Scott Pilgrim vs. the World triumphantly translates comic book nerdiness to the big screen

If you enjoy movies about adorable slacker bass players who stumble through love and engage in video-game-inspired beat downs with their girlfriends' super-powered evil exes, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the flick you've been waiting for.

As an avid reader of comic books, I always get nervous when a title I love gets tapped for the big-screen.  It's a love/hate thing; a movie adaptation means more people will get turned onto the book, which is great, but the odds are stacked heavily against the movie being a faithful and enjoyable rendition of the source material. 

You can adhere too closely to the comic, á la Watchmen, and it comes off as stiff and long-winded.  Or you can deviate too much from gospel, like X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009's Oscar for Dumbest Title Ever), which every fanboy worth his salt will tell you was awful. 

The last pleasant surprise I had was Kickass, which used the good parts of the comic and made fun, creative changes to the story when it worked.  While it's less about violent action scenes and more about relationships, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World kicks just as much ass. 

The best part of the movie, besides being blessed with a passionate director Edgar Wright (Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz), is its casting.  Michael Cera is quirky and perfect as the clueless, Canadian, kung-fu-fighting Pilgrim.  Cera does what John Cusack did in the 1980s; he owns the role of the funny, hapless heartthrob.  Girls want to date him, guys want to be him.  And just like in Say Anything, the soundtrack rocks (Beck, Broken Social Scene, and Metric all recorded new songs for the film). 

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is simultaneously hardcore and sexy as the object of Pilgrim's affections, Ramona Flowers.  Kieran Culkin is hilarious as Scott's roommate, Wallace Wells and Jason Schwartzman is brilliantly douchey as the the ringleader of the exes, Gideon Graves. 

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is more than a summer movie; it's a zeitgeist movie.  Even though it's set in a snowy Toronto wonderland filled with retro game consoles, ringer tees, vinyl records, and rotary phones, it feels new and speaks to a generation.  And Scott and his friends are just so damn fun to watch. You'll wish the movie was longer, so you could hang out with them a little while longer.