World War Z (***)
Directed
by: Marc Forster
Starring:
Brad Pitt, Mirielle Enos, Daniella Kertesz, Fana Mokoena, James Badge Dale,
David Morse, Matthew Fox
Seen:
August 4th 2013
***
Out of ****
Based
on the novel with the same name by Max Brooks, World War Z not like other zombie
movies/shows I have seen, the zombies are completely different in many ways. Where
the original view of zombies is that they lumber and are not very agile, the
zombies in WWZ are fast, they are agile, and they movie like swarms of insects,
like a wave coming down the street to overwhelm, breach, overflow, and break
barriers between them and us regular humans. Infection is quick, as is the
movie’s pace.
Gerry
Lane (Pitt), his wife Karin (Enos), and their two daughters are joking around
in their car as they’re stuck in traffic in Philadelphia when the city is
overrun by zombies. It is sudden and devastating and Gerry and his family barely
escape to a secure (out of the way) apartment where they are taken in by good
Samaritans. Gerry used to be one of the UN’s best investigators, and he is
called in by his previous boss, Thierry Umutoni (Mokoena), who wants him on the
case. The case is an extremely volatile global outbreak of a pandemic for which
the powers that be have no answer, and their best bet is to try to find the
source, the point of origin. Gerry and his family are airlifted to a vessel of
the US army in the Atlantic ocean, and on the ship Gerry is coerced into
assisting with the investigation under threat of him and his family being put
off of the ship if he does not cooperate.
Gerry
and the team then fly all over the world in their attempts to find the source,
and everywhere they are greeted with the same thing, almost total annihilation
of everything and a force of zombies that is intent on turning them too. They
start in South Korea, then head for a surprisingly battle-ready and quarantined
Jerusalem, and after that they set of for Wales, all the while running from
zombies in extremely well produced set-pieces that provide for excellent levels
of tension and nail-biting thrills coupled with almost unbelievable visuals as
the zombies swarm over each other and almost flow like flood waters down narrow
streets and over barriers.
Brad
Pitt is solid as Gerry Lane, he completely disappears into the character, and
not one of the supporting cast members ever feels out of place. We even have
one of our very own in the movie, South African born Fana Mokoena as Gerry Lane’s
boss, and he definitely holds his own on the big screen. World War Z is a more accessible
zombie movie for the masses, as it doesn’t go into gore and blood and guts as
so many (read all) other zombie movies do. It is impressing and exhilarating and
will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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