The World's End (2013)
Rating- 15
Running Time- 1 hour 49 minutes
Directed by- Edgar Wright
Written by- Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright
The comedy in the film is of the style expected from a Pegg/Wright movie and even I, despite not ‘getting’ their type of comedy, came close to laughing on a sparse few occasions. This is better than it sounds and judging by the laughs received from fellow audience members I imagine that a lot of people will find this film very funny. That’s about all I can say regarding the film’s humour as it’s hard to talk about what made it funny when I didn’t actually find it that funny myself but, as I’ve previously mentioned, you’ll enjoy the comedy of the movie if you enjoyed the comedy of the previous two films.
Something I can talk about is the way the film has been put together in terms of its cinematography. Overall, the film is well made. There was clearly a lot of work done in post-production (which is surprising for a British comedy) most of which was successful. The Requiem for a Dream-esqueediting for the pouring of pints (i.e. rapid close up shots of the beer leaving the pump into the glasses with exaggerated sound effects) was a clever way to repeat a similar scene many times without it becoming boring. And you know that annoying buzzing sound your computer/TV makes when you are about to receive a call/text message on your phone? No… well it sometimes happens trust me. That sound is played whenever the protagonists are close to the enemy ‘blanks’. This is subtle yet acts as an indicator that something isn’t quite right even before the ‘blanks’’ evil nature is revealed and also alludes to the technological aspect of the enemies. But all of this good work is somewhat overshadowed by the absolutely terrible editing of the fight scenes. The rapid jump cuts that plague every action sequence in the film ruin anything that is trying to be achieved in said scenes mainly because the viewer is fighting a migraine caused by the pointless editing technique. It manages to protect itself from the ‘Dark Night’ disease where you can’t even tell what is going on or who has the upper hand in the fight and even if it did succumb to the metaphorical virus the rest of the film acts as a vaccine due to its relatively slow nature. What it does do though is take you out of the world of the film which detriments the enjoyment of the film as a whole even if it does give you the chance to pick up the bag of jelly babies you had earlier dropped on the floor. You are safe in the knowledge that you are missing nothing important as the film fails to progress and the troublesome gelatine toddlers continue to evade your grasp.
The dynamic of the five protagonists is by far the best aspect of the film though. The only way we are able to like the central character of Gary King (Simon Pegg) who is an archetypal twat is through the knowledge that the other four acknowledge his twatiness which allows us to identify with them and therefore share in their negative feelings towards Gary. So when they begin to show some compassion and understanding towards Gary we feel it too because we are still on their wave length. This is a very effective method but I would suggest that it is unintentional. I may not be giving enough credit to Pegg or Wright as they are no doubt accomplished writers but I think they thought that the humour and familiar vibes that emanate from Gary would be enough for the audience to come around to him. I doubt it would’ve been and even if mistakenly done so they do manage to make a likeable bastard which is something many film makers have failed to do in the past so they should be given praise for that alone but they do more than that. They make not just Gary likeable; they make the other four equally likeable through their various humorous qualities and general dislike of Gary. No matter my feelings towards Pegg or Wright, which to honest are none existent, I must admit they can create good characters that the ‘average joe’ can identify with which can only be considered a success as their target audience is the average man.
I find myself reluctant to give this film an overall rating as while I don’t agree that all comedy is subjective this style of comedy definitely is and while I consider the film average at best I am sure others will thoroughly enjoy it. However, I can only give my opinion and that is that the film was only mildly funny and for a comedy that isn’t good enough so, despite other aspects being fairly accomplished, I can only give the film three stars.
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| Final Rating. Three Stars. |
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