I guess if a zombie apocalypse was ever going to happen, we could do a lot worse than Brad Pitt as the savior of all mankind.
Wait, what?
World War Z is an adaptation of Max Brooks’ best-selling novel about a realistic zombie apocalypse, and how humanity eventually overcame it. The film version, directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace), and originally scripted by J. Michael Straczynski, who was replaced by Matthew Michael Carnahan, who then wrote the script based off of his and Straczynski’s story (Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof were both brought in at the 13th hour to rewrite the ending after Paramount and test audiences reportedly had major problems with the film’s wrap up), disregards the style of the novel, which is written as an oral history, instead focusing on one aspect of the events that will ultimately lead up to the actual zombie war.
As you can see, the production of this film has quite a history.
World War Z follows the events through the eyes of Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), a former United Nations inspector who, after the world begins to turn, tries to ensure the safety of his family. Gerry taps a UN Under-Secretary (Fana Mokoena) to help get his family out of a rapidly deteriorating New Jersey, and the military then uses that to force Gerry back into the job of escorting a brilliant young scientist (Elyes Gabel) to South Korea to discover the all important “Patient Zero.” For some reason, only Gerry can do this, and he agrees as long as his family remains safe aboard the USS Saratoga.
This leads to a series of terrible events that sees Gerry going from Korea, to Israel, to Eastern Europe all in hopes of finding a cure. World War Z definitely uses its 116-minute run time to tell its story, but it seemingly fails to connect where it counts and the audience may not take the journey. Also, Gerry Lane’s experience with the UN is as an inspector, nothing more. He would have been one of the guys trying to find WMDs in Iraq back in 2003. There is nothing that explains why he is the go-to guy for this job, other than the fact that he is played by Brad Pitt, who also served as a producer of the film. Unfortunately, it’s a huge disconnect for me.
Acting-wise, Pitt’s Gerry is really nothing special, and only few performances stand out (David Morse playing a disgraced CIA operative being the best). Matthew Fox (Lost) has one line as a paratrooper, as most of his scenes were cut out, and James Badge Dale (Iron Man 3) does a good job as a U.S. Navy SEAL holding down the fort in South Korea.
World War Z has some great ideas. The zombies are of the “fast, relentless” variety, and their motivation is not about eating brains, but biting unaffected people to essentially further the spread of their “race.” Add to this the great plot device that the zombies only look for healthy humans to attack. Referencing my headline to this review, if you have syphilis, you would not be attacked. Zombies are one “villain” that is just so overplayed, and to see new conventions brought in is refreshing.
The production looks good, but the 3D is completely unnecessary as the film is shot way too dark and the actions scenes are filmed on handi-cams so there is zero benefit of depth of field. Also, there are very few scares, and since World War Z is rated PG-13, there is also an incredible lack of makeup special effects and gore. A zombie movie without scares and/or gore is like looking for a date at a family reunion; it’s just a bad idea.
World War Z is supposedly the first of three films that will encompass the complete story of Brooks’ novel. Unfortunately, the aforementioned production issues and bloated budget (word is it reached upwards of $250 million dollars), means that the two additional films may never see the light of day, and the promise set up by this first film will be left to die without any hope of resurrection.
As a possible tent-pole horror blockbuster, World War Z fails in every way. If it had been scaled back and made in a more intimate way, the fresh ideas and themes that Brooks, Forster, Pitt and company bring to the genre could have been explored and a truly epic film trilogy could have been made. Hopefully audiences will flock to theaters to see this film and we will get that next film in the trilogy (which promises to be so much better), even though they do so at their own peril.
World War Z is PG-13 and opens nationwide on June 21, 2013.
