The World's End is the final film of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, released a considerable amount of time after Hot Fuzz, as Wright was working on another cult classic project (see: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). I had seen the previous two films years ago and slightly remembered their concepts, but rewatching this trilogy has been incredible. However, this conclusion is definitely my least favorite of the three. While it is still wildly entertaining and Wright's signature style is still evident, many of the story and design elements were, unfortunately, a bit lackluster.
The best aspects of this film are what make Edgar Wright my absolute favorite director. His detail-oriented shots along with his painfully witty dialogue definitely make this film worthy of his essence. The directing was great, as expected, and there were plenty of his signature quick montages, this time with beer on tap. The pacing, however, was a bit slower than the rest of this trilogy. Even though it is hard to escape Wright's style once it is used, this film just felt more drawn-out than it should have been. The humor in this film was fantastic, as Wright wrote six wildly different characters with different lives, all dragged into this strange mess by Gary King (Simon Pegg). King's goal was to finish the epic pub-crawl that he and his friends had attempted more than twenty years before. All of the characters involved, including Andy (Nick Frost), Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steven (Paddy Considine), Peter (Eddie Marsan), and Sam (Rosamund Pike) were all varied personalities. The main element that brought all these friends back together was Gary's devotion to maintaining his youth and the childishness that came with it. It was very fascinating to see how his friends reacted to his actions, as that aspect brought out most of the humor. I also loved the focus on aliens this time around. As it was zombies in Shaun of the Dead and maniacal cults in Hot Fuzz, this film focuses on extraterrestrials that were very reminiscent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Pegg plays a much different character in this than the two previous films that he co-wrote with Wright. In this, he nailed the immature "bad boy" persona that was set up very well, but I could not get over his fake, black hair. It was so noticeably dyed and that little element of the design took me away from the story, as minuscule as that sounds. Another of my biggest issues with this film was its third act and conclusion. The last fifteen minutes or so took me way out of the movie and not for a good reason. The entire premise of this movie was for these friends to finish their pub-crawl during an alien takeover in this small town. Towards the end, however, while that was still Gary's goal, the antagonists' side of the story took over too much for my liking. The scene down in the basement of the final pub went on for way too long and it introduced elements of the aliens' motivation that should have been included earlier. The aliens' goal could have been implemented into the story much better earlier on, but it was all introduced all of a sudden. Most of this dialogue was for the humor, which it worked in that sense, but it took a completely different direction plot-wise. The final scenes were a bit over-the-top too, even for an Edgar Wright piece. The setting changed as the entire world went dark during the apocalypse, and the design for everything took a complete 180. While this could have potentially set up another film, that was not the point of this trilogy.
Edgar Wright's third and final piece of this trilogy could have ended a bit better. While I still enjoyed the cast, premise, and directing style, there could have been more focus on the execution. I honestly believe that Wright does better with his style when his film has a lower budget, as this was an explosion of special effects. I would still recommend watching The World's End, however, as it is a very entertaining, apocalyptic romp.
My Rating: ★★★
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