The End is Nighy
In a recent review, I
commented on how Hollywood sometimes replicates certain film
premises, and sometimes even whole plots. Earlier this year we had
the post-apocalyptic films After Earth and Oblivion, and in the past
few weeks, two films dealing with the actual apocalypse have been
released; This Is The End and The World's End. See the similar
names? That's the give-away. Whilst one comes from America and the
other Britain, they are both filled with famous comedy actors,
laugh-out-loud moments and the end of civilisation as we know it. However, their methods of telling these apocalyptic tales differ
greatly.
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| The Rapture of Los Angeles... not just these three people... |
This Is The End was
released back in June and centred on how a group of A-list comedy
actors such as Seth Rogen, James Franco, Emma Watson and Michael Cera
cope with the end of the world. Since the word 'apocalypse' has been
thrown around in such a blasé fashion these days, I feel I must
differentiate between the types of apocalypse that these two films
depict. This Is The End features a Biblical Rapture-style
apocalypse, where the morally-righteous people ascend up to Heaven
and the morally-bankrupt are left to suffer demons and hellfire. The
group of Hollywood actors, all attending a party at James Franco's
house, are pretty much the only people remaining after the Rapture
and that in itself is quite a humorous idea. As Seth Rogen and
co-star Jay Baruchel run down the chaotic, yet desolate streets of
post-Rapture Los Angeles, they arrive at James Franco's house, where
not a single Hollywood A-lister has been deemed worthy to enter
Heaven. I don't know what hell-worthy things Emma Watson has done,
but Hermione is stuck on Earth with the rest of them.
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| English girls don't do well in LA... |
The trailer for This Is
The End seemed to focus purely on how unprepared these actors were
for such an event, shirking responsibility when having to venture for
supplies, improperly barricading the house and childishly fighting
over a solitary Milky Bar chocolate, and that's the film I wanted to
see. With the actors playing twisted versions of themselves, Michael
Cera especially, I wanted a biting, satirical look into Hollywood
actors are incredibly pampered and ultimately clueless. To it's
credit, it does start poking fun at the idea of self-centred
celebrities, Jonah Hill in particular referring to himself as “Jonah
Hill... from Moneyball” when praying, and thinking that celebrities
such as himself and George Clooney will be the first to be rescued in
an emergency such as theirs, but it never delves too far. It slowly
stops being an acerbic look into fame and starts becoming the
stoner-comedies for which the main stars are known.
Don't get me wrong,
there are quite a lot of funny gags in the film, mainly during the
promising opening act, with Michael Cera's hideous caricature getting
the main laughs, but the film failed to live up to the beginning
set-up, becoming more and more silly and disappointing as the film
went on, culminating in such a ludicrous and audience-pleasing
finale, I cringed all the way through it.
That disappointment
only increased my expectations for the finale to Simon Pegg, Nick
Frost and Edgar Wright's Blood and Ice Cream trilogy, The World's
End, released this week.
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| One of my favourite trilogies of all time, even though it's a technically 'unofficial' trilogy |
Simon Pegg plays Gary
King, the once-leader of a lovable and aspirational gang of five lads
growing up in a sleepy Southern town. He yearns to relive the night
from his past that topped all others; when the five lads left high
school and failed to conquer the Golden Mile, a pub crawl consisting
of all twelve village pubs. Gary reunites the old friends to try and
complete the Mile, despite how successful and distant the four
friends have become. Along their crawl, they discover not all is
what it was in Newton Haven. People seem cold and robotic, as if
they've been replaced...
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| Always dressed for the occasion... |
The World's End carries
on the tradition set out in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, by
balancing very ordinary people and very extraordinary circumstances;
this time, an alien invasion apocalypse. Pegg and Wright stated that
since Shaun had been their horror film and Fuzz was their action
film, they wanted to complete the trilogy with TWE being their
science-fiction adventure. They delivered.
As usual, the film is
completely filled with visual references to the genre it belongs to,
whilst adding a fresh and innovative flair to the standards set by
classic science-fiction before it. Wright's direction has
impressively matured from the experimental style of Spaced, the TV
series where he first worked with Pegg and Frost, and he has now been
able to combine subtlety and excitement into incredible fluid camera
movements, especially in madcap fight scenes that reminded me of his
previous film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
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| They had to do countless re-takes for some reason... |
The main double-act of
Pegg and Frost are fantastic throughout the film, as well as the
other three reunited group members (Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine) and the cameo from ever-present Bill Nighy. But seeing the dynamic shift between the two main
leads was very interesting to see from a fan's perspective. In Shaun
and Fuzz, Pegg played the straight-man who coped with his partner
Frost, epitomising the loafish idiot. However Pegg's character Gary
King defines wasted youth. Obviously having drunk and smoked most of
his life away, his obsession with reliving his past and capturing the
glory days is initially endearing, but ultimately devastating to see
how such promise has deteriorated to King's current state. Pegg's
ability to make King so annoying and yet so lovable is wonderful to
experience. He has the innocence of the Andrex puppy, mainly due to
having the same IQ. Yet the frustration felt by the four returning
men can be so easily understood. The film is all about the
friendship between the five of them, not the apocalypse that happens
in the background.
That's what defines The
World's End and the ultimate difference between the two films; The
World's End contains a heartfelt and touching storyline, rather than This Is The End; an interesting premise that is stretched out until it becomes boring.
The dynamic between the two leads is an essential element to the
film that helps keep you interested throughout, and was much more
believable than Seth and Jay's relationship from This Is The End.
The A-listers grow apart due to fame becoming a divider, rather than
Gary King's self-destruction, a much more relatable problem.
I could go on for a
while about how The World's End is intricately
designed and obviously filled with care and love by a true auteur
director, but it'd be much easier to watch it yourselves. It's a
film that can be watched on multiple occasions and you can take away
different aspects every single time. This Is The End is a fun laugh
for a night where you just want to switch off and have a silly time,
but The World's End is, by far, the better option. They manage to
combine the topics of alienation, misspent youth, “Starbucking”,
freedom, indoctrination, loss of identity and school discos all into
one pub crawl. I'll drink to that.
This Is The End – 5
The World's End – 9
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