World War Z (2013)

Movie Info

What if zombies just had normal eyes…that would be a revolutionary zombie movie

A new disease has broken out creating zombies out of the infected and spreads rapidly.  Former United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family find themselves taken to safety as the zombies spread, but Lane learns that he’ll have to investigate the source of this disease to keep his family’s protection and in the hopes of quashing its spread.  Lane finds himself traveling the globe in a race against time to save humanity.

Directed by Marc Forester, World War Z adapts the 2006 book by Max Brooks which is the first in a series of novels.  The movie was plagued by production problems but finally saw release in 2013.  It was met by huge box-office returns and mostly positive reviews.

…and apparently no one watches the wall

The big first aspect of the movie is that the film really isn’t a zombie picture.  Yes, there are zombies and there are some zombie movie scenes (especially near the end in the laboratory), but for the most part, the film is an action-adventure film (in the line of Jason Bourne as described by the creators).

This movie is Contagion meets zombies.  Pitt’s character pretty much flies around to locations, fights some zombies, flees from zombies, and goes to the next spot.  I have to say I was a bit bored by the plots, but the locations did provide some interest.  I also enjoyed that the story led to “Zombies on a Plane” which actually was a rather tense and exciting scene.

Pitt does a nice job holding down the role.  There isn’t much meat to the character, but the idea that he is a family man is a good driving force (I also like that his wife almost gets him and his entire team killed by calling him on his cellphone).  The movie has some cameos like Matthew Fox and David Morse. Pitt is the primary star for most of the movie, and I do think he is benefited when he’s joined by Daniella Kertesz in Israel.

I’m not trying to eat you, I’m just staring at your glorious locks of hair

The visuals for the movie are quite good.  The zombies in the film perform like ants and swarm…it is a unique visual and rather creepy.  The movie also takes the idea of running zombies which have become one of the popular norms since 28 Days Later which really added some speed to lumbering creatures.

World War Z isn’t that interesting of a movie despite an interesting concept.  The medicine and outbreak study behind the infection is interesting but doesn’t necessarily make for good entertainment (but looking at it in the post-COVID-19 world, the movie is better).  Despite initially canning the possibility of a sequel due to the problems of the first film, a sequel to World War Z has been green lit.