More of a crowd pleaser than you'd think.

Rating: 7/10 (17 September 2015)

My brother dragged me to see this in theaters two years ago, and I went in with pretty low expectations. I figured it would consist mostly of mindless action, which there is a fair amount of. However, there was surprisingly interesting story behind it and a less surprising horror feel to it. I've heard that it deviates from the book a lot; both the book and movie started at the same place, but then ran off in different directions.
Our protagonist Gerry Lane is mostly a passive character, who is pulled by the events surrounding him more than he pulls the events. It makes him a slightly disappointing protagonist, but the essence of the film doesn't call for that kind of hero. He has a lot of presence of mind, presumably from his former military job, and we see those skills displayed in the beginning when he escapes from the first couple of zombie attacks through his resourcefulness. He has an internal goal of getting back to his family safely, but it's not terribly prominent. Pretty much every other character is minor, like Gerry's old boss, the Israeli soldier, the WHO doctors, and the people Gerry encounters in South Korea and Isreal. As a result of their small importance, none of the minor characters are developed at all, and Gerry really isn't either. But since the movie isn't about characters or arcs, this isn't much of an issue. Just be aware of that so that you aren't disappointed by false expectations.
The story, as I said before was slightly impressive, and made the movie a somewhat positive experience for me. It mostly consists of Gerry learning the nature of the zombies that humanity has become. At first, he and his family don't care about what they're facing so long as they can get away. As Gerry travels to investigate the epidemic, he learns how to defend against the zombies. The information comes little by little, and by the climax at the WHO facility, he has finally found the weakness in the virus. The presentation of each little important fact was done well and did a great job showing instead of telling. The climax also capped off the story nicely, though it might disappoint action fans who are hoping for a huge climatic zombie massacre. I was disappointed that they didn't discover the origin of the virus, because it would have been interesting to see whether humanity created it like in I am Legend or if it had been an unstoppable force of nature.
There's a pretty good amount of action. It's enough that people who don't want to pay attention to the story will be entertained, but the fight scenes are infrequent enough that people like me who don't like this particular genre of action aren't overly annoyed. It's more of a horror style of action that hinges more on blood and zombie makeup and stuff. The action is a little mindless, which you would expect since the antagonistic force is also mindless and each individual looks basically the same. The acting for the zombies was relatively impressive, but some might find it laughable. As for the sentient characters, the acting and scripting is better than it needed to be in this kind of setting, but naturally there aren't going to be any great performances.
For zombie movie fans, I can't say whether this is one of the brighter spots of the genre. But for people who aren't zombie fans, I would recommend that you keep a somewhat open mind. I was pleasantly surprised by the overall product, and I would hope the same for anyone who ends up watching this against their will. Overall Rating: 7.3/10.