The World's End

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine

Written by: Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright

Directed by: Edgar Wright

The final part of the alleged ‘Blood and Cornetto’ trilogy, The World’s End tells the story of Gary King (Pegg) and his old friends as they re-unite after many years to complete a legendary pub crawl in their home town. It isn’t going well even before they run into aliens, wracked as they are by long-standing tensions, largely brought about by Gary’s behaviour as a teenager and his stubborn refusal to grow up since.

In their previous collaborations, Pegg has played the hero, with Frost the buffoonish, childish sidekick, and both have worked to great effect. Here though, the partnership is reversed, with Pegg playing the man-child and Frost the serious adult. Where Shaun of the Dead had Shaun emerging into responsible adulthood though, and Hot Fuzz showing someone too responsible and serious learning how to relax and enjoy life again, The World’s End has Frost’s Andy as a more balanced portrayal of maturity; not perfect, perhaps too stubborn at times, but more or less satisfied with his life. In addition, for all Gary’s bravado and determined enthusiasm for his life, he’s a far more obviously pathetic – bordering on tragic, by the end - figure than Frost’s equivalent characters in the earlier films. It is a far richer, more sophisticated relationship than anything seen previously in their films, and it’s a joy to behold.

Sadly though, the rest of the cast are given less impressive fare to work with; Freeman, Marsan and Considine are given mild variations on successful business-men, but while each has their own sub-plot to work with, it’s fairly minor stuff, although Marsan’s speech about meeting his childhood bully again is one of the more affecting moments of the film. Pike, as Freeman’s sister, is perfectly fine in her limited role, but the film probably wouldn’t have suffered much if they hadn’t bothered writing her in at all. As it is, she feels like a token female character rather than a necessary or interesting part of the film.

This under-written feel extends somewhat to the plot, which by comparison to Shaun and Hot Fuzz is threadbare, at least up until the end, at which point there’s a bout of exposition that is only beaten thus far this summer by Man of Steel, and that only because it repeated the exposition. The ending is a little out there as well, although admittedly affecting.

In all fairness though, it must be said that the thin plot is probably because Pegg and Wright were too busy writing jokes. I can’t remember a film with a higher laugh per minute rate since Airplane – and it isn’t just the quantity of jokes, it’s the quality. Pretty much every line of dialogue in the first half of the film had me in stitches; in the second half, where there’s more plot and (relatively) character development, the gag rate goes down to perhaps every fourth line, but they’re still crackers.

It isn’t as well thought out as the other two films, and there is a lot of unnecessary flab around the middle, as the gang run into almost every major figure from their childhood, but I have little hesitation in recommending The World’s End as the funniest film of the year so far, and it’s hard to imagine a funnier one in the coming months.

The Wolverine

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Svetlana Khodchenkova

Directed by: James Mangold

Written by: Mark Bamback, Scott Frank

If you’ve been to the cinema recently, you might have seen part of marketing campaign for the film. Apart from the obvious trailers, there have been a couple of teasers declaring “Stronger than Steel!” or “Tougher than Iron!” before the statements get clawed apart. It’s a nice idea, but it isn’t true. About the best claim The Wolverine can make is that it is less woeful than X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which failed as both an adaptation and a film, to the extent that it didn’t even qualify as so bad it’s good (and I actually rewatched it the other night; even without the sense of crushing disappointment, there was little enjoyment to be had with it).

Perhaps the reasons for the less than stellar end product can be found in the troubled development. Darren Aronfsky was initially signed on to direct, before leaving the production citing personal reasons (although it was speculated that it was more to do with a lack of studio approval for his more R-rated draft), and the film was originally designed as a prequel to the first X-Men film, before morphing at some stage to more of a sequel to Last Stand.

Perhaps in part it is the more sombre, (relatively) realistic take on the character. Stripped of his healing factor for much of the film, and in a completely different country to most of his surviving allies, there isn’t quite as much room for the sort of pyrotechnics and theatrics we’ve come to expect from the X-Men franchise, and is more of a straightforward crime drama for much of the running time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and if you’re going to take that approach with a superhero Wolverine is one of the better ones to apply it to, but it’s a mixed bag in practice; taking a superhero and putting him a thriller is innovative, at least within the cinematic universes, but the actual plot is fairly standard stuff that you’ll have seen a dozen times before. The main interest is in how that combines with the comic book stuff, but most of that has been removed.

Really, ‘fairly standard’ more or less sums up the film. Jackman is fine – perhaps a little too tall and ruggedly handsome than purists might like, but he does gruff and reluctantly heroic like no other – but the characters around him aren’t really developed that much. His most affecting relationship is with Jean Grey – Famke Janssen, reprising her role – and she’s a figment of his imagination. Well, probably. There’s nothing to say otherwise, but she’s a stupidly powerful mutant with a history of coming back from the dead, and there’s another X-Men film being shot at the moment, so who knows? His actual love interest, Mariko (Okamoto, in her film debut), is another integral character in Wolverine’s comic history, although a more obscure one beyond the comics themselves, but in the film she only just gets enough depth to rise above damsel in distress status; this isn’t a problem with Okamoto’s performance particularly, which is perfectly adequate, but more to do with the script, which does very little with her.

More interesting is Logan’s ‘bodyguard’, Yukio (Fukushima), who is blessed with some hints of wit and honour, and a livelier performance, but in terms of acting, it is Svetlana Khodchenkova as the villainous Viper who walks away with the film. She’d clearly decided that if she was going to be in a comic book film, she was going to have as much fun as she possibly could, and when your character has a foot long tongue, breathes poison and can peel her skin off how seriously can you play it? She’s a vampy delight, even if she does feel like she’s from a different film altogether.

The plot suffices, without ever desperately engaging. The notion of Logan’s healing factor being turned off might interest comic fans, if only to see how long it lasts, but it would have been more interesting if they had done more with it; as it is, it’s a plot device that reduces him from superhuman to merely the average action hero. He spends most of the day after losing his healing walking round with several gunshot wounds for Heaven’s sake. The most interesting bits are those that hint, however obliquely, towards the upcoming Days of Future Past – and given that those make up less than five minutes of the running time, at a generous estimate, that’s not a good thing.

It’s not that there isn’t fun to be had. There are a couple of entertaining set pieces, and the odd sparks of humour work well, but it’s all just so…bland. You can perhaps understand a desire to play it a little safe. When you’re making a sequel to one of the worst films of the last ten years, you might want to make sure you’ve at least got the basics down.

Not exactly a recommended film then, but there are worse ways to kill a couple of hours.