In the year of end of the world movies, it is now the zombies’ turn. World War Z, very loosely based on the novel of the same name, is at its best a tense, mostly clever thriller; at its worst, it is a scattershot mess with plot holes. Fortunately the tension is usually executed at very high levels for a long time making World War Z a solid summer adventure. However, the movie’s scope would like to think it has more to say on the nature of man when it exists on a lesser playing field.
World War Z opens on a normal day for Gerry (Brad Pitt) and Karin (Mireille Enos) Lane. While they are driving to work in Philadelphia, the zombie pandemic starts. Gerry’s previous employment involved boots-on-the-ground work in very hostile situations; he strikes a deal to find the origin of the virus for his family’s safety. His global hopping includes stops in Korea, Jerusalem, and Wales, where he finds out little pieces about this outbreak and how to stop it.
World War Z excels when showing off its special effects. Despite the PG-13 bloodless killing and camera cutting, the zombie incubation is still gruesome to watch. These zombies are more modern; incubation to zombie is about 13 seconds. They are smarter than previous zombie incarnations: they run and respond very well to sight and sound. More importantly, they operate a lot like insects: to scale walls, they form a makeshift ant hill, making them tougher than a run of the mill undead person. In World War Z, their sheer numbers (and cost of obtaining thousands of movie extras) give them their own little niche in the zombie movie genre.
World War Z is two movies in one: a study of a pandemic’s effect on the world and a claustrophobic thriller. The pandemic study is the weaker of the two plots. The study has its moments: communication breakdown is effectively handled and instant panic at the onset of the outbreak is explored very well; however, World War Z doesn’t really showcase enough mechanics behind the scenes to give the audience a rooting interest in this side of the story. Contagion better explores these machinations; in World War Z, the outbreak study feels shoehorned in to pay homage to the source material.
Fortunately, this movie is VERY tense. Even with the globe jumping, the main characters are usually stuck in some sort of very dark claustrophobic scenario. Three in particular stand out: an apartment building in Newark, a plane ride to Wales, and a trip to a wing in a research facility. These sequences usually have some logical reason to risk the entrapment, making World War Z’s tension more real and raising the stakes. Despite some obvious plot holes (biggest example: how did Gerry realize the zombie weakness based on two patternless examples?) and lack of engaging characters, World War Z keeps the audience on the edge of its seat by placing Brad Pitt right in the middle of all of it.
Pitt does a solid job playing the everyman. He’s not really asked to do a lot here except play action hero, and he can probably do that in his sleep. Acting here is mostly kept to the side in favor of the crazy set pieces. One exception is James Badge Dale who makes good use of his 15 minutes or so on-screen.
World War Z expands the zombie invasion to a global scale, something never before attempted in what was seen as a niche genre. Despite its behind-the-scenes budget and reshoot issues, World War Z is a pretty effective thriller in the summer movie season. The recipe for niche genres to expand has now been created: make Brad Pitt the star and make a PG-13 rating.