Director Edgar Wright reunites with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to complete the final film of the “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy”: The World’s End. The film is an alien invasion comedy that follows five reunited former high school friends as they try to complete a pub-crawl which they failed to finish in their teenage years. It does not take long, however, for the group to realize that something is slightly off in their old town, and that the residents are not exactly what they seem.
As seen in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Pegg and Frost are a great comedic duo; in The World’s End, they are joined by Martin Freeman and Rosamund Pike, both of whom pull their own comedic weight and greatly contribute to Pegg and Frost’s chemistry. The pacing of the film is as frenetic and energetic as one would expect from Wright, and the excellent sound editing and mixing meet the high standards set by Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Hot Fuzz. However, the action and comedy are not quite as strong as they are in Wright’s other works.
The film explores the changes that accompany the reality of aging. The themes that are explored, such as that of socially peaking in high school and maturing thereafter, give the film a touch of gravitas without weighing down the comedy. Overall, The World’s End is almost as good as the first two films of the “Cornetto” trilogy, but never quite reaches the same greatness as they did; nevertheless, it has good character beats, great comedic moments, touching emotional scenes, and some mildly fun action.
