The World's End Vlog Review (Parts 1 & 2)

revrezner and I talk about The World's End starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

The World's End (2013) Ending

This post will be spoiler filled so if you haven't seen The World's End I'd suggest doing so now. I wouldn't want to spoil the awesomeness.

Now onto the main show:

As I said in my written review of the film (don't worry, the vlog with revrezner has been filmed and will be edited and released on the interwebs), the ending is both hilarious and sad at the same time.

It is hilarious because Gary King refuses to consider The Network's offer. He does his gag of never admitting that he's wrong. The funniest part of that scene, at least for me, is The Network giving up arguing with King and agreeing to leave. As The Network leaves it whispers, "Fuck it."

Looking at the conversation between Andy, King, and The Network brings up some good points in humanity's favor. Even though King is an idiot because he never admits he's wrong, the fact is that I found myself agreeing with his point that humanity should be free. King says it because he's shitfaced and he won't let an argument go. But, really, the only way humanity can thrive is if it is free.

If the world is going to be peaceful it should be because humans made it that way and not because some outside force made it so. This is why I think Stephenie Meyer failed in The Host by making the invading aliens into saints.

Humanity will probably never achieve world peace (all the sexist, racist, transphobic, ect. people out there that don't even seem to realize what they are outnumber the sane people), but I would never bow down to alien overlords that seek to manipulate and force the world into peace.

It's even brought up that The Network hasn't been able to achieve peace without the methods shown in The World's End.

So I'm glad that King argued so fiercely for humanity's freedom, even if it wasn't his real intention to do so.

After The Network leaves Earth, the world ends. Every technological thing seems to go away. In the NBC show Revolution the electronics don't work because of nanites, but The Network just stopped humanity's technology in a bid to stop humans from causing problems for the rest of the universe.

When the world has ended, Andy gets back with his wife. Sam and Peter get it on. And King...doesn't change at all. Well, he drinks water now but that might just be because that's how the world is now.

I find the outcome for King to be the most heartbreaking. Over the course of the movie you learn that King has cut and was trying to use the pub crawl as a way to get what he couldn't in his youth. I've heard people bring up the theory that if the pub crawl went the way he wanted, that he would have committed suicide.

So King does succeed in getting to The World's End (but doesn't get to drink that final pint) and lives his fantasy of being in his youth. He takes the Blanks of his friends as they were when they were younger and goes to different pubs.

Why I consider this heartbreaking is that King is shown to be unable to grow and develop. He will be the same person to the day that he dies. While you should keep yourself young at heart, you also have to realize that sometimes growth is good. It might not be easy, but it will be for the best.

On one hand I'm glad that King is now happy (even if the world has ended), but also sad that he'll never grow or develop.

The World's End (2013)

Title: The World's End

Director: Edgar Wright

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Martin Freeman

Rated: R

Released: 2013

Personal Rating: 5/6

Oscars: N/A

Plot:  Five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly become humankind's only hope for survival.
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Great Humor
I am not a comedy person. Comedies are just hard for me to either watch or enjoy because I am confused on what is supposed to be funny about the movie or show I am watching. Hell, even in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series the humor was hard for me to pick up. No disrespect to the great Douglas Adams intended. In this movie, however, I was able to fully enjoy myself. In fact there was one scene, can't recall it now, where I laughed so loudly that people in China heard me and the dead awakened. But the nearly packed theater's audience was laughing too so I wasn't noticed. Though I was embarrassed for my outburst.

Ending Both Sad and Funny
I can't say much about the ending here as I don't want to spoil the movie for you. Suffice it to say that the final confrontation between Gary King and the robots (though the movie's terminology for them are Blanks) is hilarious. Throughout the movie King has been painted as someone who you can't argue with and that is played up to great effect in the confrontation. But after you leave the theater you start to realize the implications about King's arc and it made me a little sad. I might make another post talking about the ending so that I can talk without fear of talking about major spoilers.

End of the World
In the trailers it seems that reaching The World's End is an end goal to save the world. In the trailers the plot seems to be that if they reach the that pub then they can work on saving the world. While reaching that pub does bring along the final confrontation, King's reason/obsession to getting there isn't to save the world. I don't think he really cares about saving the world at any point during the movie, really. He wants to get to the pub to do something he couldn't when he was younger and to bring solace to himself.

Final Thoughts
Out of the few movies I've seen released this year, this is my favorite. I haven't seen Iron Man 3 or Man of Steel yet so I can't say for certain what my favorite movie of the year will end up being. For now, though, this is my number one. The humor is done extremely well and fans of the Cornetto Trilogy will be happy to note the presence of some returning gags. Being a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's works I had expectations that had to be met. They were.