ACTION COMEDY; 1hr 52min
STARRING: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Pilgrim’s progress: Cera and Winstead
Adapted with fizz-to-go by Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has Juno main man Cera going the whimsical road once more as 22-year-old perennial Toronto boy Scott Pilgrim. While dating a besotted 17-year-old schoolgirl (Ellen Wong), Scott is bowled over by a cool chick with magenta hair — then blue, then green: she’s capricious — and seven aggro exes. To earn his place as her new guy, Scott must battle each of these vengeful loonies to the explosive end.
This could be a bummer if weedy but quick-smart Scott didn’t have an arsenal of awesome video-game variety moves, the industrial-strength hide of a bounce-back cartoon staple and the odd-duck input of his snippy sister (Anna Kendrick), gay housemate (Kieran Culkin) and Sex-Bob-Omb band-mate friends (Alison Pill and Mark Webber). Pair their elementary characters with manga-impacted magic realism, adrenalised Me-gen mojo and roughhousing of the Ouch, Kapow kind and the kooky quotient is fixed at unreal.
