I saw this movie a few weeks ago and have been having a hard time trying to figure what to write about it because it was that good. It always seems the good movies are harder to write about than the bad ones, which are just bursting through the seams with all kinds of ideas about how bad they are. The World's End - it was the best movie I saw over the last few weekends - was way better than I thought it was going to be. I was just expecting an overall entertaining time but this movie went way beyond my expectations and even the shift from buddy pub crawl movie to alien invasion sci-fi movie was done with such grace and loving care that it blended together seamlessly without any flaw.
This movie is the last in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy," which consists of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and ends with this movie. But you don't have to have seen the first two to appreciate this movie nor do you have to have any previous knowledge of the first two films to understand this movie. In fact this is one of those trilogies where you can watch any movie in no particular order, getting total enjoyment with each passing second. I will say this though The World's End is the best of three and if you do watch them in order you can see the evolution of their writing skill, while at the same time seeing how Wright has progressed - for the better - as a director. This evolution is reason enough to watch these movies in order.
This is basically a quest type of movie as in going from point A to point B and normally these types of movies I don't like because there a lot of wasted shots of people just walking, running, standing, and staring at things. Not so with this movie. Simon Pegg's character clearly sets out the goals with the ten pubs they are to go to with each one of them being clearly defined with some memorable names and logos. As far as journey types of movies go, this is one of the best I've seen as there aren't those wasted shots I was talking about earlier. The movie always stayed in progression as it keeps the characters in the front line the whole time, because if you don't make me care about the characters then I'm going to have a harder time grasping everything that goes on. Fortunately, for a Wright and Pegg movie, they are good at creating some memorable characters and making the audience care about them.
One of the best things I liked about this movie was how the five main characters blended together and how their personalities were clearly on display and totally individual. The movie gave each one of them plenty of room to breath and all five actors rose to the challenge brilliantly. The dialogue between them had a ring of reality to it as it helped to make their relationships believable without feeling forced. It wasn't just dialogue for the sake of being dialogue (like Tarantino seems to do) but the dialogue furthered the story and developed the characters as it did. It wasn't just there for the sake of being cool or sounding witty.
The actions scenes were violently funny and directed with some great skill. I was never in confusion as to was happening in them and for some directors these action scenes are where they go lazy with "shaky cam", not so here and for that I thank you Wright. The all out violence of it reeked of Looney Tunes and fit in with everything else going on that it never for once felt out of place. All in all it was a good night of watching movies and I can honestly say I would like to see this movie again.
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