World War Z

World War Z

Directed By: Marc Forster

Written By: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, Damon Lindelof (Based on the book of the same name by Max Brooks)

Produced By: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner,Ian Bryce

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox

Plot: A viscous plague sweeps the globe, causing all of the infected to turn into rabid Zombies. When majority of the world is consumed by the infection, United Nations employee Gerry Lane must find the source of infection and hopefully a cure.

To begin with, I had very low hopes for this film. The book was highly successful and popular, and due to it being well respected by many, it would have alot to live up to. I went in expecting a mindless horror film, and came out rather impressed. There are a few changes from the book, mainly the crossover to the 'sprinter' style zombies that we've seen in films like 28 Days/Weeks Later and the Dawn Of The Dead remake, whilst the book features zombies reminiscent of Romero's Night Of The Living Dead slow shufflers. The story is constantly moving, and there aren't that many dull moments.

I didn't like the fact at how rushed the film was to begin with, it had barely been two minutes before we see the first signs of trouble. And whilst it wastes no time in getting straight into the action, throwing the characters in at the deep end, it would have been nice to see a little bit more of Gerry's previous job. We're only told that he ran operations in countries most people wouldn't survive a night in. But this is a minor negative. The rest of the film comes across as well thought out and intelligent, with the zombies becoming almost like a hive. A rather impressive scene sees the hordes of undead scramble up a giant stone wall, eventually toppling over, and overrunning Israel. We do see some lovely scenes between Gerry and his family, surprisingly heartfelt for such a big film such as this. Brad Pitt obviously finds it easy to play the family man.

There is some terrifying imagery enclosed within the film, with one of the final scenes looking almost like something from World War Two (ironically), with piles of the dead/undead being burnt to dispose of them. There are some nail-biting, suspense sequences, that almost feel like a stealth level in a video game. As for the Zombies themselves, they look quite menacing, if a little bloodless. In fact the amount of blood in the film is pretty much minimal. Even during one (rather surprising) hand amputation, there isn't a spurt of blood in sight. Even considering the 15 rating, I was surprised at how little gore there was. 

One tiny detail that didn't seem to stick right, was the fact that Gerry Lane is supposed to be a seasoned covert operations veteran, but yet he forgets to put his satellite phone on silent during a South Korean infiltration. And when the undead come calling for their brains, the accompanying soldiers don't even seem panicked, let alone at all bothered. 

The finale seemed a little bit drawn out, with the characters wandering through a maze-like research facility, I wanted them to just find their objective without all the needless long shots of empty space. But I can see the Director tries to make these scenes full of suspense, leaving the audience to anticipate when the next member of this undead plague attack. 

I genuinely laughed however, when the film is packed with far out locations (Philadelphia, South Korea, Israel etc), the finale takes place in.......a small town in Wales. Nothing against Wales of course, it just felt a little bit like they had flipped the typical structure on it's head.

Overall, a surprisingly enjoyable film, even with the bloodloss.

7/10

Written By Eammon Jacobs