By Brett Blake Zombies. They’re a staple of the horror genre, and they’ve been the subject of films from the 1930s and ‘40s (WHITE ZOMBIE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE come to mind), right on through the George Romero heyday that began with 1968’s bonafide classic, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. In recent years, thanks in no small part to television shows like The Walking Dead, zombies have remained strong in the public consciousness. The question then becomes: how do you do a zombie story that feels fresh? The answer: make it an action movie, and that’s exactly what WORLD WAR Z does, to more-or-less solid effect. The plot is as straight-forward and bare-bones as you could imagine - Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who is called back into service to uncover the origins of a massive zombie outbreak that is sweeping the world. The movie has an episodic structure as we follow Gerry from the United States to South Korea, then on to Jerusalem, and finally to a secluded research facility in Wales. It’s also worth noting that the movie’s source novel by Max Brooks had been - essentially - fully discarded in favor of an “original” storyline, and while I personally have no great attachment to that book, those who do will no doubt feel slighted that this film bears very little resemblance to its literary antecedent. Pitt’s good as our lead, though I think even he would admit that there’s not much to the character on the page. He’s not quite a cipher, but he has only one real goal - to be reunited with his family. Thus, the character’s quest to uncover the zombie plague’s origins and potential cure is only a secondary objective, a means to an end. It’s a curious narrative choice, but I do admire (to some extent) the stripped-down nature it gives the movie; there are no geopolitical conspiracies, no silly subplots or diversions. It’s just one man trying to find out what’s going on so he can return to his family. I don’t think it fully works on that level, but others may disagree. That said, the movie - as a whole - is surprisingly entertaining. It looks terrific (and expensive), and save for some sketchy CGI, the budget is very clearly up on the screen. The action - though occasionally succumbing to jittery, shaky camerawork - is fairly intense; given that the movie has a PG-13 rating, there’s very little blood spilled in front of our eyes, but the sheer ferocity of the zombie hordes helps to make up for that. Interestingly, the movie actually attempts to justify this by changing the zombies’ M.O. from what we’re used to seeing; instead of feasting on human flesh, the undead desire only to spread their “disease” to others. They exist to procreate, in a sense, not to eat, so after one bite, they move on to the next victim. Gore-hounds will no doubt be displeased by this, but let’s be honest - if a person wants to see a zombie flick of the gruesome variety, there are more than enough other films out there for them to seek out. It’s worth touching briefly on the well-publicized production troubles that befell this movie over the course of the last year-and-a-half, troubles that basically resulted in entirely scrapping the movie’s original ending in favor of a brand new climax, the aforementioned sequence at the facility in Wales. What’s fascinating about this is that, rather than hurting the movie, these “problems” might have actually made the movie better, as this new third act is the best part of the film; it introduces some neat ideas, has some nicely orchestrated suspense moments, and becomes more overtly “horror movie”ish than the earlier sections of the story. For those interested, the movie’s behind-the-scenes issues are documented in an extraordinarily detailed and candid article in Vanity Fair, which you can read HERE. I don’t want to make the movie sound like a great one, because it isn’t, but it’s enjoyable enough for what it is. The decision to take the genre into full-on blockbuster territory feels - on the surface - to be a questionable one, but given that zombies have been done to death (literally…), I respect the choice to do something different. WORLD WAR Z isn’t completely a success, but it’s a slice of summer entertainment that provides some modest thrills without aggressively insulting the intelligence of its audience. Given its production history, it could have been a whole lot worse.
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