WORLD WAR Z review by Ronnie Malik

WORLD WAR Z review by Ronnie Malik

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WORLD WAR Z

Director: Marc Foster

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken

Rating: C

The opening scene in WORLD WAR Z will get audiences settled into their seats and excited about getting sucked into what promises to be an action packed film about Zombies taking over the world. We start off with a family getting stuck in Philadelphia traffic on a routine day when all hell breaks loose. People are running in all directions screaming in panic as creatures that were once human rampage their way through the streets looking for their next meal.

Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is a former UN employee in retirement so he can enjoy life with his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and their two daughters. In a desperate plea for help as he and his family barely escape the Zombie invasion, Gerry calls his former boss begging for a rescue team to get him and his family to safety. Gerry’s boss comes through and gets the all-American family to a Navy ship in the Atlantic Ocean, which is acting as a safe haven for those who have escaped Zombie attacks all over the country. Once safely on the ship, Gerry is recruited by UN and Military officials to help solve the mystery behind the zombie apocalypse and find a cure for the virus that is turning people into flesh-eating monsters. With no clue how the virus started and how to prevent it, Gerry (who by the way has no medical background) is sent on a journey that will take him around the world as he miraculously figures out the mystery behind the outbreak that apparently scientists with years of training could not resolve. But we have to remember – it is Brad Pitt playing the lead role.

The film was shot in 3-D which was completely unnecessary. Shooting the movie in 3D may not have hurt the visual effects but certainly did nothing to enhance the sci-fi flick. The walking dead are swarming like locust through most of the movie and we don’t really get a good look at the flesh eating monsters until the last third of the film. In many scenes it is hard to tell who is who as pandemonium breaks through all over the world. When we finally get a close up shot of the jaw clicking, neck twitching, squeaking cannibals, they look extremely ridiculous and just provide a good laugh. For die hard Zombie fans the PG-13 rating doesn’t allow for the traditional blood and gore that some may seek but WORLD WAR Z does have a few good suspenseful moments to make up for its lack of blood and guts. Unfortunately, the movie jumps around a bit so nothing really flows to keep the tension building.

There is a lot of nonsense thrown into the film such as a rambling crazy CIA agent, a little girl’s fight with asthma, and a scientist accidently shooting himself that really have nothing to do with the story. You keep waiting for some type of tie in with all the various themes but nothing ever gets connected. The far-fetched theories as to how the virus started and how to kill it take our lead character, Gerry Lane, on an excursion to several countries that never quite connects point A to point B. You’re just left scratching you head asking “seriously, the filmmakers could not have come up with a better idea?”

WORLD WAR Z is a Brad Pitt show. Although he is in just about every scene, this lead part is not going to be one of Pitt’s defining moments compared to roles he played in movies like MONEYBALL, FIGHT CLUB, or 12 MONKEYS. Facing impossible odds in the film, the question comes up, “Why doesn’t anything ever happen to Brad Pitt?” The answer to the question is – well – because he’s Brad Pitt. He can take a bite from a zombie with only a magazine around his arm to protect him, have a 12-inch mental rod go right through his body and can still stand up, as well as inject himself with a disease and still walk out alive. Superhero actors be warned, Brad Pitt might just out shine you when it comes to doing the impossible on screen.

When compared to movies about viruses gone wild like CONTAGION or 28 DAYS LATER, WORLD WAR Z falls very short on any depth, character development, or social messages. The filmmakers really should have given this film a shot in the arm with a large dose of a cure for the nonsensical. This story about a world over run with zombies is close to comical and is nothing worth biting into.

WORLD WAR Z opens June 21, 2013

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