SPACE is premiering Scott Pilgrim vs. The World this Saturday at 9E/6P. Though it is a comic book movie, it doesn’t seem fair to simply brand it as that. You have a teenager (well, he’s actually 23 but he seemed to have missed the John Hughes moment of clarity in his teens) who comes of age when he has to do battle with his girlfriend’s evil exes. You know? The usual.

Coming-of-age used to mean teens enter adulthood by experiencing love, loss, sexuality, tough decisions etc. Your Breakfast Clubs, Stand By Mes, American Graffitis or My Girls. Now, teens seems to be more de-sensitized and are now portrayed coming into their own by kicking ass to survive or defend their honour and the ones they love.

(I’ll admit, that was a bit of a stretch to compile this list but what the hell!)

Since I mentioned Scott Pilgrim, let’s open with that one, shall we?

Scott Pilgrim

Kick Ass
The little boys’ glamourized fantasy of being superheroes gets doused with the shock of reality as Dave Lizewsk, aka Kick-Ass, gets tangled up with some serious, real world crime lords. Saving lives and kicking some proverbial ass and getting the girl go beyond putting on a suit as Kick-Ass soon learns.

X-Men: First Class
Enduring prejudice is nothing new to us at any age but talk about being empowered by the unique strengths you have at a younger, more impressionable age and becoming a stronger human for it. “They’re just children,” Charles says to which Erik rightly replies, “They were children.”

Catch the original X-Men and X-Men 2 in SPACE’s Comic Book Movie Marathon this Sunday morning.

Hunger Games
Okay, so the basis of this list was kids becoming mature adults while kicking ass. Hunger Games does fit the bill so let’s just hope no one re-verts back to a whiny kid after experiencing such a hard maturity growth (spoiler: don’t read the books unless you want those hopes dashed).

 And there’s no way I was going to drop Hunger Games on this list without bringing Battle Royale to your attention...