Entertainingly silly

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2013)

Summer blockbuster + Brad Pitt. Heh, that's all I need to know. I'm in. From the apocalyptic vision presented on the poster, I thought it would be a disaster movie or a science fiction adventure. Imagine my surprise then when I found that I was attending my first zombie movie. Maybe I should have known this earlier, but maybe the former United Nations investigator played by Pitt should have known something was up with the world before he took his family driving in downtown Philadelphia where suddenly all hell lets loose. I'm glad I opted for the 2D rather than the 3D version. 'I can only take so much of zombies.
It's a really good opening and the pacing is then well done with lots of racing around the world and scary encounters interspersed with periods to catch one's breath, but the final resolution of the crisis is lame and very oddly located in Cardiff of all places.
The film is capable of all sorts of political interpretations. The United Nations - especially its agency the World Health Organisation - is presented in a favourable light which is a counter to the US Republicans who seemed to think the UN is a secret vehicle for world domination. Israel is portrayed as sensibly building a wall against the zombies which can be seen as endorsement for the wall around the West Bank. The solution to the 'war' - which is really a pandemic - is scientific rather military which might be a call for less dependence on force to solve world problems. The zombies themselves - innocent humans who are slaughtered without hesitation or thought - could be a metaphor for Islamic fundamentalists or even all Muslims. Or maybe this is just a well-crafted, but ultimately somewhat silly, zombie movie.