Well we enjoyed it

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2013)

I saw this movie yesterday with my partner and we both enjoyed it. We took this film for what it is: essentially an action film with rabid, infected victims.....but for the sake of the review we'll call them zombies. The whole movie nods towards a 28 Days Later style of infection than towards zombies.
The formula for this movie is very easy to follow. Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane,a devoted family man who just happens to be a former UN troubleshooter who is coerced into racing around the world trying to find a cure for a zombie pandemic that is sweeping the globe. The leverage for this is that if he doesn't help, his family removed from the safety of the US navy ship on which they are taking refuge.
The strength of this film is the fast and furious nature of the plot and the action scenes involving the hordes of zombies overrunning major cities, a military base in Korea and, just when you think Gerry Lane and his Israeli female soldier companion are safe, an airliner in flight. Finally there is the final section of the movie where Gerry and companions have to fight their way through a research facility filled with zombies to get to the potential cure.
The scene itself is set pretty quickly with Gerry Lane and his family having a normal breakfast time while the TV plays news of a rabies epidemic and martial law being declared somewhere in the far east before the zombie epidemic and all hell breaks loose while they are stuck in rush hour traffic. First of all we see the family struggling to survive as a unit, then after they reach the safety of the US Navy fleet at sea, we see Gerry being sent off around the world in order to ensure his family stays safe. After the aforementioned airliner crashes and UN lose contact with him, his family are removed from the ship to a refugee camp and we are then left to wonder if they are safe for the remainder of the film.
Conversely, the fast nature of the plot also works against the movie. At times the plot seems very rushed to get from action sequence to the next and at times the camera-work is so fast it makes it difficult to follow the action. Supporting characters could also be developed more (the movie is essentially a Brad Pitt vehicle and all about his character) in particular Gerry's wife Karin, the UN official Thierry, the Israeli soldier Segen and the chief WHO doctor at the welsh research facility (who doesn't even have a name!).
There are also some very clear holes in the plot. Why build only a single protecting wall around Jerusalem when there were so many zombies outside and how were the uninfected refugees actually getting in through all these zombies? What happened to the Israeli government official following the Jerusalem outbreak (given that he seemingly has such an important, if brief, role in the movie)? How were the zombies allowed to get over the wall given there were so many armed helicopters flying over it? How did a grenade thrown on board an airliner do so little damage to the plane?
My advice would be go to see this film expecting an action flick rather than a stock zombie film. It's 2 hours of popcorn munching fun and escapism. It's certainly not an Oscar winner and not pretending to be. Oh, and i've never read the book so I can't compare it to that.