The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013) Review

Talk about a bittersweet feeling. On one hand, "Yeah! The World's End is out now!" but on the other hand, "The Blood and Ice Cream trilogy is over!" so now I'm conflicted. I enjoyed Shaun of the Dead thoroughly and absolutely loved Hot Fuzz so it's great to see the team of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright return to the big screen for some Englishness....(that's not a word). Anyway, let's take a look at the long awaited The World's End.

20 years ago, a group of five friends attempted 'The Golden Mile' which consisted of a pub crawl going to 12 pubs and getting a pint from each pub. 20 years later, Gary King (Simon Pegg) gets the gang back together consisting of Andy Knightly (Nick Frost), Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine) and Peter Page (Eddie Marsen) as they return to Newton-Haven to partake in the Golden Mile again. This time, however, things aren't how the remember them as the townsfolk seem to be acting very peculiar which may lead to a conspiracy that could jeopardize humanities's future. There is only one thing left to do.......finish the pub crawl (because no-one has a better plan)!

Yes this is worthy of being affiliated with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz however it is the weakest in the trilogy (although I don't think that's really saying anything). It is the one that relies on comedy the least (it's still very funny though) but what it lacks in comedy it makes up in other aspects such as the characters. I absolutely love the main five since they are all different from each other and all go through character arcs. This is helped by the writing which is still as good as the other two films. This is definitely a film that I will have to watch again in order to get the foreshadowing or references (there is a lot of these which is exactly what I was expecting) which seems to be what Edgar Wright is best at.

I'm not going to give away spoilers but I will say that the ending didn't really feel satisfying (except the last few seconds) and I'm not sure it was the best way to end the trilogy but it is certainly a visual wonder. There are some great special effects that definetly make the film seem more modern than the previous films. It is also a smart film with how it presents aspects such as the humor, characters and references since they aren't forced in which I was fearful of since this is the first film in the trilogy to have a lot of hype behind it.

The World's End put my fears to rest since I thought everything would be forced but it felt like I was watching Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. The characters and actors are great (with one surprise that I dare not ruin), it looks great and is still hilarious. Yes, it is the weakest of the three but the bar was set so high that it was clear from the start that it wouldn't be as good as the other two. It does feel a bit for Hollywood-esque but everything is done well so I'm not really complaining.

Verdict:
8/10
A great comedy that recaptures what made the first two films classics.

I'm sure there will be jokes about the Argos Aliens after more people see this (coining it now).