Movie Review Repost -- World War Z (2013)

So guess what: I'm in the middle of packing/moving again, which means that I haven't had much time to spare for writing lately. Sorry about that. I've got ideas for new material, but it may be a week or two before I can get any of them written and posted. In the meantime let's take a look back at the review I wrote in 2013 for the action-horror flick World War Z. I liked it. I know a lot of people didn't think much of it and I don't fully understand why. It was alright; perhaps an In Defence Of article is in order?

  Is it just me or are there, like, a ton of zombie shows nowadays? I wonder why people like them. Is it because these stories demonstrate how fragile civilization is? Or do people like seeing mindless walkers being shot by the hundreds? Rejoice, zombie fans; World War Z has both of these elements!

  World War Z's story follows Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), a UN inspector, in his worldwide search to find and halt the rapid spread of a rabies-like virus that turns people into zombies. This highly suspenseful plot wastes no time getting straight to the action; zombies appear within the movie's first five minutes. Conversely, one thing you might notice about World War Z is that there's actually a lot of pointless stuff. There's pointless locations (South Korea), pointless characters (Thomas and Dr. Fassbach), and pointless plotlines (Gerry's family having to leave the navy ship). However, even though the movie is nearly two hours, the story never feels like it's dragging on and manages to be entertaining throughout. One thing that you might find disappointing is that the climax isn't as impressive as the rest of the film might condition you to expect. It's hard to explain; let's just say that you may be surprised at where the film decides to end.

  There's only a handful of characters that get any significant fleshing-out, but the acting is good from one end to the other, especially from Brad Pitt. Just remember to stay away from him if a zombie apocalypse ever does break out. Pretty much everyone around him ends up dying; he's like a bad luck charm. But to be fair that's partially because he's surrounded by clumsy characters who take forever to learn basic things like not making noise or how to not shoot yourself.

  As you've probably seen from the trailers, there are some impressive long shots from this film's action scenes. Unfortunately some of the fight scenes (not all, but some) suffer from the menace that is shaky cam. (Also the 3D in this movie is pointless. Don't bother with it.) And like so many other zombie apocalypse shows we don't learn where or how the zombie virus originated. Also, why don't the humans just let the zombies starve to death? Or would that be double death, I guess? Whatever.

  Anyways, World War Z is a fine addition to the zombie horror genre. For a movie about a zombie apocalypse it's relatively bloodless, which is fine if you're like me and prefer suspense to gore. Both horror and action fans will be able to enjoy this film.

Rating: three stars out of five.