Review of The World's End (2013) by Henry G — 02 Mar 2016

I Just re-watched The World's End starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and at first I thought it was very enjoyable but still the weakest of any Edgar Wright film (which isn't saying much due to the Directors caliber) but now I have to say it is completely on par if not surpasses his other films in terms of creativity and BRILLIANT writing though still his weakest in his execution that could have been a little less convoluted.

The cast here is a superb lovable British ensemble that keeps the banter fresh and drunkenly witty even though some characters are useless in the grand scheme of the film (i.e. Eddie Marsan's character).

But really what impressed me the second time around is I realized its the opposite of all his previous films where the hero has to come to terms with his issues and the world around him and change for the better (i.

E Scott Pilgrim learns to love himself, Shaun learns to grow up, Nick Angel learns to relax and have friends) NOT here. In The Worlds End our hero Gary King an alcoholic degenerate who refuses to grow up (common theme for Wright) and yearns to relive his glory days so he escapes rehab and lies and schemes his old friends into joining him on his quest to relive the past while the future (in the literal form of alien robots) is trying to catch up and stop them but instead of Gary King learning the err in his ways and changing in order to save the day, the movie (as well as those robots I mentioned) accepts King's (who the aliens refer to as Gary King of Humans as well as a plethora of medieval allusions even mentioning King Arthur earlier) anarchic style and backs down from conforming him and the planet into their cliche image of perfect (hence the Starbucks metaphors) because they begrudgingly realize "To err is human" and instead of technically saving the world King (Arthur.

.. get it) fights off the colonizing aliens and directly sends us back to the Dark ages (more medieval) but relishes the opportunity to relive his youth with his band of teenage misfit clone robots who follow his lead in the post apocalypse.

I wish the film spent more time playing around in the Apocalypse but I understand the directional choice to have that setting as a climax. So instead of changing to better fit the world and help it, the world ends and changes to better fit our anti-hero King.

That brilliance (as well as loads more I'm unable to coherently fit) in and of itself shows how AWESOME and AMBITIOUS this movie is and stands as, not THE end all be all best, but one of Wrights best films and a fitting conclusion in the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy.