Day 196 - World War Z

Day 196         World War Z [2013]

                          

Screenplay                    Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, Damon Lindelof & J. Michael Straczynski

Based on                       ‘World War Z’ by Max Brooks

Director                         Marc Foster

Cinematography            Ben Seresin

Music                            Marco Beltrami

Leads                            Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Fana Mokoena, Daniella Kertesz, Peter Capaldi

Production                     Skydance Productions, Hemisphere Media Capital, GK Films, Plan B Entertainment, 2DUX²

IMDb                                 7/10

Rotten Tomatoes                66%

At the time this was Brad Pitt’s highest ever grossing film. I’m pretty surprised by that considering what Pitt had starred in up to this point (Se7en, the Oceans franchise, Benjamin Button, Fight Club to name but a few). I guess it is Hollywood, so we shouldn’t be surprised that a highly-anticipated zombie movie grossed higher, despite being one of my least favourite Pitt movies. Based on a best-selling novel and the subject of a bidding war between Pitt and DiCaprio’s respective production companies, World War Z is a high brow zombie movie. After a zombie pandemic breaks out, former UN employee Gerry (Pitt) is asked by the UN Deputy Secretary-General to help find the source of the outbreak, in the hope that the world will get closer to finding a cure. Gerry travels around the world looking for the source and has some close calls with infected in Korea and Israel, before he ends up at a WHO outpost in Scotland with a theory about how to vaccinate people against the disease. I say the film is more high-brow than your run-of-the-mill zombie films because there is a geopolitical theme running throughout. I think the book explores this far more but they had to cut it out of the script to allow the story to run smoother. The best thing about this film is the way the zombies become a horde. There are therefore some wonderful wide shots of zombies swarming up the walls and buildings as one entity. My other favourite scene was an agoraphobic’s nightmare involving a passenger plane. The film’s setback materialise from the scenes without zombies. When I think to some of the best zombie films, my frame of reference – films such as Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, I Am Legend and 28 Days/Weeks Later – I realise why I didn’t enjoy Pitt’s effort as much. The first two are horror-comedies so they have the laughs, Will Smith gives an epic solo performance in the third and the other two are hectic, British epics. This movie was boring in comparison. When you watch a zombie film you want to be scared, you want to see people getting destroyed by zombies and destroying zombies, and you don’t want it to get too serious. Sadly I think World War Z got caught in between making a zombie movie that could challenge at the Oscars, and your classic easy-to-watch zombie basher. Apparently though, it qualifies for a sequel, with one recently confirmed by Pitt and his production company, so what do I know.

Acting                            3 / 4

Writing                           2 / 4

Cinematography          3.5 / 4

Music                             2 / 4

HWF rating             2.5 / 4