Starring:
Brad Pitt, Miereille Enos, Daniella Kertesz
A quiet day with
the family is disrupted for Gerry Lane (Pitt) when news breaks out about some
sort of disaster, which involves diseased people feeding on victims and passing
on a pathogen, resulting in an epidemic. Eventually finding shelter off the
coast in an airplane carrier, Gerry learns that his family’s stay on board (and
most likely their survival) is dependent on Gerry’s work in the United Nations,
travelling the world to find a way to stop the epidemic.
An
adaptation of the 2006 novel by Max Brooks (son of comedian Mel Brooks and
actress Anne Bancroft), World War Z represents zombie horror at its most
monumental scale. Many other zombie films before had dealt with the notion of a
zombie epidemic, but given the low budgets that usually accompany zombie films
(and horror films in general), a globe-trotting big-budget adventure such as
this has been rare, if not unheard of. As with most modern zombie films, World
War Z seems to be most heavily influenced by the work of George A. Romero (and
his subgenre-defining, Living Dead series) as well as Danny Boyle’s 28 Days
Later (2002), although World War Z doesn’t match the cynicism or astute
political and social commentary of those
films. Thankfully, Brad Pitt is a strong enough actor and screen presence to
cope with, given that we’re stuck with him through the vast majority of the
run-time and the story is captivating. The main problem simply is that it isn’t
the innovation that might be expected given that it paints from a wider available
canvas than the low-budget likes of Romero or Lucio Fulci and the film lacks
any real subtext. It’s enthralling and, at times, exciting, but it’s not as deep
or as expansive as it first appears.
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