Dear Mr Wright,

to be fair, this is more of a confession than an apology.  I didn’t go and see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in the cinema.  I’m sorry.  You see, we couldn’t really afford the cash or time to go and see two movies really close together, and I had to choose.  The Expendables or Scott Pilgrim.  This may not seem like much of a choice for fans of the Scott Pilgrim comic books, but I’m not really a big comic book fan.  Never have been, not likely to change now.  I grew up with Stallone movies, and I was suckered in by the advertising.

I love Bruce Willis (who doesn’t), and I was excited to get the chance to see a film with all the great action heroes of my youth in one place.  I didn’t expect it to last for only a single scene and for the rest of the movie to be the Stallone & Statham show.  Don’t get me wrong, Jason Statham is just purely awesome, and the movie was okay (not great, but okay).  Pacing was a bit confusing at the start, but I digress.

So I had a choice, a comedy action movie that I thought would work just as well on the small screen (i.e. your Scott Pilgrim flick), or a huge action movie that I felt would be better suited to the giant screen of our local cinema (i.e. The Expendables).  We chose the latter.

It was, the wrong choice.

I knew I was going to buy Scott Pilgrim on DVD (in the end, I got the special edition steel book), so I wasn’t too worried, it would get my money eventually.  I was sad when the US Box Office figures were so low, but I don’t live in the US so I couldn’t influence them really.  I was confused when I found out the release date for the DVD in the UK was after Christmas, but that just meant I had to buy it myself instead of getting it as a gift.

But none of that matters.

I should have gone and seen it at the cinema, because it was freakin’ awesome!

I laughed so hard it hurt.  I can count on the fingers of two fingers the number of movies I’ve watched and then instantly wanted to watch again, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is one of them.  We’re seriously thinking of watching it again tonight (my wife loved it as well).

Some films I saw in the cinema and regretted doing so, because they weren’t very good.  Some films I got on DVD and asked myself why I had waited so long.  Never before have I bought a film on DVD and wished so badly that I could have supported it in the cinema at the time.

It is such an effortless movie to watch, belying the intense effort and attention to detail that clearly sits beneath the surface.  It was a joy.  Not just a pleasure, not just enjoyable for it’s own sake, but a joy to experience as an actual experience.  I don’t just want to talk about the film, about what happens and the cool bits, I want to talk to people I know about how I enjoyed the experience of watching it, what emotions it evoked, how it made me feel.

I am sorry Edgar Wright, for picking the wrong film to support at the cinema.

Please, go buy this movie.  Not because it’s good (it is), not because it’s epic (it is), and not just because it’s stomach achingly funny (it is).   Buy it, not because it is beautifully shot (it is), and not because the soundtrack is wonderful (it is), but because it will make you a better person (and also, it will help alleviate my guilt, thanks).