Massive fan of Pegg and Wright. Loved Spaced. Loved the previous entries in the "Cornetto" trilogy.
So why didn't I like The World's End as much as I wanted to?
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Shaun of the Dead saw our heroes face off against a familiar foe - zombies. The undead of course are established genre monsters with a well-explored mythology and widely-understood modus operandi -- you get bitten, you become a zombie, you hunger for human flesh. Simple beasties with understandable aims, they create a clear conflict with any remaining humans who are understandably less keen on the prospect of becoming lunch.
Pegg and Wright took brilliant advantage of this previously established world and grafted a superior, distinctly British comedy on top. With The World's End, however, though sprinkling the film with their customary pop-culture references, the writers are effectively building a mythology of their own.
In The World's End our heroes' pub crawl is derailed not by booze but by robots. Only we're told they're not robots. Or maybe they are. They're like robots, but they're not. They are automatons who look like real people with blue blood and eggshell heads. And headlight eyes. Oh, and they want to turn you into a robot. Or they don't. If you're nice, if you keep your head down, they'll leave you alone. I think.
To what end they are doing all this however is frustratingly never clear.
Nevertheless, our heroes have their foe at last. The gang decide on the obvious course of action: continue the pub crawl.
Some of heroes get lost along the way of course. But, disappearing off-screen and unseen, what fate they suffer is again unclear and the snatched attempts to explain on the run never do the job. Without that understanding however there can be no stakes, no fear for survival of the others. Our heroes go from pint to pint, fighting foes who simply re-animate and return to the melee once they are defeated. They are the definition of disposable villains. No matter how well-shot, choreographed and entertaining the action may be in its own right (and it is), the scenes are rendered essentially meaningless as a result.
Eventually, however, our remaining heroes do make it to the last stop on their epic crawl. The World's End. The finale.
But what should see a climactic showdown between well-established opposing forces with clear aims and stakes of failure, is here mostly dedicated instead to exposition, to a final attempt to explain what on earth the point of it all was. It is in fact almost a literal deus ex machina with a god-like disembodied voice descending to wrap up the story. But despite (or even because of) this final barrage of exposition, the explanation never quite hangs together and cannot anyway mitigate problems with roots far earlier in the film.
Had we come into this last act with a clearer understanding of the aliens/robots' aims and methods -- had the plot work been done -- then more time could have be dedicated to what really mattered at this late stage: the story. As it is, Simon Pegg's final cathartic scenes feel forced rather than earned, tacked on rather than integral.
This all sounds damning; it is not really meant to be so. Despite its flaws, I did enjoy The World's End a great deal. The writers have lost none of their ability to craft witty dialogue. There are plenty of laughs and the film nails that certain wistful yearning for the past we can all recognise. But me being a big fan of their prior work, it cannot help going down in my book as a disappointment.
But hey! At least I got a screenwriting blog out of it.
So why didn't I like The World's End as much as I wanted to?
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Shaun of the Dead saw our heroes face off against a familiar foe - zombies. The undead of course are established genre monsters with a well-explored mythology and widely-understood modus operandi -- you get bitten, you become a zombie, you hunger for human flesh. Simple beasties with understandable aims, they create a clear conflict with any remaining humans who are understandably less keen on the prospect of becoming lunch.
Pegg and Wright took brilliant advantage of this previously established world and grafted a superior, distinctly British comedy on top. With The World's End, however, though sprinkling the film with their customary pop-culture references, the writers are effectively building a mythology of their own.
In The World's End our heroes' pub crawl is derailed not by booze but by robots. Only we're told they're not robots. Or maybe they are. They're like robots, but they're not. They are automatons who look like real people with blue blood and eggshell heads. And headlight eyes. Oh, and they want to turn you into a robot. Or they don't. If you're nice, if you keep your head down, they'll leave you alone. I think.
To what end they are doing all this however is frustratingly never clear.
Nevertheless, our heroes have their foe at last. The gang decide on the obvious course of action: continue the pub crawl.
Some of heroes get lost along the way of course. But, disappearing off-screen and unseen, what fate they suffer is again unclear and the snatched attempts to explain on the run never do the job. Without that understanding however there can be no stakes, no fear for survival of the others. Our heroes go from pint to pint, fighting foes who simply re-animate and return to the melee once they are defeated. They are the definition of disposable villains. No matter how well-shot, choreographed and entertaining the action may be in its own right (and it is), the scenes are rendered essentially meaningless as a result.
Eventually, however, our remaining heroes do make it to the last stop on their epic crawl. The World's End. The finale.
But what should see a climactic showdown between well-established opposing forces with clear aims and stakes of failure, is here mostly dedicated instead to exposition, to a final attempt to explain what on earth the point of it all was. It is in fact almost a literal deus ex machina with a god-like disembodied voice descending to wrap up the story. But despite (or even because of) this final barrage of exposition, the explanation never quite hangs together and cannot anyway mitigate problems with roots far earlier in the film.
Had we come into this last act with a clearer understanding of the aliens/robots' aims and methods -- had the plot work been done -- then more time could have be dedicated to what really mattered at this late stage: the story. As it is, Simon Pegg's final cathartic scenes feel forced rather than earned, tacked on rather than integral.
This all sounds damning; it is not really meant to be so. Despite its flaws, I did enjoy The World's End a great deal. The writers have lost none of their ability to craft witty dialogue. There are plenty of laughs and the film nails that certain wistful yearning for the past we can all recognise. But me being a big fan of their prior work, it cannot help going down in my book as a disappointment.
But hey! At least I got a screenwriting blog out of it.
