The World's End (Film)

Six years have passed since “Hot Fuzz” and Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have all enjoyed a variety of different successes since then. One might be fearful that the international fame would compromise the quality of the third instalment in the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, or that too much time has passed since the three last worked together. Fortunately such fears are unfounded, as “The World’s End” is a highly entertaining, well-paced sci-fi action comedy, which fittingly rounds off the Cornetto Trilogy.

Whilst the previous two films within the trilogy had a sense of ensemble to them, they were largely built around Pegg and Frost, “The World’s End” still has those two at the centre but the ensemble is given more of a chance to shine throughout. The basic premise of the film revolves around a group of five friends reuniting twenty years after leaving school in order to complete the Golden Mile pub crawl in their old home town, which they’d been unable to finish back in the day. This conquest is interrupted by an alien invasion, yet the group are determined to finish what they started.

Simon Pegg plays the protagonist Gary King, and is on fine form rattling off quick-fire dialogue as the boozed-up man-child, constantly earning the ire of his companions, yet is far too entertaining to ever be unlikable. The rest of the group all act as suitable foils to their eccentric leader, having all moved on from their adolescence long ago, whilst he never did. The early scenes in which Gary ropes in the other members of the gang are all highly entertaining, and do a fine job of establishing a believable history between these characters. 

Everyone brings something to the table here, there is no dead weight within the main cast; Eddie Marsan, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Nick Frost all have roles to play within the narrative, and they have very strong chemistry as a group. Rosamund Pike also has an important part within the film, beyond simply being the token woman within a heavily male ensemble. I actually became really invested in the pub crawl aspect of the story, prior to the alien invasion, and in many ways would have been fine just watching this group argue their way through twelve different pubs.

Some of the established conventions within the trilogy continue here, such as the fast editing style used for scene transitions, and also the use of foreshadowing in the early scenes. There are also plenty of recurring gags and subtle nods to the previous films, which are well integrated as opposed to feeling awkwardly crow-bared in. The jokes come thick and fast as well, which means that these throwbacks only make up a small fraction of the humour. The Cornetto-joke comes in a different form than what audiences have come to expect, but it is creatively done. 

There are also appearances from a variety of familiar faces who had appeared in one or both of the previous films, and another former-Bond actor (not Timothy Dalton this time) puts in an appearance. 

Overall I found “The World’s End” to be a highly enjoyable film, one that I’d be more than willing to re-watch. If this ends up being the last film made by the Wright-Pegg-Frost trio, then they have gone out on a high.