If you don't get any fun out of watching this, you don't have a pulse...

Rating: 9/10 (16 August 2010)

This movie is fun. It's like a three ring cotton candy circus. It is colorful, graphically intense and also has an underlying deepness to go along with its humor and comic book action.
I haven't personally read the graphic novel so I don't know how it compares, but it is hard not to like this movie, unless you personally have a problem with Michael Cera or only want to watch "real" dramas like the Blind Side and can't get your head around younger fare.
I loved how the movie moved like a comic book, but not in the way Sin City, 300 or Watchman did, this one has a completely different feel. People laughed out several times at the jokes and even though I don't like action movies, the actions like people changing into coins and video game effects kept me interested.
The only way I could describe it is if you put Ghost World and Some Kind of Wonderful in a blender and baked it, then sprinkled a copy of Juxtapoz on it and frosted it with a Nintendo/Street Fighter glaze. It reminded me of all these things. The acting was very good, so good in fact, I wouldn't single out any of the actors, they were all outstanding and I am glad a lot of the characters looked and acted like normal kids and that made it more believable. OK, maybe a crazy Chinese schoolgirl and the hip, Gothic/indie girl are stereotypes at times, but at least they are stereotypes I want to see. And items like the "bass off" and fighting the dragon twin DJs in one scene (great use of fantasy in the picture) came off as original and fresh to me.
If you can't find fun in this film, then you don't have a pulse. If you are gloomy going to see this, I am sure you'll feel like you rode a roller-coaster before you get out of the theater. And I recommend seeing this in a theater too and not wait for video, because I think the constant graphics and jokes will be lost on a smaller scene or move to fast to be enjoyed fully. Even though it is an adaptation of a graphic novel, I feel the idea of this film is original and given the state of movies nowadays, originally and fun can be hard to find. This has both!