World War Z review.
It’s been ten years since zombies chased Brad Pitt across the globe in World War Z. Let’s take a look back at the sometimes wild, sometimes confusing spectacle.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
World War Z
Directed by Marc Forster
Screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof
Starring Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, Daniella Kertesz and David Morse
World War Z Review
Sometimes you have to stop and think about where we were with zombies at a moment in time. The moment in question is June 2013 and the release of World War Z. It shouldn’t matter. I recognize that the history, present and future of the genre shouldn’t factor into rating the quality of an individual film. But it sure is more fun to factor it in, isn’t it?
The Walking Dead will always be the landmark used for the 2010s. Not that it was the best zombie related thing…but it was the most popular. World War Z came out after the third season of the hit TV show had ended. It wasn’t quite the peak of zombie fever…but it wasn’t that far off. This was a few years after Zombieland taught us all the rules, the same year that Warm Bodies gave us a zombie version of Romeo and Juliet, and a few years before Train to Busan gave us a new zombie masterpiece.
So where does World War Z fit amongst the films of the era? It’s a tough question to answer. You have to consider the sheer amount of zombie related content that was hitting the market around the time. It’s way better than most of them. Compared to other popular installments of the subgenre? It’s probably somewhere in the middle. Given the reportedly troubled production and obvious reshoots…that’s better than it probably should be.
World War Z is based on a book of the same name written by Max Brooks. I’ve never read the book, but it was a bit of a cultural phenomenon upon its release. I do know that the film we concern ourselves with here is “loosely” based on the original text. Despite being a hit at the box office we never saw a sequel. There was a video game released a few years ago to decent reviews. So, there’s that.
We’re dealing with 28 Days Later fast zombies in this one. The frantic nature of the threat is the right choice for the story of World War Z. It’s a story about the effect of a virus on a global scale. Slow zombies are still king of the more personal conflicts examining the flaws of humanity. Interestingly, the zombies in the book it is based on were the slow version. I guess I knew one more thing about it. Not only do the zombies run fast…the infected turn fast.
Brad Pitt plays our main character, who I’m sure has a name but you’re going to think of him as Brad Pitt the entire time so there was no point in learning it. He is separated from his family as he sets off on the film’s investigation. World War Z plays out like a travelogue…almost like a James Bond adventure hopping from location to location. It strikes some odd tones alternating between freestyle action and attempts at tense atmosphere. The bursts of zombie action work better.
As Brad Pitt searches for Patient Zero to try and trace the origins of the virus, World War Z gives us its best feature. Awesome set pieces where cool stuff happens. Whether its zombies crawling on top of each other to breach walls or a fantastic zombie outbreak in a mid-flight airplane…the jump from piece to piece is what makes the movie work.
Eventually we end up at a World Health Organization medical facility. Brad Pitt, who is not a doctor, single handedly figures out a cure (or at least a camouflage) to walk past zombies undetected. They don’t attack sick people, you see. There is a decent stealth section to close the movie but the ending hits very abruptly. Obviously torn up with reshoots and edits…the entire plot surrounding Pitt’s family is a mess. So too is the jump from discovering a way to bypass the threat and a montage of quickly eliminating it worldwide. We do get Peter Capaldi playing a WHO doctor just before heading off to play Doctor Who. Which is neat.
It might not read like a ringing endorsement of World War Z…but it is a good movie. It has a unique feel to it that the genre so often lacks. You can see its influence on the far superior Train to Busan quite clearly. That film manages action and tension in bigger and more equal measures…along with emotions that this story couldn’t dream of. Still…it is a clear step in a direction towards where our last zombie masterpiece (so far) would end up. That counts for something.
Blending zombies with summer blockbusters is probably a better idea on paper than it worked out in this reality. As an entry into a lasting genre of film you could do a lot worse, and a lot better, than World War Z. See…I told you it was in the middle.
Scare Value
World War Z held up better than I expected it to. Pitt carries his part as well as ever but the parts that annoyed ten years ago aren’t as dramatic upon rewatch. Perhaps another decade full of zombie movies dulled the effect. Either way, World War Z remains an unfocused travelogue full of set pieces. But they’re fun set pieces. If fast zombies are your speed, it has just enough action to keep you satisfied.
3/5
World War Z Links
Streaming on Netflix
Rent/Buy on VOD from VUDU and Amazon
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
