A well-structured story was left on the backburner of Hollywood’s latest apocalyptic zombie epic, ‘World War Z’. Instead, we have a $200 million dollar action movie that delivers a few suspenseful situations. I imagine that with Brad Pitt starring in this zombie genre film, box office receipts will do well enough to compete with Pixar’s ‘Monster’s University’, but considering its mega budget and the long list of production problems the project had over the last few years, it might have a difficult time making ends meet.
Despite being rated PG-13, this movie about the undead may at times genuinely cause you to jump out of your seat, but those looking for a straight adaptation of Max Brooks’ novel of the same name will surely be disappointed. The book was written as an oral history of the zombie apocalypse, detailing the start and aftermath of the zombie war. It was styled as a series of interviews from different people around the globe and their accounts of the global epidemic, which provided a social and religious commentary on the devastation. That has all been dropped from the film, including some key plot points. For example, in the book it’s clearly noted that this zombie outbreak started in China, whereas in the film nothing is mentioned about where it began. ‘World War Z’ is a classic case of Hollywood showcasing its muscles with epic action scenes to sell tickets, rather than any coherent storyline.
We begin in downtown Philadelphia with retired United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Pitt), his wife Karen (Mireille Enos) and their two young daughters. While they’re stuck in heavy traffic, the zombie apocalypse hits the city with a vengeance. Within a matter of seconds, thousands of people have turned into bloodthirsty and incredibly fast-moving zombies. Gerry moves his family and calls his former boss to rescue them from a nearby housing project rooftop. They’re taken to a temporary refuge aboard several naval ships anchored in the Atlantic Ocean.
Things move very quickly, and not in a good way. It seems like everybody’s first thought and first action is always the right one, and nothing is ever explained in full. For example, it’s never explained why Gerry is the only man capable of stopping and solving the zombie outbreak; he just is. As Gerry embarks on a worldwide journey to find answers, his first stop is South Korea, where he meets a team of elite soldiers and scientists looking for solutions. Gerry only listens and follows the advice of a former operative who has been relegated to a prison cell for treason. This former operative informs him that North Korea has fixed the zombie outbreak by enforcing a mandatory teeth extraction from every citizen, but that he will find more answers in Israel.
After a suspenseful attack, Gerry jets off to Jerusalem, where the city has erected a six-story concrete wall to keep out the undead. Inside this wall, life is back to normal, but as soon as Gerry arrives, the zombies somehow manage to climb the wall and destroy the city in a matter of minutes. This escape scene is pretty spectacular and frightening, even if aspects of it don’t make sense at all. But that seems to be the theme of the movie so far. During the escape, Gerry comes across a wounded female solider named Segen (Daniella Kertesz), whom he takes on the last plane out of Israel. His contacts aboard the naval ship then tell him to head to Wales, where a medical research facility is still intact.
When a scary incident forces their plane to make an emergency crash landing, Segen and Gerry stumble upon the facility where the climactic finale takes place. This is the segment of the film that the studio demanded be rewritten, reshot and re-edited many times over. Gerry and Segen, along with a couple of remaining scientists, have to navigate a maze-like research facility full of zombies to get hold of a certain solution that could perhaps put a stop to this zombie outbreak that has by now engulfed most of the world’s population. These particular final moments are completely different in tone than what we’ve seen prior to this moment, by way of adding a slow and suspenseful situation, rather than the high-octane action scenes that came before. It’s not a wrong decision, just a strange one. Then, as if the movie has no more budget or time left, everything gets wrapped up very quickly in a vague matter, but not before Brad Pitt takes a long cool drink of Pepsi.
There are certain aspects to ‘World War Z’ that work very well. The zombies themselves are fairly frightening. They turn instantly after being bitten, and develop super strength and super speed to attack their prey. They hurl their bodies at full force, even off buildings, to attack. They twitch and move in ways that human bodies aren’t made to move. As heavy as this movie is on action sequences, one would hope for some pretty incredible action beats. Luckily for us, the filmmakers deliver that on a silver platter. Never before have we witnessed a zombie epidemic on this grand a scale. From the helicopter shots that show literally hundreds of thousands of the undead running for food and biting people whenever they get a chance, to the intense zombie outbreak aboard a plane in mid-air, you’re guaranteed to be on the edge of your seat. I only wish that the filmmakers had put this much effort into the characters or story.
