REVIEW: World War Z

Ex United Nations Employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is taking time out to spend with his family when on a normal day out , driving through town; the city is hit by pandemonium. Whilst trying to get his family to safety he witnesses another “human” attack another through a bite and is horrified by the transformation. Gerry soon finds himself gainfully employed by the United Nations once more to help travel across many countries in a bid to save the world from what would appear to be a Zombie pandemic which is fast destroying armies, government and most importantly, humanity.

Brought to us by the Director of such films as Bond’s Quantum of Solace, Finding Neverland and Machine Gun preacher to name but a few, Marc Foster obviously likes to surprise with each venture he directs. He certainly doesn’t conform to a certain genre of film, however, and here comes criticism number 1, why the need to make this film in the 3D format is beyond me, it simply was not needed. It’s a shame everyone seems to be jumping on this 3D bandwagon when, for certain films, such as this, it really isn’t needed as it adds nothing extra to the viewing experience.

Criticism number 2, It’s about half an hour 2 long but the ending seemed rushed, does that make sense?. There are a number of pointless scenes which could have been edited out. Although there were a few comedy moments throughout, and I’m not talking about how Brad Pitt looked like an ageing hippy with his hair cut. The final half hour was like watching Shaun of the Dead, hilarious. The plot just seemed to get extremely stupid, 90% of this film was supposed to be serious but that last 10% was just, well, shake your head, belly laugh unbelievable.

On the positive side, from more or less the beginning, it’s intriguing. It grabs you and sucks you in. It certainly keeps your attention all the way through, I can’t say there was any moment where my mind started to wonder and was thinking what shall I have for dinner when I get home. Now I don’t flinch easily but I did find myself jumping out of my skin on many occasion, It’s quite refreshing to actually experience some scary/ look away scenes in this kind of film, usually they are just way too predictable.

Obviously the main “attraction” to this film is Brad Pitt, maybe I’m just a little biased as I’m not a fan but his only claim to fame is that he looks kind of nice (really doesn’t do it for me though) I do think he is highly overrated as an actor and to be quite honest his portrayal of this “I’m a family guy but well hard & intelligent” really was just a bit mediocre. Oh and there were a few other familiar faces in there like Matthew Fox (Lost) and David Morse (Hurt Locker, The Green Mile) but no real performances that really made you think wow they are good.

World War Z is no real classic and even though I may have slated it, its big budget has paid off in making this a watchable, kind of guilty pleasure film. A tiny bit of cheese is never a bad thing.