Review of World War Z (2013) by Ricardo B — 29 Jun 2014

I enjoyed this film. It was nice to see Brad Pitt in typical leading man mode again because he really carries the picture. The zombies themselves were alright, even though I watched the unrated version, the film still came across as tame.

It was missing one of my favorite staples of the genre; a horrifically decaying zombie or gross out body horror special effect. Still, other elements of the production made up for its lack of typical zombie tropes.

The major concept of the film was pretty original. I really like the idea of a geo-political contagion thriller. Usually zombie films are about surviving in a wrecked world, this film has pieces of that but it's also a military mission movie.

I can't believe a zombie film where someone is actively searching for a cure has never been done, it's so obvious, but pretty brilliant. (There are a lot of zombie films I have not seen, but I'm talking Romero's films and their imitators, including Walking Dead, etc.

) The mission gives the film a driving quality and a plot thrust that is usually lacking in Zombie pictures that tend to focus on survival and apocalyptic scenarios as social commentary. The movie kind of falls apart at the end, mostly due to the fact that it doesn't really end, but there's plenty to like as you go along.

The scope of this film is really epic as we travel the globe observing the effects of the zombie pandemic. Mark Forrester who directed the poorly constructed action film Quantum of Solace (which featured hideously edited and shot Bourne style shaky cam action) really steps up his game here; there are some beautiful traditionally shot action sequences in here.

Definitely worth a watch!