I think what he’s trying to say is that unlike the other two movies where the protagonist grows and learns to be a part of the world (although a case could be made that this doesn’t exactly happen in “Sean”) in The World’s End, Gary doesn’t change at all. Instead the world become better suited to Gary.
I do love how he pointed out the Pub names and their relation to the events in the plot. I totally didn’t pick that up when I saw the movie.
This was great.
That was a great article. While I saw the relevance of the pub names on first viewing, I didn’t pick up at all on the character surnames: Prince the heir to the throne, Page the meek, Chamberlain the clever, Knightley the great warrior, and of course King of the Humans. Part of the joy of Wright’s films is that they are great genre movies that are also just so English. Why shouldn’t he delve deeper into the bedrock of Anglo-Saxon storytelling?
The only problem with casting Gary as “head of his warband” instead of just an alcoholic wanting to relive his glory days is that he is a shitty king. Sure, like Ulysses of old, he may desire to seek, to strive, to find, and not to yield, but he never cares about his subjects. He brings the world to its end without a second thought. At the end of the movie, he would rather hang out with his Stepford Chums than his real, human, friends. I dunno, medieval and dark age monarchs had different concerns than today, but didn’t Beowulf care about his thegns? Maybe not.
Gary is an antihero. Antiheroes don’t make great leaders. That’s why they always hang off by themselves and no one likes them.
Great movie, liked it a little more the second time, yet still probably my least favorite of Wright’s films. It’s certainly critically well regarded now. Its box office didn’t exactly stand head to head with its thematic competitor. I guess his next movie is Marvel Comics’ Ant-Man. What will be his next move?
Bit late to the party but saw this recently and thought it was my favourite of the trilogy. I actually preferred the random tone of the film because it made it difficult to predict which is always a plus for me. I didn’t see much of the trailer though so that probably helped. I laughed more during The World’s End than I did through Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead as well. Yeah, the ending was a bit daft but I think it was well earned. What I liked most about the film was the idea of returning to or reliving a golden past and it not being the same. That resonated with me a lot, and to be honest, I could have done without the alien invasion as I think Wright’s good enough to have kept the film anchored in reality but that exchange at the end was worth it, and Frost screaming ‘I fucking hate this town!’ was a highlight for me. Thanks for the link too GregB, that’s a great analysis! (By the way, I’m a Gregg B too).
One of my favourite lines in the film, and perfectly delivered by Pegg, was: “What the fuck does wtf mean?!”
An enthusiastic A.V. Club article about TWE and why it deserves an Oscar nom for editing (yes, editing).
I just saw this this weekend with my daughter. Neither of us knew a thing about it so went in completely blind. The bathroom scene was a serious W.T.F. moment for us both.
I feel the same. I enjoyed the rest of the movie for what it was, but would rather have seen a more grounded take on the subject matter.
Yeah, I definitely enjoyed it too but the early film hints at something really interesting in its own right. I’ve only seen each of the films in the Cornetto trilogy once, I should probably go back and watch the first two again, it’s been ages. Actually, no, I just remembered: I’ve seen The World’s End twice!
Get to it! They’re both well-deserving of a second viewing.