2013: The Year in Film: "World War Z" Review

If you guys are looking for something that's somehow incurred more nerd rage than Star Trek Into Darkness, here's your target. Some day I'll write a post theorizing about the calculus that goes into nerd group think and whether or not they'll accept an adaptation of a widely beloved work, but for now let's just say that the reaction is often swift, completely illogical, and irreversible. "World War Z"was first a novel by Max Brooks (Mel's son!) that detailed an oral history of a worldwide zombie pandemic. It was written as a collection of individual accounts that together shape a global tale. It's seriously worth a read, as it touches on the international and geopolitical scale of a zombie apocalypse that is so often seen only through the eyes of a small group of survivors in zombie fiction. This film is not that book. Other than the title and the fact that the main character works for the United Nations and trots the globe, it bears only surface details with the book - and that's fine! The disparate characters, multitude of settings (and genres!) and fact that the book exists as a series of first-person narratives would have made straightforward adaption all but impossible. The film instead chooses to do zombies bigger and differently than we've seen on film to this point.. and I'm cool with that.

This film faced some legendary obstacles to production - surely associated with the difficulty adapting the book to a 2 hour movie, but there were issues with multiple re-writes and issues that required several weeks of re-shoots. In all, the film's budget ballooned and it began to risk a reputation as a disaster in the making. Mark Forster (Quantum of Solace) directs a screenplay that 75% of the writers in Hollywood have touched, and Brad Pitt stars as former UN investigator Gerry Lane. The film opens as Gerry is at home with his family when the worldwide zombie outbreak hits the Eastern US. After a tense escape and rescue, Gerry finds himself aboard a flotilla of ships that serves as UN headquarters and is tasked with investigating the virus so that a cure may be found. His investigation takes him around the world as he seeks to uncover clues about the disease among widespread destruction and mayhem.  

The Good: this film looks great. The CGI and effects are seamless and we are given zombie mayhem on a scale that we haven't seen in movies before. The disparate locations give a taste of what a worldwide zombie outbreak/apocalypse might actually resemble - as that's something that's typically depicted on a much smaller, more intimate level. There are some extremely tense and thrilling scenes, including a few of the most effective thriller set pieces I can recall. It's highly reminiscent of Alien, Aliens or 28 Days Later in that way. The way that this film created its world and its zombies, these zombies are much more terrifying that the traditional variety, and that makes for some thrilling and high stakes set pieces. The film really hits the ground running (there's no boring 20 minutes of exposition here) and that sets the stage and the stakes for what follows. In sharp contrast to the majority of action/sci fi films that have been released in ohhh, the last decade (looking at you, Man of Steel), World War Z is not 20 minutes too long, and if anything feels a little abrupt. In addition, Brad Pitt is (as always, or at least as always since the late 90's) very good. He's not your traditional action here in this one, but he's believable as a humanitarian investigator and grounds what could have been an insane destruction fest in a modicum of humanity.



The Bad: on further evaluation, the film kind of falls apart, but then again, it's about zombies, and I'm not sure there's a plausible explanation that doesn't just involve vampire-style magic. In addition, other than Pitt, no one else is given a lot of characterization, so we're really just rooting for "humanity" vs the zombie horde rather than any specific people. Also, rather than represent a revolution in zombie storytelling, this flick sort of borrows a bit from here and a bit from there (a little 28 Days Later, some Dawn of the Dead, a little Contagion, and boom.), and it feels a little TOO derivative at times.

In all, this film brings enough to the table and features some legitimately great and incredibly tense scenes to be a whole hell of a lot of fun to watch. It will probably fall apart when you're driving home and discussing it, but that doesn't change the fact that while it was going on you were probably a little scared and pretty damn enthralled. World War Z is much, MUCH better than anyone was giving it credit for a month ago.

7.5/10.