Most directors depict the end of the world in one specific way: something awful like an asteroid, or a super volcano, or Aliens, or a mass epidemic, is plaguaging the earth and everyone is loosing their shit, running threw the streets, looting, and killing. Well, directors Joel Marsh and Ben Crowell, took a rather different approach.
While the film is far from perfect, its a rather fresh approach to a cliched topic riddled with overused plot devices. What I Didn’t Do at the End of the World, actually takes all those hollywood end-of-the-world cliches and throws them out the window through the protaganist and narrator, played by Ben Crowell. Crowell continually tries out all the things that Hollywood and the eleven o’cloclk news have told us we are supposed to do when the world ends. But nothing seems to stick with Crowell’s character.
When I first watched What I Didn’t Do at the End of the World, I didn’t really see how smart this was; however, once I actually started to analyze Marsh and Crowell’s work, I realized just how cool their concept is. See, if the world does come to an end this year, in all reality, we probably wouldn’t be making bucket lists filled with things like “summit Kilimanjaro,” stealing luxary cars, finding the one that got away, or even just spending time with our families; we will all just want it to be over.
The concept behind What I Didn’t Do at the End of the World may be rather good, but the execution leaves me wanting more. All throughout high school and college we are told to show not tell. And that’s where Marsh and Crowell fall short. Pull the incredibly detailed narration out of the short and you aren’t really left with anything but a few beautiful images linked together. To be fair, having all the narration be a letter to an advice columnist was a rather good decision.
What I Didn’t Do at the End of the World is a solid piece of work that shows us what Hollywood could be making. Enjoy!
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