REVIEW: World War Z

Courtesy of Paramount

First, the good news: the new zombie flick starring Brad Pitt is nowhere near the train wreck its troubled production history suggested it might be. Instead, the film (very loosely based on the popular book by Max Brooks) is a serviceable action thriller with some stunning set pieces and a slightly disappointing third act. Not the greatest movie ever made, but far from the worst. How’s that for a ringing endorsement?

Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a former United Nations employee tasked with tracking down a solution to a worldwide pandemic that has transformed most of the population into zombies. He refuses at first, like any rational-thinking family man in the middle of a terrifying crisis. Then he’s informed that taking the job is the only way his wife (Mireille Enos) and daughters get to stay onboard an aircraft carrier parked in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

No chance of zombies making it out there, but the family being relocated to an overcrowded refugee camp is practically a death sentence. With no other choice, Gerry is soon on his way to South Korea in an attempt to locate Patient Zero. The global scavenger hunt eventually sends him to Israel, Wales and Nova Scotia – while outrunning hordes of mercilessly fast monsters – before the movie ends with an awkward stopgap measure and a bland voiceover setting up a sequel.

Genre-hopping director Marc Forster (who also helmed the excellent Finding Neverland and the disappointing Quantum of Solace) stages some heart-pounding action sequences, including the opening attack on Philadelphia and the stunning destruction of Jerusalem. He also manages to keep World War Z together – just barely – when it threatens to fall apart after the plane crash that kicks off the third act.

It’s no secret that the film underwent major script revisions and reshoots in the middle of production, but the list of prominent screenwriters involved (Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, Damon Lindelof and J. Michael Straczynski) should give it away if you haven’t been paying attention. If that doesn’t do the trick, you’ll figure it out when the flick’s scale shrinks from international destruction to three people trying to sneak down a dark hallway. Suddenly, it feels like you’re watching somebody else play a really exciting video game.

As for the cast, nobody’s playing a fully-formed, three-dimensional character. World War Z is being marketed as “watch Brad Pitt run from zombies,” and that’s exactly what you get. Forster casts a number of solid character actors (James Badge Dale, David Morse, Peter Capaldi) to pick up the slack, but none of them are onscreen long enough to make a lasting impression. Enos is mostly wasted as the worried wife, one of the biggest victims of the new ending. (The other is Matthew Fox, who has about three lines as a helicopter pilot.)

World War Z has a number of problems, but it’s still tense and entertaining enough to recommend. It’s like someone watched Steven Soderbergh’s excellent Contagion and decided to remake it with zombies instead of the superflu.

World War Z is rated PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images.

Grade: B-