Review of World War Z (2013) by Dana F — 07 Sep 2014

I can't say I was disappointed since I didn't expect much in the first place. I haven't read the book, but I know enough about it to say that it's unfair and misleading that the movie shares the same title.

There is nothing new or interesting here, it's just a straight-up zombie pseudo-thriller. I say "pseudo" because it starts solid and is very effective as a thriller, I was tense and a little horrified by what was happening on screen.

But then... plot happens. And it starts to draaaaaagggg and gets sillier and sillier as it does. There are so many plot-holes and ridiculous plot devices, it's difficult to not pull an MST3K on the whole movie (which I did).

If the film had kept the direction that it went in the first 30 minutes - focusing on what it would really be like if suddenly and for no discernible reason, everyone around you started becoming zombies - it would have been thought-provoking, unique, and more than a little frightening.

But no, instead we have to watch Brad Pitt hop around the globe searching for a cause that nobody cares about anyway, and miraculously being saved by increasingly contrived situations. It might have been a decent film at one time, but the editing is so poor, all that's left is a choppy mess.

And don't even get me started about the zombies themselves (they are supposedly mindless, but have group problem-solving abilities? They have contracted a "virus" that zombifies them but also gives them super-human strength and speed? And that super strength and speed applies only when chasing people other than Brad Pitt? Ugh!).

Instead of watching this crap, see "28 Day Later", the best "zombies-as-infected-humans" movie out there.