One thing Edgar Wright is probably known
for directing is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Mally’s
Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels from Oni Press. What he is probably
known more for, however, is the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (aka the Blood
and Ice Cream Trilogy), a series of three comedy films written by him and Simon
Pegg that each feature a particular flavor of Cornetto ice cream which reflects
what each movie is about. The three movies in this series are Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and, most recently, The World’s End. Usually when I see a movie
in a theater, I see a lot of ads for movies that, for the most part, don’t
really hold my interest that much, if at all. However, The World’s End actually
looked funny to me, and when I found out who exactly was involved with it, I
decided I needed to watch it, my previous experiences with Scott Pilgrim and
Shaun of the Dead giving me an idea of what I was in for (at the time I first saw this movie, I had not yet seen Hot Fuzz). Coming away from this movie, despite
how I felt about the ending, I found it to be quite a load of fun.
In his teenage youth, Gary King (Simon
Pegg) and a group of friends, Peter (Eddie Marsan), Oliver (nicknamed “O-Man”
for his “6” birthmark) (Martin Freeman), Steven (Paddy Consindine), and Andy
(Nick Frost), attempted a pub crawl in Newton Haven known as the Golden Mile,
which would end with the titular pub, The World’s End. While in psychiatric
therapy 20 years later, Gary is asked if he ever regretted not completing the
Golden Mile, which leads him to try and get the group back together so he may
reattempt the pub crawl and get to The World’s End like he wanted. His old
friends aren’t exactly willing to go along with him, since they are busy with
lives of their own, but somehow he manages to talk them into doing it (even
lying a little to get his way). When the group goes through each pub, it is
evident that things have changed since they were last there, but Gary doesn’t
seem to care. At the fifth pub, however, while his friends discover his
treachery, Gary gets into a fight with a teenager in the bathroom and things
turn for the weird when he discovers the teen to actually be mechanical,
spouting blue fluid after the teen’s head is knocked off. When Gary’s friends
try to confront him, they end up having to fend off a group of the mechanical
teens, at which point their pub crawl suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.
The movie presents itself well as a
comedy, not stopping with the laughs even when the more serious side of the
story is unfolding. The jokes have excellent timing and hit more often than
not. Not only that, but the jokes don’t feel forced or out of place and come
off as more natural in the grand scheme of things. The sci-fi elements of the
story, namely regarding the robots (who rather insistently are not actually
robots), are actually rather intriguing and give the movie a great amount of
depth, presenting much darker implications the more we learn about them. The
main characters of the movie also have their own amount of depth; while they
appear one way on the surface, you begin to react to them differently when you
learn more about their respective pasts. The amount of depth in this story is
rather unexpected, but I mean this in a good way since you wouldn’t expect it
just by watching the trailers. Personally, I wasn’t sure what to make of the
ending, since I thought it could have ended better, but despite my mixed
feelings on this the story is still very well-written.
Gary King holding up a map showing the gang's previous Golden Mile attempt. |
While The World’s End has a good amount
of laughs mixed in with a surprisingly complex story for a comedy film, the
special effects presented also deserve some praise. The “robot” effects are
done in a way that looks seamless and blends in with the real-world surroundings
rather than coming off as out of place. The movie doesn’t come off as a CGI
fest like other modern movies, but when the effects do show up they are done
rather masterfully, to where the more I think about them, the more I wonder how
difficult some of the effects were to pull off.
The acting is also really good, special
mention going to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the two actors most common to the
Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy. After seeing Shaun of the Dead, it is evident to
me that Pegg and Frost seemed to have switched character types, which actually
shows that the two actors have quite a bit of range, displaying their acting
talent nicely. This is not to say any of the other actors didn’t perform well;
I could really tell what the characters were feeling and I reacted accordingly,
which shows a nice bit of acting talent on their end as well. Some actors in
the movie have actually appeared in previous Wright/Pegg works in different
ways, including Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which gives them a good amount
of experience that shows in their performance. Equally good is the background
music, which matches the tone of each scene very well and helps push the weight
of important scenes whenever it shows up.
During my time with this movie, I couldn’t
help but notice some similarities to Shaun of the Dead, but in an observational
sense. Both this movie and Shaun of the Dead revolve around pubs in some
fashion, each has a (still funny) gag where Simon Pegg’s character attempts to
jump a fence only for it to fall over, and the “robots” of this movie are in a
way similar to the zombies in the other. This isn’t to say these similarities
take away from The World’s End, but it does seem to help enforce the
relationship between them and Hot Fuzz.
Of course, since this movie is the third
part of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, it would be a good idea for me to
mention which flavor of Cornetto ice cream relates to this film. It’s the Mint
flavor, and it shows up near the end of the movie; when you are aware of the
ice cream being present in each of these movies, you may find yourself looking
for it here, but trust me when I say you’ll know it when you see it.
Overall, The World’s End is a very
complex and funny movie. It doesn’t hit you over the head with how complex it
is like some other movies do, rather it’s more of a subtle complexity that
really adds a lot of depth to the film and helps it stand out from a lot of
other comedies. It is possible to go into this film without having seen Shaun
of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, but if you have seen and enjoyed one or both of these
movies, or are a Simon Pegg or Edgar Wright fan, chances are very high you’re
going to love The World’s End. Considering Edgar Wright’s track record, I have
faith in him directing the Ant-Man movie that opens Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2015.
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