World War Z

[Webslinger]

In light of the infamy surrounding its making, World War Z is a pleasant surprise. It's an adaptation of Max Brooks's book in name only, but such an approach is probably for the best given that the book reads much more like a Contagion-like miniseries than a summer blockbuster. As a straightforward action film that eschews virtually all political aspects of the book, it works because the pacing is so relentless through the first two acts of the film. The set pieces are impressive and visually striking, both of which are surprising given the more marginal quality of the set pieces in Marc Forster's previous big-budget action film, Quantum of Solace. The sequence set in Israel is a particular standout, as the swarms of zombies are impressively rendered and fit well within the landscape. The only problem that stands out with the action is the fact that this is a zombie movie with no bloodshed; there's something disingenuous about seeing inherently R-rated material sanitized for a PG-13, especially given that this movie has a darker tone than this year's other PG-13 zombie film, Warm Bodies. Some viewers might find the third act to be out of place when stacked against the much larger scale of the rest of the movie (I was surprised to find that it was, indeed, meant to be the end of the movie rather than a step toward a bigger finale), but I actually thought that that portion of the film was the strongest, as it generated a great deal of tension and made very good use of the small quarters at hand. Is this the adaptation the book deserved? No, but then again, the format of the book seems better suited for television than it does for the big screen. But as a piece of summer spectacle, World War Z does enough well to earn a passing mark.

 

B

[ChD]

Was quite a good movie, honestly. The only thing I didn't like was the stupidity of some characters... Like, really.

 

His little girl... We're being chased by zombies. What do you do:a) Stay quiet, and stay close to your parents and sister

Yell every second for no reason

c) Walk away and start yelling at a family to let you in.

 

And his wife... I actually wanted to punch her at how stupid she was. Oh yeah, your husband is on a fucking mission to possibly save the planet. Everything's a walk in the park. It's not like he has to walk through these freaking creatures. Damn, if he said he calls you, he will call you. No, instead she decides to call him back cause yeah... it wasn't like a zombie could hear him.

 

Don't get me started on the fucking people who started singing. They knew one month in advance (or whatever time it was) about the zombies but they still hadn't figured out that they are attracted to noise. Would've been fucking Ironic if they sang 'Staying Alive' >.>

 

Still, big plus to the score. I liked it. The CGI had its bad moments but overall, everything was fine with it too. I don't like that in the whole movie they didn't really solve anything the way they wanted. I mean, first they thought that maybe they would find something in Korea. Follow the trail there. Of course, the movie can't be short so it's kinda obvious that Korea isn't fixing shit. Instead, another path leading back to Jerusalem is found. Go there. Nope. Go to India instead because yeah... Why the fuck not. I'm already imagining what they would've found in India. An old man who is saying 'No... Go to Romania. Vlad the Impaler has come back to life and started recruiting people as his loyal zombie army to invade the world." 

Nah man, too much stupidity. Too much running in circles for nothing. The real movie started in freaking Jerusalem when they discovered that zombies don't attack infected people. For some reason, the fucking UN didn't know that Jerusalem had fucking walls around it, but a guy locked up in a cell knew. Fuck logic man... Fuck logic.

 

Still... 

B-

 

P.S For a moment I totally forgot the way that fucking doctor died. Worst. Death. Ever. (Along with Stupidest. Death. Ever.)

Edited September 5, 2013 by ChD

[mattmav45]

Ehhh, it's ok I suppose. In the end it just didn't have enough to differentiate itself from being a mediocre film, and there's something inherently lame about a PG-13 zombie flick.C+

Edited September 18, 2013 by mattmav45

[LexJoker]

It surprised me. Thought it was a good Horror movie.

 

And I really liked the ending how it was not a million zombie involved action sequence, but a tight suspense driven situation.

 

B

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I enjoyed and this is the second blockbuster of the year. I thought the movie was intense and I enjoyed the story of the zombie out break. Certain parts did not work or was well explained well in the film but the movie went by fast. 

B

[4815162342]

Never did an actual write-up for this. Here we go:

 

 

Episode 1: Apocalypse Northeast

 

B+

 

Solid beginning to the film with the build-up of tension in the Philly streets very well done. However I would have liked a little more time in the opening to establish the family a little more and to establish the arrival of the infection in America, because it seems like in a matter of 30 seconds the entire Bo-Wash megalopolis gets simultaneously swarmed by the hordes.

 

Interlude: The Fleet

 

B/B+

 

Basically standard exposition stuff explaining how no one has a clue what is going on other than things are very bad.

 

Episode 2: Korea

 

A-

 

The best part of the film hands-down. However it has one problem: that god-awful stupid-ass phone call by the wife.

 

Episode 3: This is How You Utterly Disrespect the Source Material

 

C-

 

The content, taken out of context, is solid sure (though the whole simultaneous song-and-dance party that attracts a bajillion zombies with almost no one caring is classic Hollywood blockbuster dumb) for the most part, but it totally screws the book in the ass by making the opposite case that the book makes. The book establishes that the zombies are beatable, but in many cases only by hard choices, in Israel's case walling itself off from the world and letting it burn. The movie decides to burn it all down to instead push for the zombies being unbeatable and only a miracle can save humanity.

 

Interlude: Grenades Harmful to Cabin Pressure

 

B

 

It's a fine enough setpiece in theory, but it really just feels crammed in there to make for one final big setpiece after the reshoots eliminated the entire third act which was Enemy at the Gates, only in Moscow with zombies instead of snipers.

