Imagine if young love played out like a video game. A new beau would have to deal with a girl's ex-boyfriends s by defeating them, thus removing them from the equation of the new relationship. That is exactly whats going on in SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. Edgar Wright captures the feel of a video game right from the video game look and music of the Universal Studios logo to the last shot after the closing credits. But it's not all flash and effects. There's a decent , yet familiar, story here about a guy and a girl and her past. The script is non-stop funny, the jokes coming at you like the aliens in Space Invaders. Sometimes you just don't get them all, and they're all killers. Michael Cera tones down his geeky hero just enough to make it work perfectly. Brandon Routh was never this interesting or funny as Superman. Jason Schwartzman is great as the evil genius/music producer behind the :League of Evil Ex's. Kieran Culkin has some killer lines as Scott's gay roommate/bedmate. Every cast member has their chance to either make you laugh or beat the crap out of Scott Pilgrim. If your a fan of Wright's hilarious BBC series SPACED, then you'll recognize a lot of the same quick humor and even quicker edits. The soundtrack is also fantastic with amazing contributions from Beck. This “epic of epic epicness” is one of the funniest most watchable movies of the year. If it was a video game, it would be worth dropping another quarter to see this again. — Alan Yudman

There are laughs, and a clever look, and at least one engaging
performance (from Kieran Culkin, proving again that his family’s
chromosomes contain a magical acting gene). But this teen romance/
action comedy is travelling ground that by now’s been worn into ruts
by the Hollywood wagon train — starting with Michael Cera, whom we
were hoping would move on after Youth in Revolt. In this picture, his
traditional saucer-eyed, lovestruck bewilderment doesn’t really mesh
with the extraordinary battle skills he employs, videogame style, to
battle his lady love’s seven evil ex’s (a problem that also plagued
Kickass). The graphic realization is top-notch — from the studio logo
at the top to the very last frame of the credits. And I wonder if
director Edgar Wright was a fan of the Fox series Parker Lewis Can’t
Lose, with which PILGRIM shares its comic ‘tude. But the quick
resolution at the end with everybody going smiling into the moonset
left me scratching my head over just what exactly the dilemma was that
Scott had come through triumphantly. — Jeff Schultz