Review of The World's End (2013) by Victor T — 05 Jun 2015

Having to finish an excellent trilogy is a tough job as most of the last instalments are often a letdown and these trilogies demonstrate that: "The Dark Knight Trilogy", "The Godfather Trilogy", the original "Star Wars Trilogy", "The Mexico Trilogy", etc. Did "The World´s End" evade this destiny?

Gary King is a middle age man with one obsession: Completing "The Golden Mile"-a pub crawl composed of 12 pubs-after failing in their teenage years. One day he decides to complete this task by recruiting his old gang and try it again.

"The World´s End" represents a drastic change for this trilogy, the last two instalments where parodies/homages to their respective genres, but in this third/final installment it feels like Wright didn't want to be typecast as a director that "makes quality Scary Movie like films" so he decided to take a different approach by making a comedy film that doesn't rely on one-dimensional characters and tries to create a dramedy but sadly it doesn't complexly work. This film has hilarious-but lesser-jokes, fun to watch acting with the best being-obviously- Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in a role reversal, now Peg is the over the top immature individual and Frost is the serious guy, Wright´s now trademark directing is as great as last time, the action scenes are more personal and well shot, the script is probably the best of the trilogy, there are a handful of well executed character moments, the ensemble cast completely works in creating a fun 20 years later gang, the chemistry between actors is more than present, it has a handful of callbacks/homages to previous science fiction films, it is insanely entertaining, and it has an appropriate conclusion for a comedy. With all that out of the way, the last chapter of this trilogy is the one that has more problems: The drama is the focus in the beginning of the movie and when the madness eventually breaks lose, the comedy becomes a secondary element and that's not what the "Cornetto Trilogy" has been in the previous chapters; some characters are unnecessary, some actors are wasted in roles that don't contribute much to the story, making the immature and comic relief side character the protagonist is a risky move to make and throughout most of the film it doesn't work as we follow an unlikeable character, and it relies too much on "Shaun of the Dead" that at times it feels like it a remake but with a "Scott Pilgrim" vibe added.

"The World´s End" is the weakest film of the Cornetto Flavors Trilogy when talking about the comedic aspect but it is the best in the story department. Its numerous flaws are complemented by numerous elements done right. This is a well-made more grounded comedy that will get some laughs out of you and a worthy-but slightly disappointing-conclusion to this hilarious/memorable trilogy. The Wright/Pegg/Frost trio demonstrate that they can do more than just parodies.