It's the end of the world as we know it. Again. 77.5%

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2013)

This is a movie about a zombie apocalypse. Hmm...actually I was wondering whether the 'monsters' in this movie were technically zombies...I didn't think so, but later in the movie they are described in a way which fits in with 'conventional' notions of zombies.
The opening credits pretty much blames the U.N. for the zombie pandemic...which perhaps makes lead actor Brad Pitt's character of U.N. 'trouble shooter' Gerry Lane an ironic hero (not sure if that irony still remains after a scene in Israel with a key figure there).
World War Z (I say it "Zed" damn it! Perhaps it's meant to rhyme in the American way with "3"?) doesn't go in for long introductory scenes of life before the pandemic. There's a little of that at the start of the movie with Gerry's family (a wife and two girls). Such scenes are meant to ground Gerry but to me his family seem little more than props. Then again, Gerry doesn't seem a completely grounded character...but this is a zombie movie after all...what did you expect?
Pretty soon the world has gone to Hell in a handbasket, overrun with 'zombies'. There are many tense scenes with Gerry (and his family) in imminent danger. Although retired from his U.N. duties, Gerry is roped into helping to defeat the zombie threat.
Gerry ends up travelling to many countries trying to find the origin of the pandemic. Displaying the new fad of representing zombies, these hordes are not the shuffling slow pokes of a George A. Romero zombie movie...whilst not exactly supernatural seeming as in the movie "I am legend", they are a force to be reckoned with. I liked how they posed a greater threat as a group even though they were acting individually...as if their collective intelligence was far greater than that of any one individual. In any case, the action is basically all Hollywood...incredible odds, then overcook those to make the hero seem even more heroic. Then there are the Hollywood clichés to add even more tension to an already tense scene. At times such Hollywoodisations just over-egged the pudding for me.
Previously I mentioned that Israel is a location for one of Gerry's trips. That section of the movie was interesting. It did make me wonder what was the subtext here? That it turns out that it was a good idea for Israel to build a wall between itself and the outside world?
All in all, this was a tense and entertaining movie. The movie's zombies are unlike those of such pioneering efforts such as "Night of the living dead" and those not into gore and "Ewww!" will appreciate the different emphasis of this movie.
Personally, I'd like to see a 'slow burn' zombie movie...taking the time to establish life before the threat and to slowly build into the end of the world scenario...hopefully drawing sympathetic characters in the process. Equally important would be to have the 'zombies' not be some sort of super human monsters...more in the George A. Romero mould...but then again, not technically either! I.e. a compromise between these two representations of zombies. The mechanics of how people turned into zombies in World War Z didn't really convince me...but I was happy to suspend disbelief.
Saw this movie on an extra-widescreen and in 3D. The extra dimension doesn't really warrant the extra money at the box office though...however, I had some loyalty reward points which meant that I could see it in this form for around half the price of a half-price Tuesday regular 2D movie.