Wake me when the war is over

Rating: 4/10 (31 October 2013)

"World War Z" is a roller coaster ride – an exhilarating one as long as the ride continues. It's when the movie starts to take itself seriously that the ride comes to a halt and we are left swinging in the air.
A plague breaks out that turns humans into zombies with the sole purpose of infecting other humans with the same condition. After experiencing a sudden zombie attack in Philadelphia, Gerry Lane, played by Brad Pitt, an ex-United Nations investigator, is coerced into returning to investigate the zombie pandemic.
If you want something done, ask a busy man. After saving his family from the zombies, Gerry has a number of hair-raising escapes from the many afflicted areas around the world, at one point lopping off the zombie-infected hand of an Israeli girl-soldier. After blowing up a plane he is travelling on, and surviving, he has a eureka moment and comes up with the solution to the zombie plague.
Although not totally new to cinema, zombie takeover has never looked as spectacular as it does in this film. However, if behaviour on our streets outside nightclubs at 2 a.m. is any guide, it appears that the zombies took over some time ago.
Although the aerial shots and mass scenes of the zombies in "World War Z" are breathtaking, the action slows when it gets to ground level in some rather ordinary looking sets. A lot of the action takes place in back alleys and derelict buildings, with much repetitious zapping of zombies seemingly inspired by video games.
I must admit that my eyes started to glaze over between the first zombie attack and Gerry's arrival in Jerusalem where the action picks up again. The movie slows in the middle, and again at the end when the story gets bound up in some complicated science, and then becomes mired inside a laboratory in Wales.
The Jerusalem wall scene is amazing as the zombies climb all over each other to get to the top. Of course, Israel really does have a similar wall along the West Bank, obviously to protect people on the inside from people on the outside. Is there sub-text here? Surely the filmmakers didn't try to bury a less than subtle political message in what is essentially a mindless horror/action flick.
The movie also feels a bit déjà vu. It is similar to Spielberg's "War of the Worlds". It was aliens in that case but much of the action plays out the same, especially the way the zombies suddenly appear, and in Brad's attempts to protect his family. Mind you, I enjoy revisiting Spielberg's movie every now and then, but I can't say that I'll need another helping of "World War Z" any time soon.
Although the film delivers some amazingly spectacular scenes, when it starts to take its pseudo-science seriously, it's time to reach for the No-Doz.