I think my original thought when I saw the trailer for “Bridesmaids” mirrored that of many people – “This could be great or terrible.” The advertising really made it easy to consider the film simply a female version of “The Hangover.” Now that we know how that sequel turned out, hindsight shows there were plenty of reasons to fear a dud from Kristen Wiig.

Thankfully, Wiig, co-writer Annie Mumolo (who played the nervous woman on the plane seated next to Wiig), director Paul Feig and the outstanding cast managed to make the female version of “The Hangover” without falling into the trap of simply ripping off that great movie.

We finally got to see Bridesmaids this week, and the film lived up to the hype. Everyone involved created a hysterical manic comedy while mixing in the real emotions which would have to come with a movie about such an important event in a woman’s life. I worried when I saw that the movie ran over two hours, but they needed to do that in order to complete all the circles.

I really liked how they managed to work in the craziness which Wiig and Maya Rudolph have shown on Saturday Night Live without making their characters into flat SNL clones. The skills which they use on SNL merely existed as inside jokes between two friends. That struck me as completely believeable and an inspired way to show off their skills without making “Gilly Becomes a Bridesmaid.”

They also played to the strengths of the supporting characters. Ellie Kemper subtly hit the ball out of the park as the sheltered, repressed friend while Melissa McCarthy masterfully brought depth to the expected insanity Megan brought to the group. The casting across the board hit the bullseye from Jon Hamm as the cad to British character actor Matt Lucas as Wiig’s politely rude roommate to Chris O’Dowd (who I loved in “The IT Crowd) as sweet and silly Officer Rhodes.

Every year, magazines and newspapers trumpet what movies we need to see and every year people like Kristen Wiig remind us that the hype shouldn’t start until people actually see the film because well-written stories in the hands of gifted actors and directors always trump marketing plans.