A mainstream 'gore-free' zombie epic

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2014)

World War Z is based on a book from back in the dark ages where every horror film wasn't about zombies. Since roughly the millennium, we've seen every type of zombie movie - romantic ones, humorous ones, ones from the zombies' perspective. Once upon a time a movie would be a sure-fire success just for having zombies in it. Now the public are getting a little sick of the undead. So... is WWZ too late to be of any importance? No, it's actually pretty good.
The closest film to liken it to would be 28 Days/Weeks Later in style and content. Only here we have a much bigger budget, played out not just in England, but all over the world. The zombies (and yes, they ARE zombies - there's no going to great lengths to NOT call them that here) can run, ala 'the infected' and you won't find a 'shuffler' in sight (oh, apart from when they're not chasing people - then they seem to happily go on 'shuffler-mode').
I was struck by how little gore there was here. A staple of zombie movies is blood and 'head shots,' yet, despite numerous battles between soldiers and zombies, you barely catch a glimpse of the red stuff. Plus, any close-range zombie kills are skilfully edited to avoid seeing any physical damage to the corpse. I can only assume this was to assure the 15 certificate rating which would put more bums on seats in the cinema. There's also barely any bad language (I didn't count a single profanity). So... what is there? WWZ wins out on sheer scale. Its scenes specialise in terror and mass destruction, presenting 'what if' scenarios of what the population would do amidst such an unexpected ordeal. The film follows (former UN health inspector) Brad Pitt as he travels the globe in search of a cure to the zombie virus. Brad Pitt can act (Kalifornia and Snatch being proof of that) yet there's little for him to do here. He's not a ninja, or Superman, so he spends his time running away from zombies most of the time. If I was being harsh I could say that any actor could have played his role, but the film-makers needed a big name to carry the film.
If you like zombie movies then definitely give this one a go. If nothing else it's the biggest and most epic zombie movie to date. If you want straight horror, you may come away feeling a little short-changed. I would almost call this a 'thriller' over a horror, due to the lack of gore being replaced by tension and terror.
Slight gripe: I watched this in the cinema and there was a fair few people who found the zombies quite funny when they were up close. For some reason zombies 'chatter/clack' their teeth together when they're sniffing the air. It is rather odd and probably more funny than scary.