Not The Best Of It's Genre But Acceptable

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2013)

World War Z, a zombie film with a big budget and has Brad Pitt as the leading man, it sounds excellent. Turns out it's only decent. I came into this film thinking it's a zombie film in a much more grand scale. Now that I've seen it, I now know that I came in expecting too much from it.
This film was based off a novel of the same name, which I haven't read so I came into this blind in plot. The film's plot is quite straight forward and doesn't take a genius to understand the goal of Pitt's character but what made this film feel a little flat is the stakes. In a zombie or apocalypse film, usually there would be more than one guy that the film is following and with that focus, the characters then have a sense of weight to them if a soul is lost but in this film there isn't a lot of people to care about aside from Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt). I understand that this film shows a much bigger picture than intimate survival films like Dawn of the Dead but at least those films had characters that means more to us as an audience if they die. I see the tragedy and horror of the situation but these are people seen from a distance and they feel expendable. The film's ending may seem underwhelming but it makes sense as zombie films never truly have a defining conclusions, it usually ends with everyone dead or stuck somewhere hoping someone will save them. This film feels like the first step in fixing the issue and needs at least a second film to tie up the loose ends. The film though has it's strengths. I love that it still had it's suspenseful moments and that it didn't really focus on the killing for survival but rather the search for a cure in order to survive. Overall, the film's story feels like a mixture of Soderbergh's "Contagion" and Emmerich's "2012".
Marc Forster has proved that he could make action with Quantum of Solace but so far his films with high amounts of action have been not so strong with it's core story and this film is another example but his work on the simpler dramas like Stranger Than Fiction and Finding Neverland seem to receive more positive responses. His efforts here is not horrible though, it's just not up there with his better films. I like the fact that the film has large moments, the attack on Israel, and frightening small moments, World Health Organisation in Wales. The film doesn't feel deep and with a film like this with such ambition, it would have benefited from it.
The cinematography feels very generic and is an aspect of the film that won't be remembered. It does what it does, captures the image and creates some sort of tension, but I hoped for a film like this that it would be a little darker and moody.
Beltrami's score was fantastic in films like The Hurt Locker and Resident Evil because they create this dark mood that supports the film. Surprisingly for a film that focuses on zombies, it feels more like a action film which at the same time is unsurprisingly as the moments with tension is very fast paced and exciting. The scenes at the WHO centre or the refueling of the plane was fantastic, the times where the film are at their most suspenseful and dark.
I have no issues with the acting in this film, my issue is that the screenplay doesn't flesh out these characters enough that anybody besides Pitt could show off their acting range. Brad Pitt, as always is fantastic, but this type of film doesn't really try to challenge actors in showing their skills. The supporting cast were fine but wish was used a little more.
Definitely won't be up there along with my favorite Zombie or Apocalyptic film of all time but it's good enough for me to watch again when it comes out on Blu-Ray or DVD just to pick up on things I may have not picked up in the story. I had fun though.