Review: The World’s End (2013)

It took me a while to finally get down to the theater, but I recently managed to sit down and watch the latest Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg creation, The World’s End.  And while the critics may not agree (Rotten Tomatoes has this one at 89/80% vs. 91/90 for Shaun of the Dead and 91/88 for Hot Fuzz), I feel that this is the strongest entry into their informal trilogy.  Everything that Wright and Pegg have been doing over the last decade coalesced to near perfection in this film, showing that they are both getting stronger at their art.

The general story revolves around Pegg’s character, Gary King, dragging his old buddies out of their comfortable lives so that the lot of them can try their hands at finishing the infamous “Golden Mile”, a series of 12 pubs along a stretch in their old town.  They tried once before and failed, so Gary thinks that it must be done.  After more than a few lies, he does manage to round them all up and off they go.  And while the night starts off simple enough, they eventually figure out that something within their old home is not quiet right.

After a brief altercation in a bathroom, Gary discovers that there are robots among them.  Well, not proper robots, but aliens in robot-like bodies.  They have been replacing human beings in the town in an effort to prepare the Earth for its destiny within intergalactic society.  But the process of integration is painful.  As in, people die to get the job done.  So Gary and his friends decide that they want no part of it and, after failing to escape the town, confront their enemies.  Gary, of course, still insists on his pub crawl while all this is going down, often leading the others in random directions that happen to end up at the next pub on the Golden Mile’s list.

This film really goes into what it means to be aging, in so many ways.  While there are aliens and strange plots and goofy friends drinking lots of beer, at its heart The World’s End is really about dealing with the changes of life.  Gary refuses to accept that he’s growing old while the others have settled into their lives, some happy and others not so much.  At the end they must resist the easy way out and show the half-way benevolent aliens that even a messed up Earth is a better Earth as long as everyone on it gets to make their own decisions and, with them, their own terrible mistakes.

To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the other two movies in the “trilogy”.  I enjoyed both movies, to be sure, but never found either to be quite the amazing flicks that everyone else seems to think they are.  This one, however, I truly enjoyed.  The message is present and dealt with well, the plot is hilarious, the actors do great jobs and the action scenes are over-the-top amazing.  If you haven’t seen The World’s End, do yourself a favor and give it a shot.

Photo Credits -           

The World’s End courtesy of simonpegg.net