World War Z (2013) Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, David Morse, Matthew Fox, James Badge Dale, Fana Mokoena Movie Review

World War Z (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Brad Pitt and Daniella Kertesz in World War Z (2013)

The Zombie Identity

Gerry Lewis (Brad Pitt - Moneyball) use to work for the United Nations, travelling the globe as a special investigator, but decided to call it a day in order to spend more time with his wife and two daughters. But when a pandemic causing what appears to be zombies who go from dead to living dead in just seconds spreads across the globe he finds himself on the end of a call from his former boss, Thierry (Fana Mokoena), who needs his expertise to try and locate patient zero in order to understand what is going on. But as Gerry finds himself hopping between various continents in search of answers he discovers that the answer may not be what they are looking for.

Well it is not very often you will hear me combine these two words but "World War Z" is a grown up zombie movie which feels even more grown up than say "28 Days Later". It has all those elements we see in other Zombie movies; there are the transition effects as someone becomes infected, we have the action of these extremely fast footed zombies chasing down fresh human flesh and there are even some thrills as are hero and friends need to sneak almost on tip-toes past where trouble lurks. There are even some over the top scenes such as when zombies scale each other in order to climb a huge wall.

But the thing about "World War Z" is that it isn't a movie driven by the gratuitous side of entertainment, the violence isn't in your face and neither are the effects even though some are impressive in what they suggest. Instead here we have a zombie movie which is driven by a central character tasked with investigating where the virus started only to observe things in his globe trotting investigation which gives him an idea. And it works because whilst not a classic thriller "World War Z" draws you in to the character's growing understanding of what he sees when for an unexplained reason he witnesses swarms of zombies avoiding some people.

There is something else I liked about "World War Z" and that is whilst it is a movie reliant on the star name of Brad Pitt to initially entice an audience to watch it doesn't rest solely on what Pitt brings to the movie. This is an incredibly non-descript performance from Pitt as Gerry Lewis, an everyday name for an everyday man, but it works because it takes away any hurdles you might often find in these movies when it comes to getting involved in the actual story. Basically whilst we have a star name, a few other familiar faces, as well as some big effects what "World War Z" is driven by is the story.

What this all boils down to is that "World War Z" impressed me more than I expected it to with the story being the focus of this zombie movie rather than the star or the effects even thought those effects were still impressive.

Tags: Zombie Movies


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