Brad Pitt vs the World War Z

Rating: 8/10 (7 September 2013)

Based on the acclaimed horror novel by Max Brooks, this version of the zombie apocalypse takes on a markedly different route than the original source material. Whereas Brooks presented the story as a series of detached stories, which help form the bigger picture, the pretty large cast of scriptwriters opted for a more cinematic approach, mostly owed to the preference of having one on-screen hero, instead of a multitude of short-lived appearances. Given the fact that Brad Pitt is the main star, it was pretty apparent that the super-powered actor would feature full-length and not be underutilised to one of many small segments.
Therefore Brad Pitt as UN operative Gerry Lane functions as the heart and soul, saviour and protector, lock, stock and barrel, taking on a one man army stance against the zombie onslaught, flying across the globe from New York to Korea, Israel or Wales. Naturally this is somewhat of an over-reach on my behalf, as Lane is much more frail a figure, requiring SEALs to protect his behind, nonetheless to an exaggerated extent Lane becomes the soul of almost everything positive in this movie, as all the events and actions of the novel are appropriated to Pitt.
The movie starts off inconspicuously with Gerry Lane joyously preparing pancakes for his family of four - his wife Karin (a welcome appearance by Mireille Enos) and two daughters Constance (Sterling Jerins) and Rachel (Abigail Hargrove). Slowly news of the appearance of zombies start filtering through the media, but nothing has the world prepared for what is about to take place, when a sudden appearance of the zombie virus has New York quickly fall into chaos, panic and a tidal wave of destruction. Having successfully escaped with his family onto an aircraft carrier off the coast of America, Gerry Lane is quickly employed (as a specialist on survival danger areas) to assist the UN in finding out the source of the sickness, which turns people into undead within a matter of seconds or minutes (depending on the strain). Meanwhile the outbreak goes global...
At times immaculately intense, bubbling with relentless tension, at others moments frightening to the core, while not bypassing the potential for pure unadulterated spectacle, "World War Z" is a surprisingly effective movie, which deservedly soared towards box-office glory. Despite its rabid pacing, the story almost never unravels aimlessly, instead affording much time for the situations to intensify, just before the explode with a vengeance. Ignoring the pure simple shock factors, director Marc Forster inspirationally forms scenes overladen with both horror and emotion.
Probably the best all-out zombie feature since "28 Day Later", "World War Z" does feature several innate common characteristics, mostly so by redefining the threat as something more akin to rabbis, than to decomposing bodies lazily sulking around. Zombies here are fast, furious and unrelenting, giving them a more frightening presence, which lacks in most such movies (and well ridiculed by features such as "Shaun of the Dead"). The threat suddenly becomes more visceral, as the attacks are reminiscent of an army of insects covering their prey within a matter of minutes. Other changes were introduced into the zombie characteristics, much like in the Danny Boyle English apocalypse, which help redefine the foe into intriguing new directions and thus allowing for new dramatic developments as far the genre is concerned. The relatively enormous budget also affords Marc Forster space for some spectacular scenes with swarms of zombies roaming countrysides, cities and bringing utter havoc on never before seen scales. Forster however also gives time and space for more low-key encounters with zombies, mixing it up so as to avoid repetition. At times the movie is rampant and furious, but also has the capacity to feel confined, slowly building tension and heightened expectations, especially towards the more toned down final act of the movie.
Despite the accolades for the overall movie itself, several thorns do stick out, gauchely pricking the wrong nerves. This includes several plot holes, whereas the most apparent is the suggestion that the plague was dispersed across the world via air-planes. However given that the sickness incubates for mere minutes, this just isn't feasible. Instead a scenario more akin to that of Ebola is likely - the virus spreads with such deadly intensity and at such a rate, that the sickness has no time to spread vastly.
Another troublesome issue regards the whitewashing of the racist apartheid state of Israel, which is presented as a welcoming, open country with the walls being constructed solely for the purpose of preventing such a zombie onslaught. And not for the purpose of ethnic cleansing as is the reality (scenes of Palestinians and Jews idyllically singing in joy of reunification were uncomfortably out-of-order). Brings into question how much cash the Israeli government flung at the movie to present them as doves of peace...
Nonetheless, despite these flaws "World War Z" presents itself as another strong zombie movie of the year (after "Warm Bodies") and a must-watch summer flick.