It is sort of familiar, but it works.

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2013)

As someone who is not a fan of zombie movies, I do always find them at least somewhat interesting. I think the obsession with this genre is mainly because people just want to see how bloody things will get. My fascination with them, if I had to find one, is mainly just what caused the outbreak. If the outbreak is original, then the movie will work, in my eyes. That, and it has to be scary, and it needs to have star-power. In the case of World War Z, the outbreak is unexplained, it isn't necessarily scary, and it has Brad Pitt. And it still works.
The film follows a guy named Gerry Lane (Pitt), a former employee of the U.N. When a zombie outbreak occurs, Lane and his family retreat to a Navy boat for safety. But for Gerry, it doesn't last for long. He is forced to travel around the world, in search of answers towards the outbreak. Obviously, it isn't smooth sailing. Judging from that plane scene in the trailer (the best sequence in the film).
WWZ is a movie that proves just why Pitt is a star. Pitt is an actor who can really get any moviegoer at a theater, and here it shows why. Pitt does a decent job as Gerry, a guy who really wants to get to the bottom of this thing so then he can get back to his family. Even though there aren't really any other famous people involved (David Morse shows up for a scene, and The Killing's Marielle Enos plays Gerry's wife), Pitt is all that's necessary.
The film is very well crafted for a zombie movie, even if it does fell a little familiar at times. The film is directed by Marc Forster, a director who has made quite a career transition. He has made films from Monster's Ball to Quantum of Solace, and it seems that he may have found something he's good at. There are some spectacular sequences here, and the film is always intense when it needs to be.
WWZ is good fun, and damn does it fly. But that said, it is on some familiar territory. That, and I sort of wish that there would have been a little more of a buildup. We know the Lane family for about five minutes, and then, poof. We see a zombie. But those flaws aside, it is still worth seeing. Not only that, it is even worth seeing in 3-D, something that I myself and not a big fan of. See it. I had a good time.
B+