Way funnier than I ever expected

Rating: 9/10 (3 September 2010)

I went to see this despite having a very mixed but mostly negative selection of reviews. I'm very glad I went as this is one of the most enjoyable and funny films I've seen in a long time.
Michael Cera plays the slacker who meets the girl of his dreams only to find out he has to battle her 7 evil ex's. Throw in some slacker friends, a gay housemate, a couple of previous girlfriends, plenty of computer game references and you have a very entertaining film. There are some really funny moments in this, it's really rare to find a film that makes me laugh out loud, but I did a lot throughout. It's also very clever story telling and adding to this are many more slightly less but still funny moments as well as an array of special effects which provide some great visual moments. Clever editing and quick cuts are used to move the story from place to place, effects are used to provide hints of the films comic book basis, but it never goes overboard or becomes repetitive.
There is a great support cast, including a very funny Chris Evans, but Kieran Culkin as the housemate and Ellen Wong as Knives Chau also provides some laughs. Michael Cera is a real standout here. He is a very funny actor, though many of his post Arrested Development roles have been, well his Arrested Development role. Here though, whilst he never quite breaks the mold fully, he is less Michael Cera. His timing and delivery of lines is perfect throughout.
My main qualm with the film is that it struggles with the story telling time frame. It starts quite slowly and the first few battles happen progressively, but suddenly the rest of the battles are grouped up together which then leads to an overly long finale.
However, these issues shouldn't be enough to put anyone off seeing this. It's a funny, visually great romp and you don't need to be a computer/comic book/superhero nerd to enjoy it.
More of my reviews at iheartfilms.weebly.com