Focus FeaturesThe World's End has finally hit theaters.
The new film follows five friends—Gary King (Simon Pegg), Peter (Eddie Marsan), Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Andy (Nick Frost)—who reunite in their English hometown to go on a pub crawl together and relive their childhood memories.
Oh, and during the reunion, an alien invasion hinting at Earth's apocalypse occurs.
So how did critics receive the science-fiction comedy? Here's what they had to say…
• The Wrap's Alonso Duralde writes, "A hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking tale of lost youth crossed with a wonderfully over-the-top genre exercise, The World's End plays very much to its creators' strengths, deftly intertwining male menopause and the apocalypse as it follows a quintet of old friends reliving the key missed opportunity of their teen years—downing 12 pints in 12 pubs in their small town's ‘golden mile' of public houses."
• "Another highly enjoyable exercise in jaunty pastiche from the brains behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz," writes Variety's Leslie Felperin.
• "Simon Pegg in The World's End, the latest work of brilliant inanity from director Edgar Wright, takes this whole reluctant-savior-of-humanity thing to a new plane. Twenty years after high school, Pegg's scruffy, unshaven, never-gonna-grow-up, substance-abusing Gary can't hold down a job. His idea of a relationship is a quick tryst in the loo of a pub. This is a guy who's gonna save us—or at least, parts of suburban England—from an alien invasion? Lord help us," writes Huffington Post's Jocelyn Noveck.
• Los Angeles Times writer Mark Olsen says, "Audacious and witty, The World's End is a strange brew. It is debatable whether this is [director Edgar] Wright's best film—like a favorite band whose best albums can shift about, the list changes based on time and mood—but it is likely the most Edgar Wright of Edgar Wright's films. Neither a full-fledged new beginning but also far from treading water, the movie feels like a celebration, of friendship, collaboration and all that is silly and glorious in the human spirit. We could all do worse."
• New York Times writer A. O. Scott writes, "Mr. Wright also, in some ways, plays it safe, steering clear of anything too ugly or shocking as he keeps all forms of seriousness at bay. His project is childish fun with adult language and grown-up costumes, and he executes it with energy and precision. The Cornetto Trilogy is named after a popular ice cream treat, and the buzz of The World's End is more like an antic sugar high than a reeling, drunken stupor. There are no headaches, dry mouth or crushing shame at the end—no Hangover, in other words. I'll drink to that.
• "More important, Wright and Pegg figure out a way to let their hero renounce his drink and have it too. Their vision is both antic and judicious. This is by light-years the most entertaining movie of the year. How many apocalyptic sci-fi action extravaganzas leave you feeling as if the world is just beginning?" writes New York Magazine staffer David Edelstein.
• Rotten Tomatoes give The World's End a rating of 92 percent.