I feel like I should open this review with some kind of preface about zombies and the impact of zombies in modern entertainment. Zombies have kinda seen a resurgence in popularity over the last decade, beginning with Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later and culminating with AMC’s smash-hit success The Walking Dead. It seems like that would make sense. And it I was writing a review of a movie about zombies, then I might. But World War Z isn’t really about zombies. Yes, it has creatures that could be classified as zombies. Yes, elements feel like a zombie horror film. Yet these elements don’t add up to create a movie about zombies. The end product of this incredibly troubled production is nothing more and nothing less than a generic summer action blockbuster.
Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), a former UN employee, must get his family to safety after a viral outbreak creates chaos worldwide, spawning zombies everywhere. Lane must also track down the origin of the virus in order to determine a way to stop the outbreak before the entire planet becomes infected and the human race is wiped out. His travels will take him across the globe from South Korea to Israel to the United Kingdom, and he must escape zombie hordes both large and small in order to complete his mission and stop the virus that could destroy the world.
I confess that I have not read Max Brooks’ source novel, World War Z. I’ve been meaning to for a long time, and from what I’ve heard, the novel is terrific. A collection of eyewitness accounts detailing the horrors of a worldwide war that follows the zombie apocalypse, World War Z has received a great deal of critical acclaim. Many avid book fans were greatly anticipating the screen adaptation. Yet the book and film share only two things in common; they’re called World War Z, and they showcase a worldwide fight against zombies.
The film wastes no time before throwing us right into the middle of the action. Seriously, not five minutes pass before Lane and his family are caught in the chaos in downtown Philadelphia. We get no time to see the relationships get set up. We know that Lane loves his wife and children, but we only know that because of his statements and our own assumptions. “Show, don’t tell” is a common expression for film, and World War Z fails this mark. Furthermore, the family is sidelined so quickly that they fail to make any kind of impact. Brad Pitt and Mireille Enos have absolutely no chemistry with each other, and the children prove to be more of a liability than an asset.
Lane is the only character who gets enough screen time to make any kind of impression. The sidekicks are rotated in and out so fast that it’s practically whiplash inducing. Seriously, for a while, it felt like the movie was just spinning a wheel to see who Lane’s new sidekick would be before killing them off. Yet the character is so empty and hollow that there’s no audience connection whatsoever. Brad Pitt’s usual charisma is nowhere to be found here. He seems to be shuffling through the motions, appearing disinterested in his surroundings.
Pitt specifically wanted to work with director Marc Forster on this film, and I cannot for the life of me understand why. Forster’s previous action credits include Quantum of Solace which was so sloppily directed and put together that it was practically headache inducing. World War Z doesn’t fare any better in this regard. Forster just has no feel for action sequences. He throws audiences in the middle of everything with a ton of shaky camerawork because that’s the cool thing to do. But rather than putting us in the middle of the action, the camerawork feels disorienting. You can tell you’re in the middle of something, but the problem is that you have no idea what’s happening.
ZAHMBEES! Except not as fun…
Forster’s direction also saps the large action sequences of any real tension. World War Z has plenty of tension, but the tension comes almost exclusively from lazy jump scares (which anyone can do). The best sequence of the whole film is when Lane is trapped on an airplane full of zombies. It’s tense, atmospheric, and claustrophobic; everything that the rest of the movie isn’t. Forster’s direction fares better in the third act of the film, when the scale is significantly downsized and Lane must sneak through a building wing filled with the infected.
Speaking of the third act, World War Z’s plot gets you from Point A to Point Z in order, but it drops a lot of subplots along the way. There’s some discussion of possible government involvement in the outbreak, but that’s quickly dropped. Lane’s family is quickly tossed out of the movie, but a lazy attempt to add tension to their plot fails entirely. Lane’s former job is never even fully described or expounded upon. The plot holes can be occasionally glaring.
Yet I’m surprised that there’s any kind of narrative cohesion given the films’ troubled production history. Originally a script from J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5), Matthew Michael Carnahan was brought on to rewrite the script and make it more accessible to audiences. But after filming was concluded, Paramount decided that the ending needed to change, so they hired Damon Lindelof (Lost, Prometheus) to rewrite the third act and ordered an additional seven weeks of reshoots. Lindelof didn’t have enough time to do the whole thing, so he hired Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods). And Paramount had Christopher McQuarrie on set for any onsite rewrites that needed to happen. That’s five screenwriters. Five. With a complete rewrite of the ending. Given all of that, it’s seriously impressive that the movie makes any sense whatsoever.
As for the zombies of World War Z, they’re not exactly the slow-walking, shuffling type that you’ll find on The Walking Dead. They’re like the crazy fast zombies of 28 Days Later on speed and crack combined. They feel less like zombies and more like humanoid insects that swarm everywhere and try to infect everything. They’re almost entirely CGI, and this makes them feel like an empty and hollow threat. Additionally, World War Z’s PG-13 constraints keep it from really cutting loose and showing us the true zombie apocalypse. Forster tries to cover up some of the blood with his ridiculously shaky camera movements, but it really doesn’t work very well.
I saw World War Z more out of curiosity than actual desire. I was familiar that the film’s production had been problematic; there were rumors of shelving the film entirely at one point. And I was kinda hoping for a cinematic trainwreck, a multi-million dollar disaster. World War Z is definitely not a disaster. Rather, it’s an incredibly generic and rather dull summer blockbuster that happens to have zombies. Kinda.
World War Z – C
Also, check out Vanity Fair’s terrific article about the production of World War Z. Stories like these don’t come around very often.
I'm just a grad student who happens to have a fascination with film and television. It's a fun time.
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