 

Episode 4: Wales

 

B+

 

I'm not a big fan of the disease as camoflauge plot device used as the miracle salvation, because it's just gimmicky and again goes against the grain of the source material, which pretty says that the only magic bullet used to save humanity was the willingness of humanity to sacrifice millions of its own people as bait to attract zombies to buy time for the rest to build up defenses, supplies, etc for the counterattack.

 

But that aside, the actual content and execution of this episode was pretty strong. Lots of standard survival horror tropes, but they were executed very well.

 

Epilogue: No Medal for Chewbacca, No Hug for Segen

 

F

 

At the end, the little boy who Brad Pitt knew for all of 24 hours gets included in the family hug but Segen who he's known for longer and who went to hell and back with him doesn't get any appreciation. That's cold Brad, that's cold.

[DAR]

As someone who's getting tired of the whole zombie craze, I thought it was kind of great. A-

[Ozymandias]

Really meh IMO.  It had a few good moments, but overall it was a mess.  Really baffling editing in some parts and the end just didn't work.  Plus, a PG-13 zombie movie is inherently silly.

 

D

Edited October 22, 2013 by Ozymandias

[Lordmandeep]

I watched the Unrated version at home and the Zombie scenes are far more interesting and scary.

 

There is a lot more violence and gore in Isreal and the plane and it is far far more engaging.

 

They should have kept it in the orginal film.

[Crusader]

Bullshit 

 

First off I can't blame the studio for stepping in this time since Forster's direction during action seqeuences is all over the place ... this ain't Bourne you dumb prick it has a much bigger scale you are supposed to produce large scale visuals not swerve the camera around like a madman ... That Russia final battle that was scrapped must have been like a bunch of black guys fighting in a dark tunnel ... moving on 

 

Its all over the place with the pace and going from point A to B to C without any kind of narrative coherence ... punctuated with irritatingly awful contrivances like the scientist slipping and dying and the call from his wife in the worst possible moment ... I mean really ??? I could write a better scene than that - for example ' the scientists dies cause a zombie attacks and bites him which is why Pitt has to kill him'. There. Now give me my credit. moving along ... 

 

Ah it does have something interesting in it. N Korea pulled out the teeth of the entire population within 24 hours ? Awesome. Wish I could see a montage of that. I was starting to think that the movie was going in a better direction ... it was ! 

 

The Jews isolated themselves and built a wall around them! Brilliant! This might offend some jews but goddamn it that is such an awesome piece of social commentary ... we're gonna let the world burn but we'll be ok 

 

Then it all came crashing down due to singing which was discussed here before as I see so I won't beat a dead horse anymore ... 

But seriously ???? Go fuck yourselves at least follow up on one interesting idea 

 

The plane sequence was dumb and having a POS actor from my country as a pilot also didn't help  

 

As the plane crashed the entire movie also crashed in this totally filmed after a while 3rd act from the rest of the movie seeing how Pitt's hair and beard were vastly different than in the rest of the movie. Also, when you're doing a film like this having an ending like this is not 'tense and minimalistic' its ANTI - CLIMATIC ! 

 

Oh yeah and no one did any acting in this other than Pitt who was trying to do his best impression of Chirs Klein ... cuz if that was his 'actual' acting I'd be unpleseantly surprised 

 

3/10 

 

For about 10 minutes with the North Korea and the wall thing they had something going on there but they decided to kill it dead with your usual hollywood conformism 

Edited November 23, 2013 by Crusader

[John Marston]

The beginning of the movie was pretty good but then it just got rather boring and uninteresting. Climax was sufficiently interesting but I doubt I will ever watch this again. Also, the movie's editing felt off. Very disjointed. 

[Impact]

This was surprisingly good. The music was very good and I really enjoyed Brad Pitt. The film was quite thrilling.

 

A-

[Killimano3]

This movie was fine I guess but kinda disappointing. The beginning I felt was very strong and I thought it was done very very well but after they got to the ship it kinda... idk started to get a bit out there? The plot was driven but random things happening way too much. I mean the one guy that they need falls and shoots himself in the head. That is a terrible plot point. The zombies somehow develop teamwork solely to stop Israel's inhabitants from singing. Also dumb. A lone zombie somehow turns out to be on the plane and it ends up crashing with only plot relevant characters surviving. Also stupid. I mean it was entertaining but from a plot perspective it's kind of annoying that the only way they can find to change the direction of the plot is for something immensely stupid to happen.

 

I also wasn't a fan of the ending because it was way too anti-climactic. It just kinda ended out of nowhere when it really didn't feel like it should have ended. The way it ended made it feel like they wanted to spin-off some TV show about the survivors or something. It didn't even feel like it was to leave open room for a sequel. It was just weird.

 

It was still pretty entertaining though and the fast zombies was kinda scary at parts. Also I liked how they did the whole "Mystery" kind of thing where instead of just killing zombies he was going around trying to uncover what was happening and how to stop it. The foreshadowing with the zombies not killing sick or injured people was pretty well done as well.

 

I'd say B- or C+

[lolifofo]

This film is underrated. It's by far the best zombie movie I've seen.

 

Solid A

Edited February 18, 2014 by lolifofo

[Lordmandeep]

Whatever the film may be.

 

Brad Pitt does a good job in these kinds of roles and I think he should do more of them. 

[Dementeleus]

Yeesh. I really didn't like this at all. Boring, uninteresting, silly, absurd... occasionally a minor moment or beat that was OK, but that's it.

[Dementeleus]

Oh god, fishnets was so right about this.......

[4815162342]

Oh god, fishnets was so right about this.......

 

Quoted, because I never thought I'd see those words

[CJohn]

Oh god, fishnets was so right about this.......

[RobinHood26]

After my first bluray viewing.

 

B- (80)