Get to know the name Edgar Wright. He’s a cinema genius, and not enough people are seeing his movies.

The British director has brilliantly skewered the zombie and buddy-cop genres with 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead” and 2007’s “Hot Fuzz,” respectively. His latest, “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” is a wildly inventive, funny and action-packed adventure based on the cult graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O’Malley. It blends anime, video games and a slew of other obscure pop culture references into a fast, colorful sensory explosion.

You haven’t seen any other movie quite like it.

Michael Cera stars as the titular Scott Pilgrim, a soft-spoken 20-something bassist in the garage band Sex Bomb-Omb. He’s shamelessly dating a high schooler when he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the mysterious new girl in town who seems to change her hair color as often as her mood.

Scott is immediately smitten, but there’s a catch. In order to date, he must defeat her seven evil exes. All of them have big personalities and inexplicable superpowers, including former-Superman Brandon Routh as an ex with psychic abilities heightened by his vegan diet.

Scott engages in brutal battles involving skateboards, kung-fu and laser-swords. Much in the video game tradition, a “Vs.” title screen appears before each bout, extra-lives pop up after grueling levels and vanquished foes morph into collectible coins. Lifebars occasionally appear (as do “pee-bars”) and Scott requires “Level Ups” before he has the ability to wield new powers.

Those well-versed in video game culture will find much to marvel in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” But the film isn’t overstuffed with geeky fanboy references. This is a romance, after all, full of complicated emotional baggage and awkward silences. Wright is just as good with the talky scenes as he is with the action set-pieces, with the comic-book framing, thought-bubbles and miscellaneous visual gimmicks feeding into the development and complications of Scott and Ramona’s relationship.

Cera plays within his familiar acting wheelhouse, but in this case the movie is the perfect vehicle for his signature awkwardness. And the supporting cast here is phenomenal, packed with notable actors like Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman and Kieran Culkin to less-famous-but-familiar surprises (remember Cera’s plain-looking girlfriend from “Arrested Development”?).

Even when “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” gets a bit repetitive in the final half hour, Wright keeps feeding his audience good humor and original eye-candy. It certainly won’t appeal to the masses, as its pitiful box office proved last weekend. “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead” didn’t exactly ignite the box office either. While Wright may never reach Christopher Nolan-level mass adoration, you’d be a fool to miss out on this.

Grade: A-