So in my opinion, one should always be approach 'zombie flicks' with trepidation, because it is pretty easy to burn your ticket money with them and not hard to ruin them. That being said, World War Z was alright, compared to other zombie flicks, it was pretty good, but it left me wanting.
Now I haven't read the novel by Max Brooks (son of Mel, the Great) so I am not even going to touch the integrity of the story compared to the novel, but offer an outsiders perspective. The story I felt was the movie's greatest strength and it's biggest downfall. There are moments in the movie that are edge of your seat moments, and also some fairly beautiful and emotional moments in the movie. These moments however, feel like they are quite conservatively spread throughout a plot that feels jerky and stair steps, lacking the fluidity. The story was so eager to show the worldwide consequences of this plague of undead that some story points fell by the wayside. Now maybe 'The Walking Dead' has spoiled me with their fairly nice writing, but these days I don't think it's unreasonable to have a well crafted script for zombies. There are also some fairly significant plot points I find confusing or not well explained, mainly a lot of information on the main character, Gerry (Brad Pitt). One thing I like about the story is part of the ending, but I can't say more for fear of spoiling.
The cinematography on this movie was fairly impressive. handheld camerawork was used minimally, when called for, which is especially appreciated if you watch this in 3D, as I did. Landscapes both bleak and gorgeous dot the movie and really drive home the enormity of the main character's journey. My main complaint with the look of the movie is I think that digital effects were used much too liberally in the movie. Where extras could be used to create a decent horde or run of zombies, 3D animation is instead used to make a wave of zombies (I kid you not, there are some pretty ridiculous digital effects in the movie that defy the laws of physics.) With all the digital zombies, I think the movie really missed a chance to get up close and personal with the undead, which is the scariest part of the concept, when it breaks the audience's comfort barrier.
As for acting in the movie, I don't think any one person stood out, even Brad Pitt, who I was hoping would have delivered a better performance. The acting isn't by any stretch bad acting either, there just aren't to many moments in the movie where you are going to think to yourself "I will remember this next week."
So all in all, it won't be the worst movie of the year, but there were definitely some opportunities missed in the movie that kept this from being something special in the zombie sub-genre.
Score: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
2 comments:
Hmmm... Do I get a told ya so in there somewhere?
The movie literally just shares the title with the book. But it's okay. With being such a huge fan of the book, I was not disappointed with the movie. My only issue with the movie is that it looks like it was produced by Disney; where is the blood, where is the gore, where are the emotional distress from holding an eviscerated friend. I mean it doesn't need to be a Tarantino gore fest, but come'on. They show more gore on Walking Dead then on this movie. In addition to that, the story did feel jumpy and you really didn't get attached to anyone. Everyone (including Pitt) was easily forgettable. The only plot hole I had an issue with was the fact that in the face of complete and total world wide catastrophe, everyone was super cool with giving Pitt tons of their precious resources to continue on his way round the world on his international wild goose chase. As far as the movie goes, it gets a big "meh" from me. It was definitely an interesting take with the whole international angle, but it lacked substance.
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