The best part
about the Cornetto Trilogy is that ask anyone around you and each and every one
of them will have a different order in which they will rate the three films.
The final film of the trilogy, although I do hope that was not true, stands its ground with gusto. The World’s End is a great addition to the Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright’s dream team, even though it get brushed under the previous two films, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, according to me.
Quite similar to the previous two films, The World’s End focuses more on the camaraderie between the characters rather than the actual story, which mind you isn’t bad at all. But, it is the banter between the characters, those subtly hilarious dialogues that make these films and especially The World’s End likeable.
Unfortunately, it is this lack of companionship in The World’s End that made me like it less and less. When the first two films came along, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were lesser known actors outside of their native land. On screen, both shared an almost equal standing. Over the last few years, although both have become international stars, Simon Pegg has, due to his roles in major Hollywood blockbusters, become more of a poster boy for British cinema. This reflects in the film because The World’s End seems more like a Simon Pegg vehicle even though it casts some amazing British talents like Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike, David Bradley, Michael Smiley, Paddy Considine, and Eddie Marsan. The “tradition” of having an ex-Bond playing a baddie sees Pierce Brosnan going over-the-top and certainly having fun with his role. So all the elements are in place for great story-telling, but what we end up with is a somewhat repetitive pub-crawl.
The World’s End is about a group of friends coming together visiting their old and now strangely robotic childhood-town to try and undertake a legendary pub crawl that they once failed as teenagers. Rekindling old relationships, and reuniting with fallen friends, amidst and ever growing eerie feeling that something is amiss, is what the film is all about. It has its moments of immense hilarity, but then there are times when things seem to come to a stand point in terms of the story moving forward. What really stood out though was the climatic “fight of words” that had me in hysterics and probably ended the film on such a high that I easily forgot the other annoying parts.
The World’s End along with its predecessors should be a part of every collection. The trilogy has remained constant throughout and even though we all have our favourite amongst it, as a group, just like the three people spearheading the trilogy, the films remain solid and timeless.
Rating 3.5/5
