Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2011

©2010 Universal Studios. All rights reserved

Okay, I get what writer/director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) was trying to do. His masterful send-up of ’90s comic books and video games is fast-moving, visually arresting, bizarre, outlandish and absurd, and it takes place in a reality governed by the laws of Nintendo. But to enjoy a satire, any satire, you have to be familiar with what’s being satirized. So those of you who spent that decade reading comics or playing video games 24/7 will dig it. The sentient among us will see it as an unsatisfying, repetitive, over-caffeinated, juvenile, exhausting and colossally pointless video-manga-doodle.