I really hope you got a chance to peep, The Worlds End this last weekend. Over half of 2013 is history and while I’m keeping a mental note of my top five films of the year…This one has to be included. Edgar Wright can do no wrong and he is going to rock the ‘Ant Man’ film. I have no doubt about it. The World’s End was funny and surprisingly touching in spots. Very odd perhaps for the average theatre goer. The reason I say this is that I’ve heard that some are having a hard time with the ending. If you have not seen this film yet be warned, SPOILERS ahead. The Cornetto Trilogy, while it has three over-arching themes (the crisis in manhood, genre films and, err, ice cream), also has a different message in each film too. In Shaun of the Dead, we get a loser who, despite his efforts, doesn’t change and only survives through blind luck. The point is, that all the middle class ideals he’s apparently missed out on (a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a settled relationship) turn out to be false or simply not worth it. The real journey is undertaken by his girlfriend, who finally comes to love and accept him for who he is. That’s the real message of the film. In Hot Fuzz, the message is much simpler. You have two very different ways of looking at life that are reconciled without being compromised. You need principles and you need friendship. The World’s End, meanwhile, has a more complicated message because it covers three very big issues – the rise of managerialism in all parts of our lives and the very real tragedies of addiction and mental illness. The film concludes that adulthood isn’t about having – once again – a nice job or lots of money or living in an ‘ideal’ society. It’s about being true to yourself, caring for other people and standing up for what you believe. Our modern world infantilises us, and rejecting this will come at a terrible but perhaps necessary cost, but it is the only way you can be truly happy. Also, the devastation visited upon the world and its slow recovery afterwards are very graphic metaphors for going cold turkey and surviving a mental breakdown. Earth and Gary, in effect, go through the same trauma, but by sticking to his beliefs and becoming a defender of the marginalized, he has at last grown up. We saw childhood’s end at the film’s conclusion, and it’s worth pointing out that the other main characters all had their own happy endings too, give or take the lack of Cornettos. Sound off in the comments below, what did you think of The Worlds End or the trilogy as a whole? -Dagobot Get at me on twitter: @markdago Like me on THE Facebook: facebook.com/markdagoraps Download my latest EP for free: markdago.bandcamp.com Listen to MY podcast http://poppundits.libsyn.com/