Zombie films are a tried a tested Hollywood concoction and although things have come a long way since the classic zombie flicks such as George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”, few still seem to ever truly reach their full potential. Zombie movies normally mean some excellent renditions of the genre with lots of work going into makeup and Computer Generation (CG) to give us a more believable enemy, but they normally seem to leave the plot and acting to fend for itself (Resident Evil would be a prime example of this). So when news came that Max Brooks’ “World War Z” was being adapted into a $190 million budget movie, things were looking up for the ironically decaying genre.
World War Z is set at the exposé of the global infection, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), a retired United Nations (UN) investigator, is in a traffic jam with his family on a seemingly normal day when everything abruptly descends into anarchy as a swarm of infected individuals sweep through the gridlocked Philadelphia streets. Other locations around the world have had outbreaks similar to the one in Philadelphia and the UN calls Gerry back for one more act of service in the world’s hour of need. The remainder of the film sees Gerry globe-trotting to track down Patient Zero in a bid to try and develop a vaccine for this pandemic virus and thus, protect his family. This takes him to a variety of places including China, self quarantined Jerusalem and even a typically overcast Cardiff, Wales, allowing for some stunning and dynamic environmental views and the ability to show different levels of infection as well as society’s reactions to the infected themselves.
As a visual experience, you’re able to see where the real work has gone into World War Z. The infected act as a crowd; a surge of raging individuals that behave akin to that of a very angry army of ants. The CG realizes this pack vibe brilliantly; the infected are a single entity and literally pour into populated areas making for rather thrilling and seat-gripping spectacles. The best example of this is in Jerusalem, a city that quarantined itself behind massive concrete walls just before the infection hit. Safety doesn’t last, however, as a refugee karaoke session over the Tannoy system causes too much noise and disturbs the dormant infected who are patrolling the outside walls. They begin to pile themselves up against the walls forming a cadaver tower, just like ants attempting to scale tall structures, and pour into the city, killing everyone they find. Although the cause for this onslaught is laughable, the ensuing chaos is pretty darn satisfying and it solidifies my negative feelings towards open-mic bar nights.
The storyline is not directly lifted from Brook’s brilliant novel, but it does share enough elements to be reminiscent of its inspiration; something fans of the book will surely appreciate. Unfortunately, simply borrowing elements was not enough to deliver a storyline to match the quality of the visual experience. The narrative is so cliché it hurts: a typical family trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. It’s a dull idea that isn’t helped by the dull acting. Brad Pitt has been able to deliver some excellent performances in previous movies, but his long hair shenanigans in World War Z are almost embarrassingly executed. The supporting cast isn’t any better with much of them following in robotic obedience as they deliver their crucial lines in a melancholic and monotone manner, reminiscent of a child in a school play who would much rather be watching Dexter’s Laboratory. Whilst many could argue that the great visual buffet offered makes up for, or at least detracts from, the poor acting, it’s just not enough as the acting is sometimes too bad to stomach.
When you try and tackle a genre that’s been repeated for decades, it’s hard to deliver something truly new. Although World War Z tended to suffer from bouts of predictability from time to time, it did offer a zombie infection in an inspiring new light. By edging the genre into the big budget film club, the movie was able to bring audiences the epic floods of zombies and thus turned them from lumbering corpses with a taste for brains into a single-minded and flesh hungry horde that behave as if they were infected with a microbial virus rather than ravenous animals. It’s this new dynamic that’s the hidden gem in World War Z; putting the emphasis back on the “infection” side of the fictitious ailment suddenly makes it feel all the more possible in real life and subsequently causes the film to feel a lot more like a survival guide rather than a survival story.
Although Brad Pitt won’t be winning any Oscars from it, World War Z is more than definitely worth a watch, especially in a big screen experience. The scale and new perspective brought to the familiar genre offer some tantalizing potential to push zombie flicks to new heights. Thankfully, World War Z avoids most of the pitfalls of Hollywood and maintains its roots and inspiration admirably, all whilst making the transition to big budget filming without completely losing sight of all acting quality or narrative structure. Delivered in an almost documentary style, you’re given insight into the repercussions of a zombie outbreak on the scale it always should have been: global.
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