Z for Zombie

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2013)

"World War Z" is a magnificent piece of art where all my stereotypical notions of hatred toward "Zombie Movies" need to be put aside and all that humanistic principles having been heeded by the heroes must be taken into a tremendous amount of consideration. This is said to those - including I myself - who have always considered such movies to be repulsive and crummy. I have constantly associated Zombie Movies with the top-notch work of art by Francis Lawrence, "I Am Legend" and that's it. The rest of them were just cookie cutter unimaginative repetition of the first few decent pioneers with teeny tiny alterations to the main theme. Back to "World War Z", there is a lot to be said about this awesome movie. First and foremost, the special effects were simply legendary. The Special Effects Technician needs only a few minutes to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats. In my humble opinion, the first twenty minutes is absolutely fantastic where the audience realizes the gravity of the situation and starts identifying with the humans in the movie. That would not have happened if the Special Effects Crew hadn't been so creative and professional and if millions of dollars hadn't been spent making all this possible. This consequential quality is circulated throughout the movie. In the middle of all this rage and struggle for survival, the movie uses a couple of symbols to make a few points. "Blanket" which the little girl asks for at the beginning of the movie symbolizes the warmth of home which seems to be far-off even after ten minutes. Wrapping your son or daughter in a blanket helps them feel loved and cared for even when you are gone. The main gist of Warmbrunn's story in Jerusalem is that governments attempt to solve problems rather than prevent them from becoming problems in the first place. This governmental habit costs many people their lives in the zombie wars (and probably doesn't help us much out in the real world, either). There's no doubt that Israel is viewed in the film as the promised land (until it's not). The wall that Israel has built around the country – explained and justified by a Mossad agent as a natural reaction to Arab aggression since 1948 (although Palestinians are not named specifically) – suggests that the film-maker and writers wanted to portray the Jewish state as a (temporary) shelter from zombies (read Arabs). The stupendous amount of stress laid on this part of the movie makes it perhaps the biggest cinematic propaganda for Israel which I honestly didn't dig at all. This is what this part of the movie is trying to depict here: Okay, so Israel falls to the zombie plague, too. But at least it lasted longer than everybody else. Plus, when Pitt is trying to escape to the next location, he takes Daniella Kertesz as the brave, beautiful Jewish soldier along with him. The cinematography is stunning. The techniques used in this movie are the ones I've mostly seen in documentaries where the bird's eye view describes everything thoroughly and the viewer seems to grasp the magnitude of the problem. The acting is totally defendable. The whole ensemble is professional even the small-time actors. Brad Pitt being the lead actor has shown to be a totally versatile one whose fabulous acting stuns me whenever I see him on the silver screen. All in all, "World War Z" provides the professional viewer with a second chance to reconsider their former thoughts about such movies and simultaneously endeavors to convey some political as well as religious messages in some particular parts of the movie.