Please re-release this in theaters.

Rating: 9/10 (14 September 2018)

I can understand how people thought this movie thought this movie was overrated, or dumb, or lacking in substance. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and find it quite charming, a word I don't think I've ever used to describe a movie. It had a surprising amount of heart and even a message, which I was totally not expecting.
What the "message" is might be up for debate, but I think the main theme is that everyone has baggage and it can be dangerous to let our baggage taint our view of other people. You could make an argument that such a theme is meaningless, lame, or even wrong, but I thought it was explored in a very good way that contributed to the style and humor of the movie rather than bog it down. Fighting the evil exes feels like kind of a meaningful parallel to real relationships. A person kind of have to defeat-not just fight but defeat-the baggage of whoever they're dating in a symbolic sense. Even if one or both people have never dated anyone else, there are demons to be defeated. Defeating your significant other's baggage may not be as fun in real life as it is in this movie, but in accepting the challenge I think Scott is proving that he is willing to grow beyond his past mistakes and ignore those of Ramona. In the words of John Watson, "The problems of your past are your business. The problems of your future are my privelage."
I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the stylization of the movie. When I use the word "trippy", it is never in a positive context. Except when I say that this movie was trippy in the best possible way. The fight scenes and power-up moments are thrilling and almost empowering in a way that few if any action movies are. Every time Scott defeats an evil ex, I almost feel like clapping. And the action is just plain good, even without the 8-bit effects. And with the enhanced stylization, they are some of the most fun action sequences to watch ever. They really did a bang-up job on the editing, because the constant sound effect words popping up and the flashes and all of it could have gotten annoying if it were done wrong. But thankfully it was not. Though I think it deserved to make more money, I'm kind of glad it didn't because if it had, studios would probably have tried to copy it's style in lesser ways. As good as the stylization is, somehow it feels better that it stands as one-of-a-kind rather than the best of a sub-genre.
The editing also mixes excellently with Edgar Wright's clever, low-key comedy style. The jokes are not laugh-out-loud funny for the most part, but they make you smile at every point. There's a lot of quotable lines, and the jokes are so frequent and different in style and tone that it isn't that big of a deal if some of them fall flat.
The characters could be called stereotypes, I didn't find this to be true, but one could definitely make a good case for it. However, it is incredibly impressive from both a writing and directing standpoint that the movie contains something like 20 minor characters that are all seamlessly easy to keep track of, even by name. The evil exes are all very distinct from each other, again contributing very well to the baggage theme. Scott's friends are somewhat less distinct, but they all get a decent amount of attention considering how many of them there are and all are fun to watch and are given good performances. Kieran Culkin should definitely have gotten some more big roles from his performance, and most of the other actors have had great success since this movie. The two most important characters apart from Scott and Ramona are Gideon and Knives, and I want to talk briefly about each of them here. Honest Trailers were enraged that Scott chose Ramona over Knives, but I think it totally makes sense. Knives is clearly possessive of Scott and seems like she also might be taken with the fact that he's five years older than her, which doesn't seem like the ingredients for a relationship that's going anywhere. I loved to hate Gideon as the villain. It was weird to see Jason Schwartzman play basically the opposite of his character Max Fischer in Rushmore, but I thought he did great with it. Also, as someone who is a little intimidated by hipsters, it was refreshing to see a cocky hipster king be the villain. The movie as a whole kind of celebrates hipsters and nerds but also points out the problems that often come with both stereotypes.
I would highly recommend this movie to almost anyone. I can understand that if you're older than 25 or 30, it might seem kind of stupid and childish to you, so it's respectable if you take a pass. But anyone in high school or college will probably love or at least mildly enjoy this movie. And even if you don't, you might get something out of watching it anyway. Overall Rating: 8.2/10.