Fight for a Reason

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2017)

Based on a popular series of graphic novels, this elaborate action comedy focuses on an unemployed youth who finds his life turning into a video game in which he has to 'battle' an attractive girl's exes to secure her heart. Director Edgar Wright uses several dreamy scene transitions to establish a blur between reality and fantasy early on with characters in one frame seeming to interact with the action in the next frame. The film is also populated with eye-popping special effects, ranging from info graphics to words and lines that jump off the screen to comic book style punches and blows during the fights. In short, it is visually arresting motion picture through and through. The universe in which the film exists does not always ring true though. Much of the fun comes from how lead Michael Cera is absolutely baffled by the superhero-ish powers of the exes, but nobody else seems to think anything of comic style fights breaking out in the middle of concerts or on movie sets. None of the fights come with much sense of danger either as Cera bounces back being dropped and whacked unscathed like a cartoon character. Never to mind, the film offers a sufficiently engaging parable of the issues facing young adults today with everything that occurs in the film highly metaphorical. It is about Cera standing up for himself (and to himself!), getting over his old girlfriend who he is still pining for, and going the extra mile to win the heart of a girl he fancies. Whether he ends up with the right girl is debatable, but the journey alone is worth experiencing at least once.