Good action with strong performance but not much story

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2014)

You know what, I think the name might be the problem.
What do you expect from "World War Z"? What the hell are you supposed to expect? I asked my partner, "Do you want to watch World War Z with me?" She went, "Nooo," because she was convinced this was a war movie. The truth is that this is a much better movie than its title.
The plot is not particularly original. Brad Pitt + worldwide zombie epidemic. That's the plot. Oh yes, stuff happens alright, but very little of it is noteworthy.
What this movie is really about is the spectacle. The action is well spread throughout the movie, and when it kicks in, it is intense. The camera work is nice and varied, from chaotic close-ups of wrestling zombies to those expensive overhead flying shots. There are a lot of different locations and faces and guns and chaos and zombies, oh my, are there a lot of zombies. You get a feeling this movie tries to be epic and it mostly succeeds.
There are quite a few actors that make an appearance and all contribute a good performance. It's a shame the contributions are short. It is mostly Brad Pit carrying the film on his shoulders, and I suppose if you are paying a guy like him then of course you want to give him a lot of screen time, but it is a shame that none of the other people stick around for long enough to make us remember them. They show up out of nowhere and disappear into the background. There is a somewhat memorable Israili woman that serves as main character's partner while Brad's wife character is not around, but that is about it.
The main problem is still the plot. I suppose it is hard to make a disaster or horror movie that does not have plot problems. It is not just that the outline is simplistic. The narrative in World War Z is a bumpy ride with convenient events and nonsensical science. It feels like the world, the laws of physics and the entire space–time continuum revolve around the superman Brad Pit as it suits his cause.
On the bright side, the plot is not predictable. Quite a few things happen that I did not see coming.
Despite the problems with the plot, it is still a great action spectacle though and definitely worth seeing.