Wednesday, 24 July 2013

On The World's End


It may not be obvious, but The World’s End is the conclusion to a trilogy that begins in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead and moved on Hot Fuzz (2007). The common features being the director, the two lead actors and the genre bending narratives of the three films. It is known as The Cornetto Trilogy.

Shaun of the Dead was the first rom-com-zom (romantic, comedy, zombies). Hot Fuzz was comedy, police procedural and a nod to crime epics like Heat (1995). The World’s End, again comedy has conventions of the slacker genre as well as being apocalyptic, with a slice of Stand By Me (1986).

The remarkable skill of all these films is in their ability to seamlessly blend all these genre conventions into a smooth, concise narrative while at the same time creating characters that fit into these mesh films and that we can care about.

The World’s End does this slightly less well than the other two. While Simon Pegg’s protagonist is a layered character, the film fails to move him along in the final third, instead relying on apocalyptic action. This is a problem, but does not detract too much from the fun and the laughs. 

No comments:

Post a Comment