World War Z

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is World War Z.

Directed by Marc Forster.

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard & Damon Lindelof.

Screen Story by Matthew Michael Carnahan & J. Michael Straczynski.

Based on the novel  "World War Z"  written by Max Brooks.

Review #218

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images.

Run Time: 116 min

World War Z Trailer: Courtesy of Apple's Trailer Page

Hulk Spoils Hollywood Podcast Page

Cast

Brad Pitt...Gerry Lane

Mireille Enos...Karin Lane

Daniella Kertesz...Segen

James Badge Dale...Captain Speke

Ludi Boeken...Jurgen Warmbrunn

Matthew Fox...Parajumper

Fana Mokoena...Thierry Umutoni

David Morse...Ex-CIA Agent

Elyes Gabel...Andrew Fassbach

Peter Capaldi...W.H.O. Doctor

Pierfrancesco Favino...W.H.O. Doctor

Ruth Negga...W.H.O. Doctor

Moritz Bleibtreu...W.H.O. Doctor

Sterling Jerins...Constance Lane

Abigail Hargrove...Rachel Lane

Fabrizio Zacharee Guido...Tomas 

Books and Movies.

Each have their own defining qualities. Having said that, Tinseltown has not been able to crack the mystery of properly adapting popular books into popular films. There have only been a handful that have stood the test of time.

Jaws
The Shining
The Green Mile
Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption A.K.A The Shawshank Redemption
Fight Club
In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash A.K.A A Christmas Story
The Godfather
The Exorcist
American Psycho

These are a few examples. I can promise you that no matter how many more good ones exist. There are countless more that were just GOD AWFUL! Why is this the case? It's not that easy to pin down. I like to think it's studio ego. Some studio heads think they know everything and instead of working directly with the book's writer they employ a writer to read then adapt the book. It's not a death sentence plan. A few of the films I mentioned above worked without the influence of the books writer so it can be done.

World War Z falls into this category with an asterisk. A very scary asterisk. This film was adapted without consultation from the novel's writer. The script also went through a considerable amount of rewrites and polishes. Including a work over from a writer that I DESPISE with EVERY fiber of my being.

Damon Lindelof.

With this in mind I had VERY low expectations for this film. I'm really glad I did because World War Z was pretty good.

Plot

United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself. 

This film had a lot going against it. The biggest factor is the realization that the zombie genre has run it's course. After a slew of remakes and re imaginations of the genre, zombies have in effect "died" out in the cinema. Then to add insult to injury, a little show on AMC has redefined what a zombie apocalypse looks and feels like. Finally, after the well documented issues with the film's script. The project seemed as doomed as the world the film presents. For some reason this film worked for me which is baffling since there is no weight behind it.

World War Z is basically a 116 minute chase around the world.

Maybe that's why I enjoyed this film. Brad Pitt spends 90% of this film going across the globe searching for the origin of this undead outbreak. Historically, films with this plot spend the majority of it's time in a centralized location. Not here. This is truly a global epidemic. Having not read the book I have no idea why the "hero" of this story is a U.N. investigator but it was a nice change to the standard cop, fireman or retired military tough guy. Making the protagonist a detective was a smart way to go. If he's tapped of figuring out how this happened, it would be nice if he possessed the skills and training to get the job done.

The next thing this film did well was leave Lane's family AT HOME! Movies like this always and I do mean ALWAYS flop when the hero has to save the world and his family at the same time. The writers seem to put them in situations that take the man of the moment away from his real mission. Then to make matters worse the families tend to be the most annoying people on the planet. Half the time you are rooting for their demise instead of their defense. World War Z was approaching this territory until the film got wise and kicked the wife and kids to the curb.

After Lane sets out to discover the cause of this zombie attack, World War Z kicks into high gear in the action department. This was both a good and bad thing. The good was the speed of the action. I have heard several complaints about the zombies being faster than how they were portrayed in the book. This is a valid argument. However I counter with this point. Audiences are not going to buy zombies that can be out run by 400lb people. That may have worked in the 60's and 70's but it's just not scary anymore. 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder's Dawn of The Dead remake proved that fast undead/zombies can be both practical and scary. World War Z follows suit and it works.

Until it doesn't.

The action and speed of the undead fails and fails miserably with their CGI doppelgangers. For a film with an estimated $200,000,000 budget, they could have made better looking CGI zombies. I know Pitt costs a ton of money but where did the rest of the $$$ go? I remember watching the trailer and seeing the scene that pictured above and cringing at how poor the special effects looked. Then I assumed that the studio released this trailer with unfinished effects. This is common for big budget films that are CGI heavy. These shots take a long time to finish and render so to get the trailer out for promotions they are cut in refined just enough to get past the audience. It didn't get past me and I figured it would be finished later.

Nope.

What I saw is what I got and that was a crying shame. This is precisely the reason why you never see a close up CGI zombie. This then begs the question. Why in the world use CGI zombies in the first place. If you only see them in wide/high shots to establish the vast numbers the undead feature, why not get a couple hundred or thousand extras, throw some zombie makeup on them and turn them loose on the people. I'd have to imagine it would have been much cheaper than creating millions of computer zombies that look faker than a porn star's boobs. If you're able to get past the cheesy zombies which is no easy task, the film concludes with a pretty clever solution to surviving the exposure to the zombies.

This takes place when Lane is at a W.H.O office. He discovers what he thinks would help "mask" the zombies interest in the people. It was a very cunning and sensible hypothesis that I haven't seen or heard before in zombie films. The problem is when we get to this scene it follows the same blueprint that all zombie films employ. One thing World War Z touches on is the zombies when in a dormant state stay that way unless triggered by sound or loud noise. This is the ONLY time the film gives you a sense of tension and then it goes away thanks to some idiot who makes a loud bang which gets the attention of the undead.

I don't understand why EVERY zombie film feels they have to do this. You already have a great scene setting. The people have to traverse through a labyrinth full of zombies and your best weapon against them is silence. That to me carries more weight and excitement than seeing everyone run at top speed avoiding a herd of rampaging zombies. To make matters worse, World War Z already gave us this kind of scene earlier in the film. We didn't need it here. It was one of the drawbacks of a film that until that point had me still with it.

The performances in this film were by the numbers. Nobody stood out good or bad. Finally, the ending was a bit lukewarm. It gave a sense of a potential sequel which I sincerely hope DOESN'T happen. Not because the film sucked but because of the mystery surrounding the cause of the apocalypse. Want to know more. Listen to my podcast episode of this film for a much more in depth take on my thoughts of how it ended.

Shameless plug I know. Sue me!

Bottom line is World War Z was a run of the mill zombie film that wasn't bad. The rewrites are felt though not crushing to the project. Does it belong in the zombie film Hall of Fame. It doesn't get my vote but the effort was there and that counts for something.

Even with Lindelof attached to the project.

On the 5 star scale. World War Z gets 2.5 stars with a "Go See It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"