Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jason Schwartzman, Keiran Culkin
Running Time: 113mins
Director: Edgar Wright
Another comic-book, another film adaptation however SPVTW is the strongest crossover for a long time. Sticking close to Brian Lee O’Malley’s series of graphic novels, it tells the tale of a Canadian slacker who falls for violet-haired delivery girl Ramona Flowers. In his attempts to woo her, he has to fight AND defeat her seven evil exes who banded together to control her future love life.
Loaded with old-school video game references including those to Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, the film is punchy, mirroring the comic book style, and time and distance are dealt with by slick editing that moves the plot along quickly.
With six volumes to work from, there was always going to be some plot and character casualties but director Edgar Wright and screenplay writers Michael Bacall and O’Malley himself managed to condense the best of the books into a coherent 113 minute movie. There are some scenes that could do with more explanation and some evil exes don’t get as much screen time as others but given that the books drag somewhat halfway through, they did an excellent job.
Although Michael Cera has done the 'awkward but cool' character several times now, there’s nobody out there who could play the title role better. And when Pilgrim starts to become proactive towards his situation, he plays determined quite well.
As love interest Romana Flowers, Mary Elizabeth-Winstead will no doubt inspire a wave of roller-blading, rainbow-haired groupies but doesn’t doing anything spectacular with the character. This may not entirely her fault though, as Flowers does need fleshing out a tad more and lacks dimension beyond being a bitch and trying not to be.
Jason Schwartzman, Chris Evans and Brandon Routh are all excellent as evil exes, giving over-the-top performances without being ridiculous. After the Superman Returns debacle, hopefully this will give Routh another shot at the stardom that he thoroughly deserves.
While it has been compared to fellow comic book adaptation Kick Asss, this is a different beast completely. The fight scenes are well choreographed and slick with fantasy elements. While Kick Ass is grounded in the real world, you're never quite sure if this is all going on in our eponymous hero's head or if they live in a fantasy world inspired by video games.
SPVTW can be many things – a rom-com, an action film, a geek’s wet dream and metaphor for the baggage that we all carry. It’s all about learning and growing and stuff.
With six volumes to work from, there was always going to be some plot and character casualties but director Edgar Wright and screenplay writers Michael Bacall and O’Malley himself managed to condense the best of the books into a coherent 113 minute movie. There are some scenes that could do with more explanation and some evil exes don’t get as much screen time as others but given that the books drag somewhat halfway through, they did an excellent job.
Although Michael Cera has done the 'awkward but cool' character several times now, there’s nobody out there who could play the title role better. And when Pilgrim starts to become proactive towards his situation, he plays determined quite well.
As love interest Romana Flowers, Mary Elizabeth-Winstead will no doubt inspire a wave of roller-blading, rainbow-haired groupies but doesn’t doing anything spectacular with the character. This may not entirely her fault though, as Flowers does need fleshing out a tad more and lacks dimension beyond being a bitch and trying not to be.
Jason Schwartzman, Chris Evans and Brandon Routh are all excellent as evil exes, giving over-the-top performances without being ridiculous. After the Superman Returns debacle, hopefully this will give Routh another shot at the stardom that he thoroughly deserves.
While it has been compared to fellow comic book adaptation Kick Asss, this is a different beast completely. The fight scenes are well choreographed and slick with fantasy elements. While Kick Ass is grounded in the real world, you're never quite sure if this is all going on in our eponymous hero's head or if they live in a fantasy world inspired by video games.
SPVTW can be many things – a rom-com, an action film, a geek’s wet dream and metaphor for the baggage that we all carry. It’s all about learning and growing and stuff.
