Movie Review: World War Z

World War Z (2013)

United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.  Short synopsis of World War Z taken from IMDb.com

Remember when zombie films were low budget?   World War Z certainly isn't.  It globe trots mightily, staring on the East Coast of the U.S., then to a rain-soaked locale in South Korea (but it's dark there when our hero arrives - played affably by Brad Pitt - and so we never see anything other than a few people who appear Korean, so really this could have been filmed in Iowa for all we know), then to Israel, to Wales (I think it was supposed to be Wales... the scenes in Israel were so stunning, including the iconic human ladder of zombies up the wall - as seen in the trailer - that I missed where exactly we were going next), and finally to Nova Scotia (which also could have been anywhere, based on the ten seconds or so that we see it).  The travel budget for the film was definitely not cheap.  The aforementioned over-running of the safe zone in Israel alone must have cost a fortune to shoot.  Thus my previous statement about this not being a "low budget" zombie movie.

But is it any good?  Well, I thought so.  And somewhat realistic, compared to most "zombie" movies.  For one thing, this is a global pandemic, so globe-trotting is in order.  For another, people move like they would if they were subject to a disease that caused "zombie-like" symptoms.  They run, for one thing.  The classic shambling zombie is archetypal, but face it, a real human-turned-walking "dead" would need to use its body for best effect if it was going to perpetuate itself.  And since this is a disease-based zombie outbreak, our zombies do their thing extremely well.

Brad Pitt, zombie bait?  I must confess, I found the movie's resolution a bit Deus Ex Machina, but hey - we gotta wrap this up nice and tidy, now don't we? / Source: tgdaily.com

For another thing, there is no flesh-eating.  People get bit, they get infected (this is dramatically shown in the opening moments when Brad Pitt character's  first encounters the zombies) and turn into monsters.  And then they go looking for someone else to infect, as fast as they are able.  I had read Brooks' other book on zombies before seeing this film; the one that which purports to be a guide for handling a zombie apocalypse, and this movie both holds up to his previous statements made in that, and to fairly sensible reasoning, in my opinion.  A zombie apocalypse like this would be massive and nearly wipe out the human race.

World War Z is quite exciting, and as I have said, seems to do a good job of staying fairly well-grounded in the plausible world.  There is one clear screw-up I noted, though it is excusable in my eyes due to the movie's requisite budget, and then another probable budget-related error.  Both have to do with the various aircraft used in the film.  The first is the use of a large military cargo plane to transport Brad Pitt to South Korea and then from there to Israel.  This large cargo plane first takes off from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, which is a bit implausible due to the lack of carrier landing gear equipment on such aircraft, but could possibly be done in a real emergency (and this scenario seems like it would qualify).  Probably with rocket-assist.  Would be worth investigating further, anyway. 

A top-down comparison of the C-130 (left) and An-12 (right).  The profiles are similar, but you can see some distinct differences. / Source: airvectors.net

But in the next scene, the plane is flying over the assembled group of ships, and it has gone from clearly being a U.S. C-130 Hercules to a Soviet/Ukrainian designed and built An-12 Cub.  Very similar aircraft, yes, but big difference.  Then a few scenes later, the plane is seen from behind and its a C-130 again, but then in South Korea and in Israel, it is a An-12 again.  A budget-related continuity problem, I'm sure. 

Harping this one to death, I know.  If you aren't looking at the action in this moment, by which I mean the guys exiting the back of the plane into potential zombie territory, then you clearly will see the wrongly-shaped tail hump on this plane. Scanning over it, I myself quickly spot the physical differences between the C-130 it should be, and the An-12 it is. Does it hurt anything?  Not at all.  But still, it breaks the semblance of disbelief the film is trying to put over on this guy.  / Source:  zombiehunters.org

The other aircraft issue is the fact that the same model of helicopter is seen throughout the entire film.  I believe it is a French Dauphin type, though I'm not as sharp on helicopters as I am on fixed wing birds.  This is silly, as the U.S. users would probably be using Blackhawk derivatives.  The Israeli helicopters might include this type, but not surely not exclusively as seen in the film.  At the least, U.S. made Apache attack choppers would be involved in the air-cover of the city (as Israel bought Apaches from the U.S.).  Anyway, both issues mentioned are probably budget related.  But I am sure that moviemakers on a budget are forced to hope that an audience member will think that a helicopter is a helicopter, and not mince over the differences.

What else can be said about World War Z?  The ending is pretty good as well, though a little anti-climactic when compared to the globe-running zombie-choked mess that we've seen so far.  And it stays fairly tidily within its PG-13 rating for a zombie film.  There is little in the way of swearing (though honestly, the plot probably would have drown my notice; its very edge of your seat stuff), and the blood is surprisingly scarce for a film about zombies.  For instance, while escaping from the collapsing safe zone in Israel, Pitt's quick-thinking character saves a young Israeli soldier when a zombie bites her and then deftly chops her injured hand off.  But no blood seen.  Just the same, the scene is gut-wrenching.  Ouch!

One of the iconic scenes from the film, in which the zombies all get together, huddle up, make grunting sounds and crude gesticulations, then break huddle and begin building a once-human ladder up the side of this huge wall.  I want to know who decided that a fifty foot wall was the right size to keep out a horde of ravening zombies?  I can just hear the debate now: "But if we make it sixty feet, we can be just that much more sure!"  "No, no, sixty feet is too much.  It'll cost another two-percent of our national defense budget to go up that extra ten feet, and the guys manning the top will get vertigo looking over.  No, fifty is the number." / Source: thejetlife.com

Then later, Pitt dispatches a zombie using a blow to the head with a crowbar.  In the cable TV series The Walking Dead, this would be a gory affair, but all we see is Pitt trying desperately to remove the would-be weapon from his fallen opponent's skull as another zombie charges down a hall toward him.  Still, its tense.  A nice example of how a movie can be exciting and even violent without resorting to gore and such.  Just the same, this is definitely a PG-13 movie, and is not recommended for kids.  It's adult material (or mature teenagers), in my opinion.

The bottom line?  I actually liked World War Z, and thought it was worth the full price ticket admission.  Since writing this review, I have heard complaints about World War Z, and have actually read the novel it is based upon (and won't go into that now, as the book, even in abridged form as I listened to it, was much better than the movie).  But still, I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in zombie films or disaster films.  There is a mild theme running throughout of self-reliance and being prepared for disasters, but this certainly isn't a bad thing.  Then again, after having read Brooks' book on surviving a zombie apocalypse, I'd say the plot is fairly well-thought out, but is dangerously close to taking itself too seriously.  If you are a hard-core believer in the coming zombie apocalypse, you'll eat it up (or again, based on reviews I have seen since my writing this review, maybe not).  But if you don't buy into such a thing, and think the film takes itself too seriously, you'll probably feel that it was only an exciting action movie.  Either way, it was worth the watch, in this reviewer's opinion.

The parting comment:

Source: LOLSnaps.com

Don't let kids watch zombie movies.  They'll just try to eat somebody's brain.  Ummm... tasty bwainz...