Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is “not a perfect movie — the ending is rushed, and the serialized graphic novel doesn’t lend itself well to a three-act structure,” Cinemablend‘s Katey Rich reports from Comic-Con. “[And] it probably won’t fly with older critics” — cranky-heads burdened with cinematic standards, she means — “[because] it’s too shallow, too silly, too obsessed with pop culture references to mean anything on its own. But I suspect anyone young enough to grow up with video games will feel an instant connection.

“Lucky for [director] Edgar Wright and Universal, that young audience makes up most moviegoers. If the Con audience tells their friends, and their friends tell theirs, Scott Pilgrim — flaws and all — might stand a chance at becoming a generational milestone. People outside of the insular world of Comic-Con just need to be willing to take the risk.”

Indeed — the mantra and meme of all Comic-Cons now and forever is “insular.” That insularity is welcome to itself, of course, and accessible to all comers, but what kind of thumbs-up review (which this is) basically says “see this movie as long as you’re willing to man up and take a risk, which you won’t actually regard as a risk if you’re young enough and wear shorts and dorky-looking sneakers with no socks and have had your narrative vistas defined by video games and graphic novels”?

“What the world needs now is insularity…that’s one thing that’s good for you and for me.” — Jackie DeShannon, “What The World Needs Now Is Insularity,” lyrics by Hal David, music by Burt Bacharach.