World War Z has sufficient teeth to entertain you with zombie-led thrills, but its bloodless bite marks will disappear before the ending credits are done

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2013)

It's seldom a good sign when gossip about a movie spreads before you get wind of a proper synopsis or catch a peek of the trailer. The genesis of World War Z began six years ago when Brad Pitt's production company bought the rights to Max Brooks's bestselling novel of the same name. Controversy has since been fuelled by rumours of repeated script rewrites, reshoots, costly action scenes and an army of extras, all of which supposedly ballooned costs to over $200 million (check out Vanity Fair's detailed chronology of the drama here). Contrast that to another film in the same genre, Danny Boyle's 2002 critical success 28 Days Later, which had an estimated budget of US$8 million.
So expectations are high for World War Z, which many may know as 'The Brad Pitt vs zombies show'. Directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Finding Neverland), Pitt headlines as Gerry Lane, a family man / prized ex-United Nations investigator who gets a ticket out of hell when an unknown virus breaks out in his hometown of Philadelphia. It's contagious among humans, needing just a minimum of 12 seconds to transform a functional human to a mindless zombie with the athleticism of an Olympic sprinter, sensitive to both sound and visual contact. The UN requires Gerry's expertise and in exchange offers refuge aboard a vessel in the middle of the Atlantic. With his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and two daughters in tow, he flees via helicopter after a heart- thumping escape from a swarm of infected chasing them through an apartment stairwell onto the rooftop.
Entrusted with the goal of locating the mysterious source of virus outbreak (otherwise known as 'patient zero') in the hope of finding a cure, Gerry unwillingly leaves his family behind and sets off on an international hunt for clues. Every step of the way is plagued with misfortune and accident – some so predictable and trite that you wonder if it was intended to be humorous. After a luckless stopover at South Korea, he looks for answers in Israel, a country that completed walling itself in just before the outbreak. Just as Gerry gets limited information from a Mossad head, the sanctuary transforms into a torture chamber when the infected masses crawl in, ant horde-like, lured by echoes of celebratory singing. Hubris has no place in a zombie apocalypse. In the middle of a nail-biting escape, genius strikes as Gerry pieces his observations together to form a hypothesis on a possible cure Testing and executing it, however, will require an extraordinary dose of luck, good fitness, and a WHO laboratory.
Forster's World War Z is targeted at the mass audience and is possibly one of the least gory zombie outings in recent times. The crazed infected horde flawlessly demonstrates mindless herd mentality and despite being noticeably CG (unlike the uber-realistic ones in AMC's The Walking Dead), they're easily the scene-stealers. The script is sparse and loose, occasionally borderline sexist. The story busies itself with demonstrating Murphy's Law, throwing out crisis after crisis but rendering each character a level of development that is barely skin- deep. Gerry has little space to emote, and perhaps it is the material that limits Pitt from displaying his characteristic spark so evident in previous outings such as Inglourious Basterds, Fight Club and the Ocean's franchise.
The zombie apocalypse is an arguably overused premise, yet still commands rabid obsession among pop culture fanatics. It's been explored in books, on TV and of course the big screen: the all-important 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead set the tone for cinema. But today, the zombie genre only truly works when it is at its most contemplative, serving as a reflection of ethical, moral and emotional dilemmas or as political commentary. And here's where World War Z falters in mid- sprint: it is entertainment that is exciting, but essentially empty.
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