Star Cast.
- The film traditionally features artwork that has Scott and Ramona, front and center, with Ramona’s evil exes in the background. The 4K re-release, however, features a similar style of artwork but replaces most of Ramona’s exes with the faces of (the now famous) Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, and Aubrey Plaza.
- Shocking Moments: Stacey's Flat "What" when Patel breaks into a Bollywood song and dance number is a masterpiece of Lampshade Hanging.
- Signature Scene: The entire battle against Matthew Patel is what turns this film from a quirky romantic dramedy to a hype action film; a mix of Satya Bhabha's bombastic performance as Patel, the anime-like action shots throughout the fight, and capping off with a Bollywood-style music number make this a very memorable shift in tone for the story.
- Slow-Paced Beginning: The movie opens slowly; over a half-hour passes before the first Evil Ex appears, even longer before Gideon enters the picture.
- Spiritual Adaptation: Some fans would argue that this is the closest thing they could have to a live-action adaptation of Revolutionary Girl Utena. While the original comic book also made a reference to the anime, the franchise shares similar themes with it as well.
- Tainted by the Preview: From the marketing for this film, one would think it was just a dumb summer comedy about the hipster generation and video game culture. See Audience-Alienating Premise and Trailers Always Spoil.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Due to the flashy visuals, toilet humor, and video game references, IMDb users passed it off as a "kiddie" movie. Need we remind you that this is a movie that has sexual references (although mild), Scott accidentally saying that he wants to give Knives a golden shower, Scott being impaled by the seventh ex (yes, he comes back with a 1-Up, and there's no blood, but still!), and one of the exes dying from having an orgasm. This film actually was not as successful as hoped since it was too "adult" for children and too "kiddie" for most adults at the time.
- The Woobie:
- Poor Knives, more so in the film. First Girl Wins was even played with, but ultimately averted. Notably, the producer even believed that to such a degree... He shot the ending TWICE.
- Ditto for Stephen. You know you wanted to give him a hug whenever his stage fright kicked into high gear.
