Not....Good. It's just not good.

Rating: 2/10 (17 April 2010)

Maybe people enjoy being fed something for their target demographic, but this is just building on the "loner-loser" hipster fetish that seems to be in every movie released. The main character is just a Michael Cera look-alike for Christ's sake, doesn't anybody get tired of this emasculated male crap? I'm not a fanboy nor do I know the source material, but it shouldn't be required. This just wasn't a good movie. It's another in a long line of teen-themed hipster genre movies that pretends it has a meaningful undercurrent but instead just falls flat.
It also hits on the same "shocking" notes as a lot of other films that look to be 'edgy' without putting in any effort for real social commentary. I've seen countless films in the last 3 or so years with casual cocaine use, children swearing/acting like adults, casual high school homosexuality, sudden knee-jerk violence, etc. It's not shocking, edgy, socially conscious or even fun any more. It's just tired and played out, unoriginal. Same old crap.
Besides its "edginess" there's just a very hallow, very tired superhero plot arc, complete with boring fanfare music and worn out origin stories. They throw in elements from classic teen movies that play out exactly as you would expect. The narrative, or what most folks would call the merit of the movie, plays like it came out of an instruction manual. There's no creativity here.
The violence isn't even as shocking or surprising as they pretend it is. I've seen cheap action movies from the 80s with more original graphic violence, not to say such a thing is high art or difficult to do. It's just silly and especially pointless in a self-aware movie like this one.
Keep shoveling on the crybaby teens mixed-genre movies so the box office is drained and Hollywood can move on.
Avoid. 2/10