Canadian Artist Bryan Lee O’Malley created the graphic novel Scott Pilgrim, a series about young Scott Pilgrim as he tries to win over Ramona Flowers by defeating her 7 Evil Exes, and this Friday, August 13^th, the series will be transformed into a big budget film.

The movie, which stars Michael Cera as Scott, Die Hard’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona, and is directed by geek king Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead).

The story follows the original comics as Scott tries to win over Ramona Flowers, the new girl from America, after seeing her in his dreams but as their relationship begins so does their troubles.  Ramona is haunted by the league of evil exes, seven past relationships from her past, each of which wants her back.  Now Scott must fight, and defeat, each in order to be with her.

The story is back by the original characters from the comic, which with Wrights help transfers smoothly over to the screen, but the biggest achievement is the background material that occurs.  The writing on the screen in comic form to help narrate the story, the video game style battles (which mimic classic games like Street Fighter, River City Ransom and guitar hero) are highly stylized and contain more action then any film this season.  The martial arts fights are on par to kung fu films starring Jet Li and Jackie Chan.

The humour, which some of the older audience may be lost in, is targeted at different audience.  The opening, music and graphics are aimed at an 8-Bit audience, but the later video games joke would be lost except for the newer and game heavy crowed.  Yet the movie is still wildly enjoyable for all ages despite the gap for selected jokes.  The movie has received positive praise from many well known directors including Quentin Tarantino, Jason Reitman and even Kevin Smith.  Kevin was quoted as sayin “That movie is great. It’s spellbinding and nobody is going to understand what the f–k just hit them. I would be hard pressed to say, ‘he’s bringing a comic book to life!’ but he is bringing a comic book to life.”

In short:  This movie is excellent.  It is vibrant, exciting, and well worth the price of the ticket.  You will find yourself laughing, smiling and debating over which battle was better.