It was sooooooooooo worth the wait.

There have been several opportunities in the last few months for me to get a peek at "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World," and as much as I am chomping at the bit to see the film, I also know that I'm only going to get one shot at seeing the film for the first time, and when that happens, I want it to be finished.  I want every effect in place.  I want every song to be fully mixed and laid in.  I want the complete "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" experience.  In the meantime, Edgar Wright's been Rick-rolling his Twitter followers for months with fake "announcements" that the trailer was online, making the anticipation even worse and making me wonder if I should just give in and take an early peek.

Looking at this trailer, just released this morning, I am more confident than ever I made the right choice.

I was not aware of the Bryan Lee O'Malley books until Edgar started talking about making this film several years ago.  I went out and bought everything that was available at that point and fell in love with the books completely.  They are witty and charming and loaded with heart, and the artwork is a gorgeous hybrid of 8-bit obssession and manga influence, personal and quirky and hard to categorize.  The final book in the series is coming out soon, and because O'Malley is just now finishing, there are going to be some major digressions between Edgar Wright's movie and the books that come later in the series.  The movie is very much its own thing.

So what exactly is it?

I was worried that it would be a hard concept to communicate in a few minutes, but it turns out, it's fairly simple.  Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and falls head over heels for her.  In order to date her, he must fight and defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends.  There's music.  There's crazy comic-book action.  There's Superman and Captain America and Max Fischer.  It's a barrrage of amazing imagery in just , and it doesn't look like anything else out there.

It looks like Universal's identity this year is "the studio taking big risks on outrageous projects," between this and "Paul" and "Your Highness," and it's thrilling to see a studio take a chance on something like this.  Don't get me wrong... I think it's got huge commercial potential.  But it's an act of faith on the studio's part, hoping that the final product is going to somehow synthesize all of these influences and styles into something that works as entertainment and that also speaks to a wide audience.  What the trailer conveys to me is a confidence in this heightened reality and an almost effortless command of comic-book language, and the way the FX and the editing and everything comes together... like I said.  Worth the wait.

I would love to know what the uninitiated think of the trailer.  I'm sure "Scott Pilgrim" fans and Edgar Wright fans are flipping out right now, but for someone who really doesn't know what the movie is and is only being introduced to the idea with this trailer, did it do its job?

I sure hope so.  "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" opens August 13th.

And if you want some more images from the film, check out our new galleries here and here.

Can't get enough of Motion/Captured? Don't miss a post with daily HitFix Blog Alerts. Sign up now.

Don't miss out. Add Motion/Captured to your iGoogle, My Yahoo or My MSN experience by clicking here.

Not part of the HitFix Nation yet? Take 90 seconds and sign up today.

You can e-mail me at drew@hitfix.com or follow me on Twitter, where I'm DrewAtHitFix.