Fun but forgettable

Rating: 5/10 (3 July 2013)

World War Z is a movie about zombies. Lots of zombies. Enough of them, in fact, to literally take over the world.
It starts with an unknown patient zero somewhere in Asia. Then there are bizarre reports of Indian soldiers fighting what they call the "undead." Gradually cases of a strange disease which re-animates the dead infiltrate major metropolitan areas. Our movie picks up with a sudden outbreak in Philadelphia, and we witness a generally peaceful city transformed in minutes into a sea of chaos, fear, and terror.
One of the survivors of the Philadelphia outbreak is Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt). Gerry was once a troubleshooter for the United Nations, and once it becomes obvious that zombies are literally infesting the planet with incredible speed the U.N. wants Gerry back in the field. If he can discover the origins of the disease, then perhaps a cure will follow. Reluctantly, Gerry agrees. He leaves his beloved family behind on an aircraft carrier and flies off to South Korea with a team of Navy SEALs.
South Korea proves to be merely the first stop on what will be a globe-spanning odyssey for Gerry, however. As he travels from one international hotspot to another, Gerry slowly pieces together a little information about the zombie threat. But can he come up with a solution before the whole world is ravaged by the undead? To its credit, World War Z tries to be more than your average zombie film. Most films of its type aren't very good, typically being badly written and grotesquely gory. World War Z isn't especially gory, and the shocks it generates are more likely to be generated by suspense and surprise rather than splatter. Pitt is a solid lead, and he clearly delivers his best effort, so that Gerry comes across as a real person rather than a superhero impersonator.
Sadly, none of this elevates World War Z above the mundane. For starters, the movie fails to deliver the scale its premise dictates. With the exception of a great scene set in Jerusalem, the movie never captures the magnitude of what is supposedly happening to the entire world. The film keeps us focused almost entirely on what Gerry is experiencing, presumably to establish viewer rapport with our protagonist. But for a movie about a World War, you don't see much of the world or the war.
Perhaps more importantly, the film really isn't very scary, and only haphazardly interesting. As mentioned above, there are a few suspenseful moments and it's nice to see a horror movie where something is left to the imagination, but the movie is very slow and has lots of down time where the zombies aren't directly involved in the action. The result is a movie that just sort of rumbles along, hitting a few high points here and there but ultimately failing to reach a suitable climax. Even though World War Z isn't quite two hours long, it feels closer to three.
World War Z is one of those films that isn't an outright failure, but it isn't anything special, either. If you really like zombies then go ahead and give it a go—you've most likely seen worse. Otherwise, you should probably just save your money.