A good-looking movie that entertains, but mostly just yet another Zombie movie.

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2013)

Movies about Zombies is not my favorite genre. In fact I would normally not see them because to me they are just overly silly. The whole concept of "the undead", people getting bitten and literally in 10 seconds or so changing into a Zombie. Stuff for cartoons but not for a serious dramatic movie.
The one exception is "Warm Bodies" which I saw during this past summer, a story about Zombies wanting to become normal people again, I really like that one.
Anyway, to this one, "World War Z". It seems some type of mysterious virus has broken out somewhere, they believe Korea, and via our connected world has spread quickly through air travel. And these Zombies that result are not the clumsy, plodding Zombie usually portrayed. No, these seem to move a bit faster than usual, act as if they were a rabid animal, and snap their jaws as if they were trying to eat someone as quickly as they could. It is not a good situation, and the whole world is threatened.
Brad Pitt is Gerry Lane, retired UN specialist who only wants to be with him family, his wife and two daughters. But when their own city, Philadelphia, becomes overrun they have to escape towards New York and end up taking refuge on a military ship. But against his wishes Gerry is virtually forced to help them track down and try to eradicate the Zombie disease, otherwise they could not give his family refuge.
So that's really what the story is about, Gerry traveling first to Korea, then to Israel, then to a W.H.O. installation in Wales, barely surviving a plane crash. He has to save the world, otherwise no one will.
I like Brad Pitt, and he is good here in what to me, is a pretty silly movie. I found myself laughing occasionally, not because killing people is funny, but just the absurdity of the Zombies and their zeal to overrun everything. Just light entertainment and nothing more. It tries to strike a meaningful note at the end, but it just didn't work for me.
SPOILERS: Gerry does save the world, at least it is moving in that direction as the movie ends. At one point he had noticed that mysteriously the pursuing Zombies simply avoided certain humans, just bypassed them. He theorized that those were sick humans, and Zombies somehow could detect that, and only wanted healthy human bodies to spread their Zombieism. So he further theorized, if he were to inject himself with a disease-causing virus, the Zombies would avoid him. It worked, and the solution for the world would be mass inoculations with disease, that could then be treated to save the person, but also allow them to gradually eradicate the Zombies. Interesting concept!