Pitt of course does an amazing job as the leading man. He’s set on saving the world and is fully believable in such a position. The rest of the supporting cast aren’t A-listers, but still do the job. I think we would have been taken out of the whole experience if the supporting cast was full of Academy Award winners. Kertesz sticks out as a fresh face who holds her own alongside Pitt. Sadly, gore fans will be sorely disappointed as there isn’t a drop of blood or any decent flesh-eating scenes in the entire flick.
One thing that I liked most about ‘World War Z’ is that, for the first time since ’28 Days Later’, I didn’t fantasize about wanting to be in a zombie outbreak afterwards. Movies like ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Zombieland’ make it seem like a fun and a wild ride to be involved in this sort of apocalyptic situation. But with this flick, I found myself scared to even think of such a worldwide infection happening. Instead of watching people kill zombies in unusual and creative ways, we mostly see people running from them and unable to defend themselves, even with the most dangerous weapons. It gives the movie a realistic aspect that is all too horrifying.
‘World War Z’ may not be the perfect story or character-driven movie we wanted it to be, but its incredible action sequences and suspenseful situations deserve a look, despite all of the film’s flaws.
Rating: 
Josh Zyber
I’m really having trouble getting past the fact that the movie looks absolutely nothing like the book it’s allegedly based on. Not even a little bit.
The opening credits should say “Based on the Title of the Otherwise Unrelated Novel by Max Brooks.”
Luke Hickman
I haven’t read it, but a friend told me about an underwater catacomb sequence. Nothing in this movie is nearly as cool as his brief description.
Josh Zyber
There’s a whole section of the novel that discusses what happens to zombies when you toss them off boats into the middle of the ocean. It’s one of the best parts of the book.
bryan kluger
Agreed. I mean, there are flashes of stuff from the book, but only a couple of things. The only real similarity is the fact that it involves a zombie outbreak.
Luke Hickman
And that Pepsi plug is just about the worst product placement I’ve ever seen. Sure, Man of Steel repeatedly showed IHOP, but at least they weren’t full-on commercials like the Pepsi moment here. That scene was so embarrassing that it made me think that the whole movie was a giant Superbowl spot leading up to that one major ad.
Aaron Peck
You forgot the blatant 7-11, Sears, and Nikon product placements in ‘MoS’. That Sears one is every bit as bad or worse than the Pepsi one.
bryan kluger
That Sears placement cracked me up.
Luke Hickman
Oh, I didn’t forget ’em. Those ones are bad too – but in MoS felt like the blatant Pepsi commercial in WWZ. I wonder if that’s how they paid for the reshoots.
Luke Hickman
That SHOULD say, “but NOTHING in MoS…”
Forgive me. I’ve got “Vegas brain” right now. I’m tired.
Aaron Peck
I read the book. Like the book. But didn’t want a movie made from the book unless it was filmed ‘Citizen Kane’ style (ala interviews and flashbacks).
I really liked ‘World War Z’. It’s smartly paced and genuinely creepy. It understands that action needs ebbs and flows not just flows. It mirrors the novel pretty well when it stands back from the overall invasion, focuses on the global politicking and the ways different peoples would react to a mass contagion outbreak.
As a fan of the book, I think the movie is pretty spot on.
Michael V. Shepherd
Didn’t read the book, but enjoyed the movie overall. The zombies were truly terrifying, although the flick could have benefited from a stronger R rating. It does wrap up too quick and tidy, for sure. I can honestly say I was never bored.
William Henley
For example, in the book it’s clearly noted that this zombie outbreak started in China, whereas in the film nothing is mentioned about where it began.
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! My understanding was that the first documented case was in South Korea. The North avoided an outbreak by removing the entire population’s teeth.
Gerry jets off to Jerusalem, where the city has erected a six-story concrete wall to keep out the undead. Inside this wall, life is back to normal, but as soon as Gerry arrives, the zombies somehow manage to climb the wall and destroy the city in a matter of minutes.
