The World's End: I really fancy a pint right now.

I think I gave 'The World's End' (2013) a pretty raw deal first time I watched it. I went into the film with high expectations, and why wouldn't I? This was the third and final film in the cornetto trilogy and the two prior films, 'Shaun of the Dead' (2004) and 'Hot Fuzz' (2007), were two of my favourite films of all time (hell, they still are). And so my initial reaction to this film was one of disappointment. I enjoyed it, but I didn't feel like it came close to matching up with the other two. Now, the second time I watched it I enjoyed it much more although I was in a state of inebriation at the time. Third time around I have to say I really, really enjoyed it and I feel like I was way too hard on it initially. The film follows Gary King (Simon Pegg) who's life has never been better than one faithful night in 1990 when him and his friends attempted to complete the golden mile pub crawl. In order to capture the same feeling he had that night he gets back in contact with the group and convinces them to return to Newton Haven and do the golden mile one more time. Shortly after arriving they realise that the town has been taken over by robots intent on getting the human race to agree to follow their guidelines or turn them into robots themselves. The night turns into an attempt to not only survive but also finish the pub crawl and have a good time doing it.

Lets get this out of the way first off, the film is not as good as 'Shaun of the Dead' or 'Hot Fuzz'. I don't think I am being contrarian in saying this, however this also should not overshadow the qualities of this film. This film captures the same wit, charm, action and emotion of those prior films and feels very much like it fits within this cornetto trilogy. I absolutely love the technical style of this film. I mean its an Edgar Wright film, of course I love it. The super quick cuts are here again and Wright has an incredible ability to make innain actions super intense through his editing (mostly pouring pints). But he also has an opportunity to really show his skill in intense action scenes in this film and he does a great job of making them fun but with a sense of physicality to them. But mot importantly, they are also funny. His use of music is also great and this film has a soundtrack to really challenge the best of them, at least for me. However, this film's greatest strength is in it's writing. The writing across this whole trilogy is so smart and it is no different in this film. This may be the best film in the trilogy for the foreshadowing and mirroring within the writing. The pub crawl both in 1990 and the present day mirror each other in really smart ways, but even just small little lines of dialogue come back to mean so much more than they first appeared to. The most interesting and smartest bit of writing is how the names of the pubs match the narrative at the time. It is such a small detail to include but it does really add a level of depth to the film. And of course I couldn't not mention the comedy of the film. This film is not as funny as the prior two films but it still has some really great comedic moments and is miles funnier than I remember it being. The film also has a real emotional depth and might have some of the best genuine character moments across the whole trilogy. boosted massively by a superb cast all putting in great performances.

The cast in this film is great. You of course have your old players of Pegg and Frost, but even the surrounding cast are all brilliant. Outside of the main actors you have a ton of smaller characters played by great actors, You have Pierce Brosnan, Bill Nighy, Rafe Spall, Micheal Smiley and David Bradley along with a handful of other famous British actors in really small roles and all doing a great job and the whole of the main cast are equally as great. Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan and Martin Freeman are all great in the roles of Steven Prince, Peter Page and Oliver Chamberlain respectively. These are three of the five friends of the film and they all capture their characters well as well as having a great chemistry together. Rosamund Pike is also very good and has some great comedic timing which I didn't know she had. But of course the stars of the show are Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and this film is interesting as the usual characters of the two are switched. Frost usually plays the more comedic and reckless character with Pegg being the more grounded and serious one, but this time it is completely flipped and both do really well. Nick Frost is superb as Andy Knightley. He doesn't have as many comedic moments to chew on but he shows his acting chops and has some real emotional moments in the film that he captures brilliantly. He is also great at acting drunk which is really, bloody hard. It is Pegg who steals the show here as Gary King. The whole performance is turned up to 11 and it is so entertaining to watch. He is easily the funniest character but also has the most emotional depth and despite him being a massive dickhead you do feel really sorry for him and this is helped by Pegg's superb performance. As an all round performance it might be the best across the entire trilogy.

'The World's End' is a film which I really was too harsh on when I watched it initially. Yes, it is not as good as the two films that proceeded it but it is still a really, really good film. The filmmaking on the whole is absolutely stellar and as good as Edgar Wright has ever been. The writing continues to be witty, funny and emotional while also being some of the smartest writing you will see. The cast is wonderful and all put in great performances. But most importantly the film is very funny, it just isn't as funny as 'Shaun of the Dead' or 'Hot Fuzz'. It is definitely a recommend from me. If like me you weren't too impressed with this film upon first viewing give it another go, it might just surprise you.