World War Z: Z is for Zombie

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2014)

The story unfolds in the first 10 minutes. The sweet couple wakes up bright and early, the kids (two wonderful little ladies) are happily playing in the kitchen, and the loving husband Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) prepares a breakfast. Then, TV report on martial law -- family, car, panic in the traffic jam -- a hit by car policeman -- running and crying people -- zombies among them! The story develops uncommonly fast and astonishing, especially for those who was familiar with nothing else but the movie trailer. As for me, as a prospective moviegoer, I watched the trailer and that's it. I didn't read any movie descriptions and I wasn't aimed at finding any other "about a movie" information. So the only thing I knew was that the movie-I'd like-to-watch title is "World War Z". Thus, I expected to watch something warlike: men with weapons, army, booms and so on. After watching the trailer, I made a conclusion that this movie is quiet warlike, there are weapons and even copters but I didn't catch who was fighting for and why. There was not even slight mentioning of Zombie. No scary infected men's faces, no Zombie's walking shots, no Zombie's attacking people shots. How should I get that this is an about-Zombie- movie? Now after watching the movie I realize that Z in the title is for Zombie. In the next few minutes we find out that Gerry is an ex-UN employee (but you are never an ex-UN employee as well as an ex-CIA agent or killer, whatever) and he is going to help the government to stop the Z pandemic. The other UN-employee Thierry (Fana Mokoena) itself makes a promise to take care of Gerry's family. Well, first, I have to admit that Brad Pitt was acting in lots of movies during his actor career as a non-family man appeared to the audience as a loving and thoughtful husband and daddyand failed. Wish he never tried to. Why has he to be a husband according to this screenplay? Why not a brother or cousin? He could be a nice widower living in neighborhood who happened to help a lone woman with kids to get out of that mess by chance. But we know upfront, this is not a love story. I just state the point that being a family man is not what Brad Pitt good at. Herein I'd better put the brackets with the words "in movies". The action is eventful on the whole. The human race's Rescuer Gerry Lane travels around the world, goes from country to country (except Russia; "Russia is a black hole" as his fellow Jurgen (Ludi Boeken) said in the trailer; and perhaps India, that's what Jurgen named "a black hole" in a movie), from city to city trying to understand the reason of mass infection and the way to prevent it. The progressively increasing number of death toll accompanies his adventures. The world, meanwhile, turns into a mess. But miracles happen! The answer how to conquer Z-beings comes to his mind when traveling and trying to figure out the situation. All in all, he is the main character, what means that he has to fight all alone or almost alone; and that is what actually happens in the end of the story. Everyone is happy, Brad Pitt, oops, sorry, Gerry Lane is a national or better to say international hero, his family is safe and sound, the world, as we know it, still has a right to existence. As for his wife Karin Lane (Mireille Enos), she is O.K. I mean there's nothing to add. Just an ordinary wife taking care of her kids while her husband trying to save the world. Nothing special. Happens every day. Or even rare. Except one thing, she is overcareful and nervous, by the way, she calls him not in the right time. She calls him to know how is he doing and so on like he's gone for a walk for a while and is not coming back. Oh God! Why?! So, this is the time when we all know "what" happens, I guess. The idea of mutual support and cooperation is well-presented in the random number of shots where people help each other in trouble. I guess this is a right appeal to stay united in case of something. But there is still one thing left. The reason why people ever get infected is not clear. The movie gave a food for thought for audience on 2 questions: how did people get infected and mutated; and how to stop this apocalypse. The world-wide infection has been stopped. And as for the first question, there's no answer. Whether to accept it as an allusion to a sequel or not, you'd better decide on your own.