I saw Shaun of the Dead on the original theatrical release, and I enjoyed it. I knew I liked it, but I remember being amazed at how little the audience laughed at stuff that was really pretty funny. When I saw Hot Fuzz in theaters, I didn't care for it quite as much as Shaun, but that was because I didn't have the same action movie background as I do with zombie movies. Ever since those initial screenings, I came back to the movies on DVD and then on Blu-ray, and they keep getting better. I appreciate the spectacular direction and editing, the acting, deliveries, timing, and most of all, the tightly wound script. But not all of that was obvious during the first viewing.
Because of this, I know that my initial feelings about The World's End are not likely to reflect my feelings later on.
That being said, this was still very enjoyable, but it wasn't quite up to the same level of brilliance I'm used to. Part of this could be that Pegg's lead is hard to like. He's pathetic, and a jerk, but most of that is addressed late in the movie. The problem is that we've already spent the first half hour disliking him, and the second half hour not minding him.
The cast is fairly large, but I suppose it's on par with Shaun of the Dead. This usually tends to make it a bit harder to feel like each character gets an opportunity to develop.
What actually seemed more surprising about the movie was the direction it turned at the very end. I knew about most of the plot up through until the last ten minutes, but then I expected the movie to end. Suddenly, there's another ending. I suppose they did this in both Shaun and Hot Fuzz, but I've gotten used to those ones. This second ending is much larger scale, and a bit bleak.
I have no idea exactly how I'll feel about this one later, but for now, it's a very good movie, but I'll have to see it a few more times to straighten my thoughts out.
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