Scary and Thrilling

Rating: 8/10 (6 July 2013)

World War Z
*** (out of 4)
116 mins/ 15
Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, Fana Mokoena, David Morse, Ludi Boeken, Elyes Gabel, Peter Capaldi, Ruth Negga, Pierfrancesco Favino,
Director: Marc Forster
Plot: An outbreak of an unknown virus causes the world to fall into a zombie apocalypse JJ's Verdict: After all the budget problems, rewrites and re-shoots of the last act, you would think World War Z would be a major flop, both critically and commercially. However, Marc Forster has created a scary edge-of-your-seat thriller, which, of all the entries in Hollywood's new craze, gives us a surprisingly realistic depiction of how the world probably would cope in a zombie apocalypse.
The film centres on Brad Pitt's character, a former United Nations employee Gerry Lane, who, after escaping to a government base from an outbreak of an unknown zombie virus, is forced to travel the world to find the source of the outbreak and eventually find out how to prevent it. Lane first travels to Korea where the Zombie pandemic was thought to have first broken out and is caught up in a they can see you but you can't see them type scenario. From here he moves to Jerusalem, the only city to have created a defence against the zombies, where he observes the city's giant wall blocking the zombies, only for the zombies to get over the wall and destroy the city. After a massive sequence on a zombie- infested aeroplane, Gerry lands in Cardiff where he faces off a group of zombies almost single- handedly, to reach the vaccination that will make people invisible to zombies. However ridiculous the idea of zombies taking over the world may seem, the film presents the story in a somewhat realistic way. In George Romero's zombie flicks of the 70's, the undead were slow and hard to take seriously as threats to people. In World War Z, the zombies can run, jump and attack like swarms of bees – a real and genuine threat to the human race. The zombie effects and creation are very good, and considering around 6 billion people become infected each zombie is given a completely new look that helps for the realism feel. The zombies themselves are incredibly freaky and genuinely scary for a PG-13 film in America (however in Britain it is a 15.)
The epic destruction of the cities, although they have a 2012 feel to them, don't look too CGI and focus more on the emotional distress of people and their livelihood than 2012's special effects.
Due to there being just one big-name star in this film, Brad Pitt has to hold up this film on his own. Do not fear however, as the Mr and Mrs Smith star excels in his biggest film yet (not best, but biggest box-office wise.) His presence on screen is both commanding and calming – even when in the middle of a zombie attack! There are bit parts for well-known actors David Morse and Peter Capaldi and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Lost's Matthew Fox but the real star of the show is Daniella Kertesz who plays an Israeli soldier who escapes from Jerusalem with Lane and goes on to help him in Cardiff. She manages to look beautiful despite having most of her hair shaved off for the film, and gives fine support to Brad Pitt. A star of the future perhaps! The only real moan I have with this film is that it is terribly slow when not involving zombies and is full of your everyday Hollywood clichés like how one man discovers how to stop the zombies despite none of the world governments having a clue. The film was originally meant to end with a massive battle in Moscow but by the sounds of it, it would have made Pitt's character almost Superhuman and would have been out of tone with the rest of the film. So I am pleased that they went for a smaller-scaled Dawn of the Dead like chase in a Cardiff laboratory. World War Z is a refreshing entry in the zombie-filled world of pop culture and is well worth watching in 3-D for the zombie running effects.