Review 254: World War Z

  

World War Z is a skillful, efficient apocalyptic action film

Loosely, based on the novel World War Z by Max Brooks, Retired United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.
 

The plot has practically nothing to do with the original novel. The original Max Brooks novel is basically a collection of interviews from survivors of a Zombie apocalypse; a sort of mocumentary version of Contagion with Zombies. This works just fine for a novel but doesn't lend itself particularly well to a film adaptation. The film lacks the geopolitical subtext of Brooks' novel but makes up for it   In fact the only thing that remains is that it’s a global epidemic - a global apocalypse which help to elevate above a messy script towards a  

The film starts and thrusts right into the middle of the action after the first 5 minutes when we've bearly gotten to know Gerry & his family. On the plus side, it captures the sense of what it feels like to be in the middle of your everyday life and then all of sudden, like a volcano, this enormous thing erupts. 

There's a sense of World War Z being pulled in too many directions. This film tries to be a lot of different variations on the zombie genre and it does them pretty well but tonally it's all over the place.

One of the things that this movie does well is showing what happens around the world in reaction to this single event and how it isn't just localised. 

Director Marc Forster's direction is splendid, handling the action scenes with the same amount of intensity and grit he bought to Quantum of Solace while also  giving us the sense that this could really be happening. The cinematography is solid, the scenery is beautiful (to see humanity collapse by all these zombies is just mesmerising). The score by Marco Beltrami is rousing and exiting. The production design is superb, the costumes are terrific, the make up is rich (the zombies look genuinely scary) the special effects are fantastic, the action scenes are intensely shot and well choreographed. It's fast paced, the suspense is gripping, the sound effects are sharp and the ending was beautiful. I also felt that the film did an excellent job conveying the terrifying terror of the zombies and panic in the streets and the scenes of the zombies attack were disturbing, unsettling and completely convincing

The acting, for the most part, is great, thought the most praise has to go to Brad Pitt who forced to carry this film on his two shoulders in the role of Gerry Lane. He basically an everyman who is in a really sticky situation whose trying to solve the problem but at the same time being very protective of his family. Gerry is a retired UN investigator so we understand that he use to work in these places where crisis exist but now he’s retreated more to be a family man and focus on them and live a normal life

 

Much like Will Smith in I Am Legend, he's fighting to find a cure for 

 Smith's performance works better as a solo act because he's on his own and has experienced that much loss, to be without people or any kind of social interaction for that long, while Brad Pitt is works better at an emotional, desperate performance. The rest of the supporting cast are fantastic as well but Pitt's the real star of the film and he really carries this film along, although possibly the ones that stand out most are

 

Mirielle Enos gives it her all in the part of Lane's wife Karin but the script never elevates her beyond the bare bones role of the standard issue, steadfast wife.    

 

Apart from Daniella Kertesz as the Israeli soldier "Segen",  who accompanies Gerry in his mission. None of the characters rise above purely perfunctory benchwarms   

There are some neat little cameos and supporting roles scattered throughout including James Badge Dale as a U.S. Special Forces captain. I read somewhere that Lost's Matthew Fox was cast in major supporting role but due to rewrites and editing, his role was cut down to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. 

 

Peter Capaldi, Pierfrancesco Favino, Ruth Negga and Moritz Bleibtreu show up near the end of the film playing WHO doctors 

World War Z is uneven in spots but it still makes a great summer movie. The film isn’t the engrossing "All the President's Men" esque conspiracy, detective story or the quiet, grim, topical that Children of Men and District 9 were but it’s not a total mess either, 4/5.

The Anonymous Critic.