World War Z (2013)

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nTitle: World War Z (2013)

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nDirector: Marc Foster

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nCast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, FananMokoena, David Morse

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nReview:

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nThe first thing that pops in my mind when I think of WorldnWar Z is that it is the most expensive zombie movie ever made, this zombie opusncosts about 200 million dollars to make. So taking that in consideration, Inexpected the biggest zombie massacre ever. But then I remember they decided tonmake it a PG-13 film which immediately means, no gore, no graphic gut munching,nno blood, no brains, which of course just goes against everything that a truenblue zombie movie should be about. I mean, a zombie movie with no gore? Thatndoesn’t even fit the rhyme scheme, but that’s what World War Z is. A gutless zombienmovie and I mean that in more ways than one. But okay, so who am I kiddingnanyways right? This is a movie starring one of the biggest actors in Hollywood,nWorld War Z was not gonna be a graphic zombie film since that fateful day innwhich Brad Pitt signed on to do the film. So whatever, zombie movienexpectations aside, what was World War Z like?

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nGerry Lane is an ex United Nations employee who has tonreinstate himself in order to help the government discover the origins of thenzombie plague. In order to find a possible cure for the zombie plague, theynhave to find “patient zero”, the first victim of the virus. In this way theyncan identify the cause of the disease so they can find a way to stop it. So thensearch for this patient zero takes Gerry all over the globe. Unfortunately, thenplague is spreading so quickly that any country that Gerry visits is overrun bynthousands of zombies! Will they ever find the ever elusive patient zero?

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nIf you ask this zombie fan a gore less zombie movie just isn’tnthe same, I mean, isn’t the nature of a zombie that they eat flesh and ornbrains? But whatever, I decided to accept World War Z for what it is. I decidednto give it the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this is one of those movies that’snPG-13 but still intense and scary? And it was, I’d say that even without thengraphic violence and gore we’ve come to associate with zombie films, World WarnZ remains gripping and intense. And it has some genuinely spooky momentsnsqueezed in there. On any one of these zombie movies, my favorite moments arenthose in which the zombie plague is just getting started, when the chaos isnjust starting to show its ugly face and these moments are very exciting innWorld War Z. We first come to face with the zombie chaos when Gerry and hisnfamily are on their car, having a nice day. Suddenly chaos hits and itsnexplosions, car crashes and thousands of people hollering down a city streetnrunning from zombies…all cool stuff, exciting. I mean these zombies can leapnlike grasshoppers! And the movie maintains that level of excitement all throughout.nMy only critique would be that they should have made the zombies scarier, as itnis, all we see them do is run ferociously, and that’s it. You never see anzombie munching away at somebody, so why are they a threat? Because they cannrun really fast? Yes my friends, sadly the flesh/brain eating element was leftnout of this zombie opus, as a result, the film is less gripping then it couldnhave been. In my opinion, World War Z is good, but it would have been a better zombienmovie had it been rated ‘R’.

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nWorld War Z is based on Max Brooks’ novel World War Z: AnnOral History of the Zombie War. For those not in the know, Max Brooks is alsonthe son of Mel Brooks, the famous director of comedies such as YoungnFrankenstein (1974) and Spaceballs (1987). In contrasts with his father’sncareer, Max Brooks has chosen to be a writer of zombie novels! He also wrotenanother zombie themed book called The Zombie Survival Guide. From what Ingather, the film is a very loose adaptation of the book, I haven’t read thenbook, but I’ve read some fans complaining that it isn’t a very good adaptation.nWhen they adapt a film into a book, I like to judge the movie on its own merits;nunfortunately, World War Z is not a very original film. Instead of stickingnwith the books political criticism or dammit, some of the books more originalnelements (from what I’ve read there are a lot of those on this book!) thenfilmmakers decided to show us moments we’d already seen before in previous zombienfilms. What I’m saying is that if you’re a zombie fan, then you’ll be familiarnwith many of the situations presented on World War Z.

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nThe picture perfect suburban family thing, where the filmnstarts out with a beautiful happy family being extra happy and joyful only to hurlnthem directly in the middle of zombie chaos is something we already saw beforenin Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004).The scene in which a zombie hordenfollows Gerry as he jumps off the building? Saw that in Resident Evil Afterlifen(2010). The heroes of the film find refuge with a nice family inside a complexnbuilding? Saw that in 28 Days later (2002), even the last shots of this filmnand the way it was resolved reminded me of I Am Legend (2007). Zombie outbreak on a plane? Saw that in Flight of the Living Dead (2007)! So in the end,nWorld War Z goes down a couple of notches in its rating simply because it wasn’tnthat original. In essence, even though it entertains, it doesn’t break newnground in terms of what a zombie film is. The most original element about thisnfilm is how the masses of stampeding zombies pile on top of one another to formnwaves of zombies, but aside from that, it’s all be there and done that. 

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nSo ultimately, what hurt this movie the most, in terms of itnbeing a good zombie film, was Hollywood playing it safe. Multimillion dollarnproductions like this one are such a risk, that Hollywood has no options but tonput a huge star in it and rate it PG-13 so that the biggest amount of youngstersnwill go see it. If they stamp it with an R, they are afraid fewer kids will benlet in theaters to see it. When has an R rating ever stopped a kid from seeingna movie? I don’t know about you guys, but that whole rating thing is bull, I’venseen kids seeing R rated movies in theaters all the time, so I don’t know aboutnthe validity of that whole rating thing. Ultimately I think theaters will takenyour money no matter what age you are. But in order to play it safe and rake innthat dough, they rate it PG-13, it doesn’t matter to them if they end up with anless effective movie. They even went and changed the ending of the film entirelynin order to give it the typical happy ending; I hear the ending was supposed tonbe this big ass zombie war, which would have made sense, I mean the film isncalled World War Z after all. As it is, the film doesn’t end with a bang, itnends with a whimper. Of course it’s going to have a happy ending; this is Bradnfreaking Pitt we’re talking about here. I’m not saying it wasn’t entertainingnor gripping, in fact it has some moments that take zombie films to a level of epicnthat zombie films had never reached, I mean, 200 million bucks can buy you anwhole lot of goodies for your film, but then you also feel like World War Z is missingnvaluable elements that would have made it even more effective.  I would have preferred this movie with anlesser known actor and with more guts. But alas, World War Z is Hollywood; purenand unadulterated.

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nRating: 3 1/2 out of 5

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