World War Z: Save me Brad Pitt!
June 28, 2013
By Kevin Hyde
June 28, 2013
I wish it was boring, so I could title the review, World War Zzzzzzz … Or maybe if it really sucked, I could call it, World War Z: The Z is for buZz kill. The possibilities would be endless if the movie wasn’t so relentlessly entertaining.
Wait. Is this thing on?
Oh hello! It’s me again with another glowing review of an over-stuffed, mega-budget, CGI-laden popcorn flick. How old am I? Fourteen? This is getting ridiculous. I wonder if real movie critics ever suffer from what I am dealing with right now—a disturbing Summer of Love at the multiplex. Instead of enduring the season like in previous years, I seem to be enjoying all these mammoth attempts at blockbusterdom, from Ironman 3 to Man of Steel, Star Trek to World War Z. Hell, I even liked The Internship.
Who’s been putting Prozac in my popcorn?
Maybe I am simply becoming an optimistic, positive person with an undiscerning palate for pop culture, just another mindless consumer doing my best for capitalism. That’s alright. I like being easy to entertain. The next thing you know I’ll be headed off to Wal-Mart to buy the new Taylor Swift CD.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feelin’ 22 … (That was me singing.)
My streak of positive reviews certainly seemed in jeopardy heading into World War Z, an adaptation of the popular 2006 horror novel by Max Brooks. With multiple reshoots and postponed releases, the production starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster was plagued by something worse than zombies—bad buzz. The toxic press surrounding the movie seemed to be inching toward Ishtar-ian, Waterworld levels.
Well, fear not. While somewhat flawed, World War Z is a deeply engrossing, exciting apocalyptic thriller about a fast-moving, worldwide pandemic turning everybody into zombies. This flick is tense.
In the opening scene, we find Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) stuck in Philadelphia gridlock with his wife, Karin (Mireille Enos), and two daughters, Rachel (Abigail Hargrove) and Constance (Sterling Jerins). News of a worldwide rabies outbreak plays on the radio. Soon a commotion erupts, giving way to chaos as pedestrians run in terror, cars careen out of control and people start being attacked by a pack of fast-moving zombies with bad facial tics and an urgent need to bite the still-living. Gerry, a former United Nations aid worker who has worked in some of the most disease-ravished areas of the world, sees someone get bitten, and instinctively times how quickly the victim becomes infected.
The zombies of World War Z are reminiscent of the rage-infected variety in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, the 2002 British horror movie largely credited with reinvigorating the zombie sub-genre. But I really wouldn’t put World War Z in that category. More in the mode of movies like Outbreak (1995) and Contagion (2011)—or Stephen King’s novel The Stand—the film is first and foremost a plague story, and a highly engaging one at that. The manic early sequences—the panic, the immediate societal breakdown, the wild attempts at survival—are riveting.
The Lanes escape Philly, but the older daughter, Rachel, is suffering from an asthma attack. The family joins looters at a supermarket to get medicine. They then take refuge for the night in a Newark apartment building. In a poignant, early moment, Gerry gets a zombie’s saliva in his mouth during a particularly close encounter. Fearing he is infected, he rushes to the edge of a building, waiting to throw himself off at the slightest sign of infection. It is a splendid cinematic image, symbolizing mankind at the precipice of extinction.
World War Z is not without some glaring problems. There is scant character development, and let’s just say some extremely convenient things happen to drive certain plot points forward. As Gerry, pressed into service by a former U.N. colleague (Fana Mokoena), crisscrosses the globe from South Korea to Jerusalem to rural England trying to solve the zombie plague and save humanity, the movie essentially boils down to a series of harrowing escapes, capped by a wonderfully rendered, tension-filled sequence at a World Health Organization laboratory in Cardiff, Wales.
Despite its production troubles, World War Z is another winner for Forster, whose filmography is as commendable as it is diverse. Highlights include Monster’s Ball (2001), Finding Neverland (2004), Stranger than Fiction (2006) and The Kite Runner (2007). We will forgive his James Bond dud, Quantum of Solace (2008). And Brad Pitt acquits himself quite admirably as an action star, something he has not done much of during his movie career. Looking back over his filmography, he has been in surprisingly few action vehicles, especially for a guy who commands $20 million a picture and looks like a Greek statue.
The latest in what has been a rewarding summer at the cinema—for me anyway—World War Z is an exciting, heart-pounding ride with plenty of smarts.
Kevin Hyde is a freelance writer who has worked as a reporter for daily and weekly newspapers, edited regional and national magazines, written on pop culture for an international newspaper as well as several local, alternative newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].
Sign up here to receive MidlandsLife weekly email magazine.
