So we had two initial concerns before
traversing to the theater to see this movie 'World War Z', one
being that a friend of mine who had read Max Brook's book
didn't know how they were going to construct a movie out it's
short story, fragmented format. Answer: They
didn't. Apparently this movie is 'World War Z' in name
only. I haven't read the book so I guess I'm good with
that. Second concern, the PG-13 rating.
Really? A PG-13 zombie movie? Even 'Shaun of the
Dead' managed to carry an R-rating for goodness sakes.
As it turns out this concern was also a bit misplaced because,
to be honest with you, as 'World War Z' is barely a zombie
movie, but more of an action procedural… with zombies… thus
visually experiencing zombie head splitting was unnecessary
and the friendlier PG-13 rating could be preserved. And
at the end of the day we mightily enjoyed this zombie
procedural, though we must let you know that any single random
episode of 'The Walking Dead' is way more hardcore than this
'World War Z'.
Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is just your average, hardworking
husband and father who, as far as I can tell, has no job at
the moment. He used to do something for the U.N. back in
the day that has him all tortured and stuff, but now he just
lets his hair grow long and makes pancakes for wife Karin
(Michelle Enos) and daughters Constance (Sterling Jerins) and
Rachel (Abigail Hargrove). Recognize this family drama
setup takes maybe three minutes, because before you can say
'aw, those kids are cute', while stuck in traffic in their
home town of Philly, the Lanes witness the birth of the Zombie
Apocalypse. And while I have no real idea what the
actual zombie apocalypse is going to look like, I'm thinking
it's going to look like something similar to this.
The Lane's need to get out of Philly
so Gerry calls his U.N homey Thierry (Fana Mokoena) who stages
a daring escape from a high rise for Gerry and his people, and
carts them to a safe spot on a destroyer which is serving as
Zombie Response Central. Once on the ship the
general in charge needs Gerry to do what he
does… whatever that is… and accompany a team in a
globetrotting effort to find the root of this disaster in
hopes of stopping it. Gerry says no, General says 'then
get off my boat and go back to Philly', Gerry wisely
reconsiders.
Now the fun really begins as Gerry, along with characters of
varying degrees of disposability by his side, jetsets across
the globe to glorious locales to madly flee from zombies and
work through the clues in his mind that one of the disposable
characters told him to look for. What are the clues in
figuring out a zombie disease that turns people into crazed,
undead cannibals in about the same time it take Usain Bolt to
run 200 meters? Well… nothing that basically anybody
with a brain probably should've eventually figured out, but
this is the one guy on the Earth that we needed to figure this
basic stuff out. And when we talk about 'Taking one for
the Team'… My man Gerry Lane took to that to the next
level. Believe that.
There are an awful lot good things going on in director Marc
Forster's 'World War Z'. It has a plot that is actually
plausible in a zombie movie… at least in the sense that we are
spoon fed information and never given enough of it to make the
plot completely implausible. Coherence though
omission. I like that concept. Brad Pitt
effectively carries the film as a movie star should,
dominating the scenes he is in, which is almost all of them,
but also making his presence felt in the few scenes he's
absent from. As we mentioned earlier, WWZ doesn't take
very long to throw us into the fray of the Zombie Apocalypse,
and once we're in it very rarely slows down to allow the
audience to catch its breath. It's not wall to wall
mayhem and chaos type action, though there is a bit of that,
but the movie is consistently paced and the story we're
dealing with is efficiently told with not a lot of wasted time
in between.
Is it perfect? Of course not. So while the story
is efficient, it's also some very basic storytelling. A
character is introduced to give our main character some
information, and once that information is delivered, we know
this character has outlived his usefulness, and there are
plenty of characters like that in this movie. The family
of our star honestly serves little purpose other to give our
main character something to live for, and occasionally make
ill advised phone calls, since the survival of the species
obviously isn't nearly enough motivation for our hero.
The story telling is compartmentalized… this goes here, that
goes there, to allow this to be here, and this particular
style doesn't allow for a lot of surprises. Thus when
you tell a story knowing you have to be at point B., without
giving too much thought on what's happening at point A., the
occasional bout of stupidity will pop up as well. If
these zombies are sensitive sound, say like stepping on broken
glass makes them come running, then surely the landing of a
C-130 carrier should at least pique their interest, one would
think. But that's not the point B. we need to get
to. There are more instances such as that, but they
should be experienced organically and for the most part, the
way the film moves, you probably wouldn't even think about it
until long after the final credits have rolled.
But that's all basically nitpicking because for the most part
'World War Z' was a rocking good time at the show. Not
the hardest or toughest zombie around, but a well crafted,
solidly delivered action thriller that even had a half a brain
to go with its action. That's not a bad deal.
