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Ranking Edgar Wright Films

Edgar Wright is one of those polarizing directors for me as he made one movie that I absolutely adore, some middling efforts and some weaker flicks. His style is always evident which is great for his brand, but the overall nature to these films is overly silly and slight. They are different and original though, and the mixing of the genres is their finest quality. Here is my ranking of all his movies released so far.

6. Hot Fuzz

Yes, Hot Fuzz easily lands on the bottom for me. For some unbeknownst reason to me, this movie is hugely beloved by audiences, but I was infinitely bored by it. Yes, it’s well made and especially well performed, but it is easily the worst entry in its trilogy given that it’s never as funny or as entertaining as the other two entries are. And it’s a buddy cop comedy which I have always disliked as those 80s action films bore me to death. This one is no exception with its endless action.

5. The World’s End

The World’s End is an improvement upon its predecessor, though it’s still weaker than the original film. It’s a passable diversion that benefits from some solid character interactions, good humor and fine dialogue, but the entire alien storyline was beyond ridiculous even for a comedy. The action is overwhelming and the effects are silly. What also bothered me is the change of the characterization of the two main characters which felt too gimmicky and implausible for me.

4. Baby Driver

Baby Driver surprised me. I expected horrible things from it judging by those awful trailers, but the film wasn’t nearly as insufferable as I thought it would be and is actually quite solid. The action is fun, the movie is quite entertaining and it has good dialogue, humor and emotion. It definitely is a solid flick, but still highly overrated as it is basically a gimmick movie with style over substance and with both its plot and its characters being immensely clichéd. It’s the most original film of this bunch and the first solid entry on this list.

3. Shaun of the Dead

The first entry in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy easily remains the best one. I am not a fan of zombie films and certainly all of the zombie action in the second half bored me, but the first half had a lot of momentum before it was lost later on. I found the banter between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost terrific and their character interactions steal the show here. The dialogue and humor are so good at first that the eventual shift to pure horror action territory was unfortunate.

2. Last Night in Soho

While some repetition was evident and the ghouls weren’t as greatly realized, Last Night in Soho is definitely the second best movie from Edgar Wright for a variety of reasons. Its exploration of sexism in the sixties was pretty good and it’s a great cautionary tale against romanticizing the past. McKenzie and Taylor-Joy are both magnetic here. The twist was also a lot of fun. The heavily stylized visuals and a great soundtrack made this authentic genre-bender a blast to watch.

1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

And the first spot on this list easily goes to one of the most purely entertaining films that I have ever seen. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is Edgar Wright’s magnum opus and his only truly great movie. And also his most underrated. The video game style to it is so amazing and inspired as is the storytelling overall. The action is brilliant and hugely rewarding. Every character is memorable and so well developed while the humor is stupendous from beginning to end. It’s a film that can really make you laugh while consistently managing to entertain you with all the crazy action, humor and colorful visuals. It deserves more love for sure.