World War Z (Film Review)

World War Z is an intense, fast-paced, intelligent zombie apocalypse film.  Maybe a bit too smart for its own good, but that’s always the better alternative than being too idiotic.  I believe smart zombie movies are the best kind of zombie movies; ones where the characters act and think on a rational basis and where the actions taken are not based on random bombings by some evil military.  Of course there’s still panic and chaos in World War Z (not to mention a little anarchy); but the characters we follow, the countries we see, and the people we meet in this film show that maybe the world isn't doomed to screaming teenagers and of the hand stupid decisions when the time comes when zombies rise.

The story starts with former UN investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) narrowly escaping the United States with his family after an apparent outbreak of “rabies” overtakes the state of Pennsylvania.  After arriving on a US Navy ship, Gerry learns that the entire world has been infected with what is being called a zombie plague.  In order for his family to stay safe on the ship, Gerry returns to his former job; traveling across the infected world in order to figure out how the infection started and how to stop it.

In terms of cinematography and pace, one of World War Z’s major strengths would be its quick-pacing and intensity.  Now please don’t mistake my use of “quick paced” to mean shaky camera and bad editing (which this film luckily has neither).  What I mean to say is that the film understands that the zombie genre has been done countless times, and that redoing/retelling it all would come across as stale and overused.  As such the film deals with each zombie event in quick, intense bursts; followed by a pause to let the characters (and the audience) recuperate and regroup on what’s happening and where the plot is going.  The whole first 15-20 minutes of World War Z could have well been a whole separate two hour film instead (in fact, it has been in countless past zombie flicks).  This first scene deals with Gerry and his family escaping their city to get to an evacuation point where they will be saved.  All the issues of a typical zombie apocalypse are dealt with here (mass panic, how the infection spread/spreads, anarchy, murders, riots, infection of loved ones, confusion of what to do, acquiring weapons, etc…).  This alone could have just been a decent yet overused scenario if played for a long period (such as half or even the full movie).  But because it’s pushed into 15-20 minute slot time, the overused scenario suddenly becomes incredibly intense and captivating.  In fact the quick-pace of the scene added an extra layer of panic to me while watching, giving myself a closer feel to what the characters are feeling on screen (except there in it for a much longer period).  Normally a longer scenario is more interesting; however, when something is overused this much, the quick and intense pace of World War Z adds, instead of subtracts from its overall appeal.

Another well-made aspect of World War Z is travel.  This is a remarkably unused plot point in most zombie films; which for the most part focus on a single country (and if actually used, normally has the entire world already been destroyed or engulfed).  But in World War Z, Gerry is shown traveling to different corners of the world; places where each intense burst of action and horror occur.  The first part starts off in America, followed by a trip to Korea, then to Israel where Gerry makes a quick getaway that lands him somewhere in Switzerland.  Each change of location is announced with a title card at the bottom, proclaiming what part of the world Gerry is to the audience.  The film doesn’t stop there, as it also brings Gerry to sea on a giant cruiser and in the air with multiple airplanes; to the fortified wall of Israel, and to a research facility in Europe.  The constant change of scenery is both refreshing and invigorating as it offers not only a look at how these areas were affected by the infection, but also different and interesting scenarios for the attacks and breakouts to occur.  Why stick to a single area for the outbreak to occur when the whole world can be your playing field!?

The entire plot in this film is a smart, well-written one.  Our main character Gerry is not a fresh egg, but an experienced field investigator who despite not entirely knowing what’s going on at first, is quick to catch on and figure stuff out.  During the beginning he quickly figures out that something is horribly wrong and acts quick enough to save his family.  He figures out after seeing a human morph into a zombie that it takes around 12 seconds to transform when infected.  When a zombie drips some of its blood into his mouth during a fight, Gerry acts quickly by positioning himself on the ledge of a building so that if he transforms his jerking motions cause by it will send him falling to his death so that he will pose no harm to his family.  Throughout the film Gerry shows constant examples of both smart thinking, and resourcefulness that help him and others get out of sticky situations; but he is not the only one that shows brains in the film.

I like how the military act both strategically and calmly in this film.  Far too many times in zombie flicks have I seen the military: a) be the cause of the outbreaks/infection b) act like idiots and bomb everything and/or c) show no room for listening to reasoning or scientific progress to fix the zombie infection.  In World War Z the military are the exact opposite of all three; constantly working on how to fix the cure, creating safety camps for refugees, and using all available resources and reasoning to try and figure out how the save humanity.  In the scene where Gerry is asked to help and refuses at first; instead of having the military leader threaten Gerry with kicking off his family, he instead reasonably explains how the ship is only for those working on solving the problem and that there are tons of people waiting to take his place if he does not want to help.  The acts of reasoning, listening, and smart actions are what help many of the characters survive during the film.  Does this mean the film is idiot proof?  No, there are still some scenes where characters pull stupid stunts that of course backfire on them (the scene in Israel for example).  To be fair these scenes of stupidity are much more fun than they are annoying and the wits of Gerry and other characters easily make up for the idiocies (plus where would we be without some stupid actions in a zombie film).

I should note before I end this review that the film’s major flaw is technically not even a flaw.  It’s that the movie is completely different from its source material (a book also called World War Z which deals with interviews of the aftermath of the world wide infection).  This will definitely tick off fans of the book; however it should be noted that the commercials clearly show that the film version is completely different from the book, and if a fan of the book was going to see this film then they should have already known it would be drastically different.  And you know, even with all the changes put into World War Z,  I would still think the book fan could find some enjoyment in this fast-paced, intellectual, intensely fun, zombie apocalypse film.