Fast-moving action thriller

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2013)

Based on the book by Max Brooks, "World War Z" is a gripping, adrenaline-pumping thriller about a worldwide zombie apocalypse (a phrase that is fast becoming one of the most overused in modern pop culture).
Brad Pitt plays a retired UN employee, now stay-at-home dad, who barely makes it out of Philadelphia alive with his wife ("The Killing's Mireille Enos in a largely insignificant role) and two little daughters as the zombie attacks spring up seemingly out of nowhere. Because of his previous experience maneuvering through arduous situations, he is sent out into the world to find answers as to how the plague may have started and to discover what possible remedies there might be to keep the human race from literally devouring itself into nonexistence.
These are not the shambling, foot-dragging zombies of the Romero films or TV's "The Walking Dead." They're not only fleet of foot but are able to scale seemingly impenetrable walls by piling one on top of the other like a cheerleader pyramid on steroids (in their speed, they actually have more in common with the creatures in the "24 Days Later" series). This may make them a lot harder to outrun, but it robs them of some of the creepiness we normally associate with the zombie figure.
Because the movie is done on a global rather than intimate scale, it lacks the haunting, soul-searing dread and emotional desolation of a work like "The Walking Dead." In contrast, "Z" feels more like a grand action movie but, even as such, it hits all the right notes. Thanks to Brooks' beat-the-clock scenario (adapted herein by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof) and Marc Foster's full-throttle direction, the audience rarely gets the chance to relax the muscles, as we hurtle right along with Pitt from one close-call encounter with a baffling, seemingly intractable enemy to the next.
Not all that memorable really, but entertaining while it's going on.