[***SPOILER WARNING GOES HERE!***]

I went into this film grumbling slightly and kicking my heels. “Man fights exes in order to win girl, oh fucking great,” I said. The trailer hadn’t done anything to dissuade my grumblitude, and I’d spent the past few days staring angrily at Le Roman De La Rose and going, “HAVE OUR IDEAS OF HOW MEN AND WOMEN INTERACT IN THE FIELD OF RELATIONSHIPS REALLY NOT IMPROVED AT ALL SINCE 13TH CENTURY FRANCE” ad nauseum to all those around me.

"If I say yes, will you sign for your damn package?"

So in I went, determinedly wiping my mind clean and free of any prejudice, and settled my fine arse down in one of the seats and glared at the cinema screen, daring it to prove me wrong.

It literally did, as well.

I was comprehensively proved wrong about Scott Pilgrim by Scott Pilgrim, and I’m actually really glad of it, because I had a great time. Allow me to inform your mind-hole about how I was proved wrong and where.

Well, firstly, there’s the whole evil-ex-fighting thing. “GRUMBLE,” said I. “FIGHTING FOR A WOMAN,” said I. It is, in fact, none of these things. I felt a bit stupid. Perhaps I should have read the graphic novels first? But then, I’m a firm believer in the idea of things being able to stand alone as works of art despite being based on a previous work, and I think this film does. So I sat there, stewing in my own uneducatedness, occasionally hissing “Hah! Reading the source material is FOR THE WEAK!” and actually loving it.

But see, he’s not fighting for Ramona (The Girl, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) at all – he’s fighting for himself. Each ex is more daunting and jealousy-triggering than the next, and he’s fighting what we all fight when we get together with someone new – the Ghost Of Partners Past. Not the literal partners, but our ideas of them, and how much better they are than us.

…I know it can’t just be me, okay, I just saw a film that said it wasn’t just me. Shut up.

Secondly, I was all, “Ugh, this is going to be heteronormativity central”. It wasn’t. There wasn’t just gay visibility (with Kieran Culkin as Scott’s MIND-MELTINGLY ATTRACTIVE housemate Wallace OH GOD) but also a bit of bi visibility, with Ramona’s exes being adamantly exes and not ex-boyfriends. I mean, it’s spoiled a bit when Ramona confronts Roxy (Mae Whitman) with “It was just a phase, I was a little bi-curious” rather than it just being accepted unapologetically as, “Yep, I’m bisexual,” but in an age where bisexuality is still thought not to exist (!!) it’s something.  Excuse me for triumphantly dancing around the only scrap of water in this desert.

Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman): more than a little bi-furious

Thirdly, th-the female characters don’t suck! I thought they were going to be crap, and they weren’t. Knives (Ellen Wong) was fantastic. Ramona was stalwart and human. The stand-out moment for me, however, was when Scott (Michael Cera) and Ramona are in bed, and she says, “I’ve changed my mind; I don’t want to have sex with you, and I reserve the right to change my mind again about that later” and that’s that. It passes with no awkwardness, no negative comment and no pressure whatsoever. It’s brilliant.  Can we please have more positive portrayal of women choosing not to shag guys in films, please? That’d be great. Because too often, she’d be demonised for that – words such as “fickle” and “cock-tease” would be flung about like undesired cornflakes placed before a two-year-old – but she’s not, here.  Hooray!

Similarly, there’s no gay panic. You know gay panic? Yeah, that. Well, it doesn’t exist in le Universe d’Scott Pilgrim. Scott shares a bed with his gay housemate (and his housemate’s increasing library of lovers) with no comment or problem.   It’s an idealised world where the oft-played-on awkwardness of “straight masculinity vs. gay masculinity” simply doesn’t exist, and it’s really refreshing.

Also, I was totally won over by the soundtrack and visuals.  Then again, I am a simple creature.  Glitter and 16-bit everywhere!  It’s like an illegal rave in Marioland.  I’m almost disappointed that I loved it. I wanted a really good trumpeting rant, and I’ve been denied that. Damn you, Scott Pilgrim! Damn you for being surprising and good.

"... and also, I totally play the lute."

YOU SHOULD SEE THIS FILM BECAUSE:

• It does many things right, including people, consent and sexuality
• It’s a winsome and appealing portrait of how much people suck at interacting romantically
• It’s really very gorgeous
• …And so are the people in it

YOU SHOULD NOT SEE THIS FILM BECAUSE:

• It’s very geared at a specific audience (late teens/early twenties, geeky, internet-fuelled) and therefore might not be accessible for everyone

Movie stills: Universal/Everett/Rex Features