I accepted the brainwashing.

This review is from a card-carrying member of the "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" cult. If I can call it that.

For a supposed cult movie, "Pilgrim" was surprisingly inviting and easy to understand. I don't even play video games, and I'm sure I missed some jokes and references, but the movie never crushed its audience under its arcade-god intelligence.

It is true that "Pilgrim" is likely to be a film appreciated and re-watched in countless basements, but in my opinion, it had all the makings of a perfect "movie theater movie." It looks fantastic, made an entire audience laugh so much entire lines of dialogue couldn't be heard, and - here's what made it for me:

I could always tell what the hell was happening! Usually, there's a moment in a big-budget action film where I think the projectionist ran two reels together. In "Pilgrim's" case, I could savor every bit of action occurring in front of me (and the many background gags that director-screenwriter Edgar Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall, collaborating with Bryan Lee O'Malley, who adapted his graphic novels, slipped in).

Very little of this would matter were it not for Michael Cera as Scott, who for much of the film gets to have his cake and eat it too: having dumped his 17-year-old girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) for the seemingly perfect and supposedly obtainable Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, now destined to be a thousand fanboys' crush object), Scott is conveniently oblivious to Knives' increasingly desperate attempts to get closer to him while obsessing over Ramona's increasing desire to push him away.

Yet Cera keeps the film afloat. He is perfect in the part of someone on the track of having everything he wants, but only after having to put up with several levels worth (literally) of external and internal conflict. And never once did I doubt that he would give up on Ramona, no matter how many walls she put up.

The catalysts for Ramona's actions are her rogues gallery of ex-lovers, all of whom Scott must defeat ("Fight?" "Defeat.") in order to win and keep her love. Among them, a cocky action star and a hilariously smug vegetarian, played to the hilt by Chris Evans and Brandon Routh respectively. Mae Whitman shows up as a "bi-furious" lesbian, and Jason Schwartzman is memorable as Gideon, Ramona's most powerful ex.

Adding hilarious support is Kieran Culkin as Scott's snarky gay roommate Wallace, Mark Webber, Alison Pill and Johnny Simmons as members of the band Sex Bob-omb, and Anna Kendrick as Scott's perpetually texting sister Stacey.

Its not as enjoyable as finally saving Princess Peach, but "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is still worth your time.