The World's End Review

As the final collaboration between Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, ‘’The World’s End’’ has some high expectations of ending the trilogy well and even though it’s not as funny as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz it’s still an entertaining and unpredictable trip through the town of Newton Haven.

In ‘’The World’s End’’ a band of five friends including the immature Gary King (Pegg), tech savvy Oliver (Martin Freeman), babyish Peter (Eddie Marsan), mild-mannered Steven (Paddy Considine) and tough-but-fair Andrew (Frost) return to their hometown after many years to complete a pub crawl that had previously gone awry, but like its predecessors things aren’t how they seem as the town that once served as their stomping ground has been transformed by a mysterious and deadly invasion force highly reminiscent of something out of Doctor Who. Reminiscence in fact plays a strong role in ‘’The World’s End’’ with Gary contrasting with his friends in that he lives in rather than moving on from the past and in doing so has become much less successful in adulthood; it almost reflects the age of the cast themselves, most of whom are now approaching their forties. ‘’The World’s End’’ also keeps in tradition with both the British heritage and the trilogy it is concluding; twelve different pubs are layered to cleverly tie in with the plotline this time and audiences will be pleased to know that well known gags like the fence jump do return one more time with new twists. The adversaries the ‘’five musketeers’’ face through the storyline are just as threatening as the murderous zombies and corrupt villagers of movies past but one thing they lack is proper interaction with the protagonists. Both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz allowed plenty of development in this way, resulting in some truly hysterical situations, but here the interactions are shoved in at the end, leaving the laughs more muted and replaced with more fight scenes than ever before. Through this ‘’The World’s End’’ takes a different approach which is commendable but it does come at the expense of some comedy which would have been the preferred focus.

Five strong characters round out the main cast, each with their own differing character traits; Simon Pegg is the standout as Gary King who fills in the role of the misguided and irresponsible member of the group. Obsessed with finishing the pub crawl to the end, he’s the character younger audiences will be able to relate to. The other four members are more mature and sensible, leading to a fair amount of tension between them and Gary throughout the narrative, yet as the crawl goes onwards even they learn to let go a bit and enjoy themselves, delivering characters that the older audiences can liken themselves to. The side characters are mostly underdeveloped such as the teacher played by Pierce Brosnan but it matters little as the main characters take up the entirety of screen time, allowing their personalities to shine through. The one exception to this is Sam (Rosamund Pike) who aside from serving as a mild love interest doesn’t have much to say or do through the plot.

The special effects in ‘’The World’s End’’ have been upped significantly for the final act of the trilogy especially towards the end of the flick; just as the age of the characters reflects the age of the actors so too does the action become more bursting with visual effects; the greater use of CGI is evident with more sci-fi effects including blue radiating from the invader’s faces which does clash a bit with the real ink painted on the actors but it doesn’t detract from the action too much. The camerawork has been changed slightly from SOTD and Hot Fuzz in that the quick cuts have been moderately ditched in favour of medium range shots to frame the action sequences and while sometimes the camera jerks about these are mostly clear and visible throughout the film.

Most who were expecting the final film in the Cornetto trilogy to be the most hilarious will likely be disappointed; ‘’The World’s End’’ is easily the least funny of the three, perhaps suggesting that Pegg and Frost may have lost their touch. But does that make it a bad movie? No, there are still plenty of laughs to be had, nostalgia to share and flat-out ridiculous moments to entertain in what is a fairly decent comedy this summer.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars