The World's End

I pretty much knew before this film was even released that it wasn't going to knock me over sideways and make me want to see it again. I'm not sure why I knew this: I really liked Shaun of the Dead and enjoyed Hot Fuzz (although contrary to many people's views, I preferred the former which I might be able to explain in more detail below). There's nothing I particularly hold against those films but somehow, the premise of The World's End didn't grab me. I wouldn't have gone at all if I didn't happen to be free the night my friends went and there was zip on TV (I was also hoping for air-con at the cinema but that was knackered - standard).

The general premise is that a bunch of middle-aged guys get back together on the demands of one of them to finish a pub crawl they started twenty years previously. It becomes quite clear that the main character, Gary King, has never moved on from this pub crawl, and that everybody else thinks he's an idiot. They get to pub three before they lose patience with him and say they're going home.

And then they realise everybody else is a robot.

Shaun of the Dead was clever because it really looked carefully at the zombie movie genre and played upon it, with Shaun, a completely useless specimen of man, suddenly charged with tackling these zombies. The fight scenes are amusing because they're exactly what would happen when idiots have to protect the world. Hot Fuzz did a similar thing with cop films, although that began to blend with horror films a little more; a definite The Wicker Man vibe going on, which is probably why I prefer Shaun, as it's 'purer'.

In The World's End, the general genre is something I can't quite put my finger on. It's obviously supposed to sci-fi, but there were slightly too many other things mashed together to make it work brilliantly for me. If I'm honest, I was more interested in the pub crawl than defeating the robots, and the fact that there was no indication of it being more sci-fi-esque from the film itself until the first fight scene meant that it jarred a little. Shaun worked because the zombie-thing was foreshadowed quite early on.

The performances are all very good in the film, and Simon Pegg pulls off a very different character from in the previous two films, as does Nick Frost. It was nice to see a bit of a role reversal between these two, where Pegg played the childish idiot and Frost played the more together role. The other actors did a good job as well.

The film was a lot shorter than I expected, but I didn't actually realise this until I got home and saw the time. I think my perception was distorted as the second half of the film lagged a little. I especially wasn't bothered by the very ending of the film, where Frost's character narrated what happened next. It was, I suppose, very in-keeping with the sci-fi genre, but just felt a bit tagged on to me.

It was funny in places, although more of a smile than a guffaw I found. There was a lot to commend about the film in terms of its dialogue which was quite good and the characterisation. Overall, though, it doesn't stand up against its predecessors for me and I'm glad it was an EE Wednesday.

Then again, I'm a misery when it comes to films lately. There is nothing I'm excited about coming out for months, which makes me quite weird when held up against the general population, it seems.

Ah well.