World War Z (2013) Review

★★★

By: Kameron McBride

If a zombie apocalypse should ever break out at least we can rest easy knowing that Hollywood has prepared us for any scenario. In most zombie movies we learn the tips for individual survival, where a band of characters manages to stake out on their own. In World War Z, however, we get to see how the world reacts to a zombie plague decimating the global population. It's a film with a much grander scope than most zombie movies and is based off Max Brooks' accalimed novel of the same name.

World War Z opens in Philadalphia, where we see former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) driving his kids to school with his wife, Karin (Mireille Enos). They get stuck in traffic downtown that becomes increasingly drastic as helicopters fly overhead and police officers zoom in between cars on motorcycles. Things become dire when a garbage truck suddenly smashes through the traffic, running over a cop while a running crowd builds into a panic.

And this moment provides a good example of one of the best and worst aspects of this film. The scenes with panic breaking out in large crowds provides a good deal of tension because it is hard to tell who is and who isn't infected. It adds to the sense of panic and confusion that the characters are feeling. On the other hand, I hate the editing of these sequences because there are so many cuts. Every second feels like we are cutting to a different shot and it makes it really hard to understand what's going on. For example in one sequence we are racing through Israel from a zombie hoard and it is impossible to get the lay of the land. I don't understand this decision, as the movie was plenty intense without needing to cut so often.

Gerry witnesses several people being bitten and turned into zombies who in turn begin to sprint and try to bite more victims. Eventually, he manages to get out of the city with his family and gets a call from his former boss, Thierry (Fana Mokoena) who informs Gerry that a worldwide epidemic has started and he wants Gerry to investigate and try to figure out the cause of the disease. At first Gerry is resistant but relents in exchange for his family being sheltered.

The unique aspect World War Z offers is a global view of the zombie apocalypse. We follow Gerry as he goes from country to country, trying to work his towards the ultimate cause of the virus and ultimately find a cure. In most zombie movies we follow a very finite group of characters trying to survive their individual troubles. We still get that to an extent, but we are also privy to how most of the world is surviving the zombie plague.

This keeps in spirit with Max Brooks' original novel, where a narrator takes us around the world to follow the spread of the disease post–apocalypse. It seems that a lot of fans of the book don't like the changes the movie made, which is fair I guess, though the novel itself seems unreasonable to make into a feature film.

I will say I felt the film was lacking in was some social commentary. Most zombie movies seem to have a political agenda, i.e. Romero's take on consumer culture. Here, I don't think the commentary is quite as explicit as in Brooks' novel, which I felt discussed the different political structures around the world and analyzed how the acted in an apocalyptic setting. That's still in play in the film, but it's not quite pushed enough. There's no "Battle of Yonkers" chapter to tie everything up in a pretty bow.

One pretty glaring flaw with the film is that we don't get to know the characters very well. It's sort of a give and take, as we sacrifice early character developement to get started on the tension faster but as the film goes on I noticed that I really wasn't invested in the characters as much as I could be. For example, there is a subplot of Gerry's wife and kids draining unnecessary resources from the boat where they're being sheltered and it's suggested they might be kicked off. I should have felt some sympathy for these characters but I just didn't feel all that invested.

The disappointing part for me is this really should have been an interesting dynamic. In the film the military basically separates "essential" and "non–essential" personnel. This is incredibly problematic on a lot of levels but the movie never really sits down and discusses what the implications of this decision might be.

The plot for this movie works really, really well for the first hour and forty five minutes. There are a lot of very tense scenes and I felt genuinely invested in Gerry's relentless search of the disease. However, once we had to slow down the lack of character development really came back and bit the movie hard and I think by the end the entire story had just run out of steam.

All in all, this is a good movie and—for a summer blockbuster—a very entertaining one. The plot is constructed better than most apocalyptic movies and really is riveting for the beginning and middle sections. The movie just needed some more driving themes and better characters to really drive the story to another level. I was really interested with Gerry but we don't get to know him very well and I think the story suffers for it, however, the movie is still very entertaining and is good enough to merit a watch.