Suvudu Universe

The World's End

Director: Edgar Wright
Screenplay: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike
Studio: Big Talk Productions
Distributor: Universal Studios
Running Time: 109 minutes
Released: July 2013

Check out the trailer for The World's End!

When I heard that there was a marathon showing of the Cornetto Trilogy - back to back screenings of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and a midnight screening of The World's End, I had to do it. Seven hours and many many energy drinks later, was it all worth it?

After an epically failed pub crawl in 1990, five childhood friends return to their hometown twenty years later to finish what they started. While the group is torn between reliving their lost youth and growing up and moving on, they begin to realise that the town they left behind has been taken over by robots.

Anyone who is familiar with Edgar Wright's style will be in safe hands with The World's End. The beginning is a slow burner with rising tensions between loser Gary King (Pegg) and his former friends as he attempts to relive past glory by finishing the 'Golden Mile' of pubs. The pace is very quickly ramped up as the friends are confronted with a host of blue-blooded robots (who may not actually be robots, as they frequently debate throughout the film). Once Wright flips the switch, there's no going back - you're picked up and taken along for the ride of your life.

While Pegg is meant to be the star of the film, I thought that Andy (Nick Frost) gave his best performance of the trilogy. It was good to see him play the sensible one of the group for a change, and he did a great job of being the one to keep it together (at least until he got a drink inside him). As befits an Edgar Wright movie, there's a who's who of celebrity cameos and people who've worked with Wright in the past like Michael Smiley, Mark Heap and Bill Nighy.

Whereas you could definitely point at the genres that were lampooned in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, The World's End strikes out on its own turf a little bit, with a mixture of dystopian sci-fi, post-apocalyptic adventure and a kind of coming-of-age comedy (even though the characters are pushing 40). This style fits in with the underlying metaphor of the characters - don't cling onto the 'glory days' of the past, and instead push on and make something of yourself for the future. Pegg and Wright have certainly done this with The World's End, and they've succeeded.

It would have been easy to have simply made a sci-fi version of Shaun of the Dead and pandered to the fans, riding on the coat tails of their own success. Instead, The World's End is a well crafted, hilarious and surprisingly touching movie that's shines on its own as well as a final installment of the Cornetto Trilogy.

If you're a fan of Wright's movies, go see this one. If you're a fan of old school, doomsday sci-fi, go see this one. If you're a fan of drinking, go see this one. Hell, if you're a human being, go see this one.