The zombies are attracted to sound, which is explained several times in the movie. Upon admitting one group into the city, they start partying in the streets, near the wall. This attracts the zombies into the city.
During the escape, Gerry comes across a wounded female solider named Segen
Um, no. POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! Segen was assigned to escort Gerry to the plane. Segen is bitten by a zombie on the forarm, and to stop the spread of the infection, Gerry cuts her forearm off. Go, Gerry is the one who wounds her to keep her from mutating – he doesn’t randomly come across her.
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I haven’t read the book yet – I usually try to avoid reading the book first if I know a movie is coming (unless its something like Harry Potter where I just cannot wait several years for the next installment to come out, or like The Hunger Games trilogy where I was halfway through the first book when I found out they were making the movie).
From a movie perspective, I found it quite enjoyable. I didn’t have a clue what the movie was about going in, or even knew what it was rated (a buddy was like, hey, want to go see this, and I was like, SURE!). As such, I found myself on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The fact that I was able to follow the story and understand exactly what was going on, while still keeping me guessing, speaks words for the movie. It was one of the best written stories I have seen in a movie in quite a while (not saying its great, more along the lines that stories in movies lately have been disappointing).
The product placement was hillarious! It was so obvious, and just so broke the flow of the movie, that you can tell the director was like “if we have to do product placement, let’s have fun with it!”. The audience was roaring with laughter at it.
I also loved the scary-funny zombie moves that they show during the final scenes. I feel litterally that in the last 10 minutes of the movie, it changed from a horror / suspense movie to a comedy. But that was fine – at that point in the movie, a bit of comic relief was welcome.
Back on the subject of product placement, what about the obvious placement of Iridium’s satelite phones?
Anyways, I found the movie enjoyable, and while there are some questions I would have liked answered, I felt that the movie was well-written and well paced. It’s a recommend from me.
Jim Brundige
being a huge max brooks fan when i heard dicaprio and pitt were fighting each other to make the book a movie i was truly excited.
then reality sunk in and it was given a 100mil+ budget and i knew executives would never allow a movie to play out in the same direction as the book. which would have been amazing, pitt play max brooks traveling the world getting the stories, and them playing back like suckerpunch style. the book was well structured between present day and flashback, and disjointed enough to not feel like a news reel.
like stated above the water explanations, the cold winter survival, and the john stewart paris hilton stories were some of the best parts of the book!
but instead we got a generic zombie movie (with the trailers stating it changes everything we know about zombie movies. bs!) with cgi zombie hoards that make the deer in “i am legend” look real!
i left the theatres bored, and angry i wasted $13 to see it. i promptly threw out my “commemorative” poster, went home and told everyone i knew not to bother seeing the movie.
Barsoom Bob
You will always have the book. Might make a truely great cable series if done right.
I quite enjoyed WWZ. It is not a Zombie movie, it is a pandemic movie. More Contagion than Dawn of the Dead. Like any virulent virus they just want to infect and multiply.
I have seen most zombie films and I have never seen anything on that scale, and well executed, as these set pieces. Again, this is not a serious take on the book, zombies or pathogens, but it was an exciting and entertaining summer movie. 2nd favorite movie of the summer after Gatsby, at the moment, still eagerly awaiting Pacific Rim and Elysium.
Jim Brundige
the rights to the book, the stories in it (including max brooks as a character), and the title are all locked up for how ever many years pitts company owns the rights for.
its just like robin hood, an amazing new take on a story is bastardized into a generic popcorn flick and the original concept is lost forever in obscurity.
William Henley
How is it just like Robin Hood? I can think of 5 movies which hold the Robin Hood name, and at least one television series, all of which approach the story very differently. And as the story is about 900 years old, and had countless retailings before it was penned, its hard to say that it bastardized the original concept.
So I fail to see how you are making a connection between Robin Hood and World War Z.
Josh Zyber
Jim is referring to this:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/robin-hood-bad-script/
Jim Brundige
thanks josh, i was looking for the link to that but couldnt find it. i knew someone would know what i was getting at and help me out.