Movie Review 21: World War Z

 I saw this one in theaters a while ago, but I didn’t get around to writing this until now. But still, theaters- that reminds me. Hey, public restroom users: CLOSE THE DOOR AND FLUSH THE TOILET! HOW ARE EITHER OF THESE TASKS THAT DIFFICULT!? I SWEAR, WHEN THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAPPENS, I AM GOING TO USE YOU PEOPLE AS BAIT!

  Hopefully I made my point with that. But who am I kidding? I probably didn’t. Anyway, World War Z is a film adaptation of the book with the same name by Max Brooks, the review for which is right here. Thing is, it isn’t much like the book. For one thing, the book is an oral history, taking place in the aftermath of the zombie war. This movie, on the other hand, takes place when the war is starting, and following Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) as he travels the world in search of a cure for the disease. In the book and the movie, Patient Zero was in China, but in the movie, the virus could have come from anywhere. Honestly, I wish the movie was a bit more like the book, but this is something even I can live with.

  If you take a look at the rating for World War Z, you’d see that it’s PG-13, not R like nearly every zombie movie on the market. This is because Paramount Pictures have apparently figured out that excessive gore and profanity do not make a good movie. In fact, you’ll hardly see any of either of those in this title. The zombies and the disease, however, are no less scary because of it. Listen to me right now- I’m not even scared by zombies, and I found these ones terrifying! They are fast, and after getting bitten, it takes only thirteen seconds for the virus to take effect, and victims get violent seizures during this time. The result is a genuine mindless killing machine. Literally the only thing these deadheads care about is eating you. If there is a huge gap in their way, they will try to jump it. If an enormous wall stands between them and you, they will climb on top of each other to traverse it, not even being concerned about falling off. I even saw one bashing its own face into a car’s windshield just to get at the driver. I have got to say, good work, Paramount, for making zombies that are legitimately scary!

  Also, World War Z is a surprisingly smart title. You may have already heard that, but yeah, it is completely true. I did notice a few continuity errors, mostly because I have a good eye, and it’s a bit uneven, but you can nonetheless learn quite a bit from this movie. To go with this, like I’ve already said, World War Z says, “Who cares about throwing gallons of blood around? Let’s give the people some substance!” And it does just that. Instead of showing desperate survivors square off against hordes of undead while shouting every swear word in the book the whole time, this film actually builds a layered story fueled by suspense and human emotion. A solid leading performance from Brad Pitt is a big help as well, especially towards the end when he kicked off the best part in the whole movie (in my opinion), but I won’t give details on that. It would completely spoil the surprise in the story. It involves Pepsi, though. That’s all I’m going to say.

  The issues? Most of the characters are practically soulless. None of them are really that strong except Gerry Lane, and even he could use some work. Also, yeah, I said that I could live with how different the movie is from the book, but it still pisses me off how Paramount strayed so far away from it and how Max Brooks could take that. Seriously, the book and the movie are pretty much two different worlds. However, putting that aside, I still think they did a pretty good job with this title.

  Final Verdict: Haden Massively Approved A gripping, intelligent thriller from start to finish!