Review: The World's End
By Christine Petralia





Image courtesy of Universal Pictures
August 25, 2013
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Anyone who’s ever been on a bar crawl or drank around the world at Epcot in Disney should appreciate this film. However, just when things got weird enough that I could accept the silliness of the plot, it just took a really dark turn in the last five minutes, which knocked off that third star in my rating.
The premise is pretty simple. More than 20 years ago, Gary King (Simon Pegg) and his four mates attempted to complete the Golden Mile. It consists of 12 pubs within walking distance in Newton Haven, England. However, they never made it to the last three pubs, including The World’s End. Now, an alcoholic, Gary has a bright idea to re-live the past, get the guys together and complete the Golden Mile.
Now adults with families and responsibilities, his four friends begrudgingly agree to go on this journey, so they make the trip from London to Newton Haven.
At first thing seem a little bit off, but the group shrugs it off as they are just older and have outgrown the small town. The second bar looks just like the first though, and they start to think things just aren’t what they seem. After a brief argument with his mates in the third bar, Gary gets into a fight with a teen in the bathroom, where he sees that the teen is actually a robot with blue ink as blood. Soon, the group is fighting a group of teen robots that just won’t seem to die. Realizing that things are in fact off, they decide to keep going with the pub crawl in fear that ‘they’ will know the guys know they are robots. If that makes sense.
In the fourth bar, they find an old mate, who is a human, not a robot, who gives them some insight as to what’s going on. Basically, these robot aliens are trying to assimilate themselves into earth. If humans don’t want to live among them, then they basically take over the human’s body and turn them to a robot. They use a human’s DNA to make these clones and even implant memories so they seem to be the real thing.
Still freaked out and worried who they can and can’t trust, the guys keep going. They meet up with Oliver’s (Martin Freeman) sister Sam (Rosamund Pike). Gary tells her about the robots, and she doesn’t believe him until twin robots attempt to attack her.
By now, Andy (Nick Frost), who has been 16 years sober due to an accident involving Gary, starts drinking and is pretty badass when it comes to taking on the robots. The robots by now are completely onto the group and each bar gets weirder and weirder, to the point where the robots are trying to take over the group.
The robots start to chase the guys through the town. Two of the guys get lost to the robots, so the three continue on to the final three pubs. Gary to finish the Golden Mile, Any and Steven (Paddy Considine) to get to the car, which is parked between the last two pubs. They lose Steven at the second to last pub, so Andy and Gary head to The World’s End. However, as he’s fighting with Andy, Gary goes to pour his last pint, only to be transported to a secret underground layer where it seems the robots are created. Down in this layer, Gary and Andy, and eventually Steven who comes back to get them, come face to face with the main robot alien, or rather his voice in an Oz sort of way. They refuse to give in to the robots and finally, after an exhausting argument, the main robot gives up and lets them go. But not before destroying the town. The three guys are picked up by Sam and manage to make it out of the town. AND this is where the film should have ended, with the group overlooking the burning down town. But it doesn’t, there’s an extra five minutes where Andy describes the state of the world in present day. Basically all electronics, which were the result of the robots, are shut down and the world goes back in time. Eventually the robots come back to life as well. And it’s really just become a survival game.
So, the title takes on two meanings, the figurative and the literal. I was really, really upset in the last five minutes. I was happy the plot didn’t delve too much into Gary’s issues, which at some point I thought they were going to. It was funny enough that it had us laughing until it got weird and left us with a WTF feeling at the end. It was a shame it did take that turn because it did have the potential to be really good.
This film is said to be the third in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy by Edgar Wright and Pegg. The first was Shaun of the Dead in 2004 and Hot Fuzz in 2007. Maybe fans of the films will like The World’s End better than me. But for now, the last five minutes ruined it. It’s only worth a viewing if there’s nothing else on your list to see at the theaters this moment in time.
Now, if you excuse me, I have an appointment with Dr. Ink.
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