World War Z (2013)

Director: Marc Forster

Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox

Primary genre: Horror

Secondary genre: Action

Based on the book with the same name, “World War Z“ had a troublesome production resulting in a ballooned budget and extensive reshoots. Yet, it is the reason why the zombie genre experienced a massive interest in the mid-noughties by demonstrating infectious mayhem on a scale that has not been seen before.

While zombie flicks are always about a small group of survivors getting picked off one by one obeying to the genre’s clichés and culminating into a climax that contains either a last stand or an act of martyrdom, “World War Z” goes the opposite way and embraces large scale set pieces and thousands of undead creatures. It avoids the scattered interview approach of the book and opts for straightforward blockbuster spectacle. Its plot involves Pitt’s character going from location to location to uncover the source of the pandemic, exposed to minimum amounts of information that at the end, play a secondary role in the proceedings.

Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace“ (2008)) directs competently the escalating chaos and depicting realistically what would happen if a zombie apocalypse took place unexpectedly. Despite the occasional employment of frenetic editing and unconvincing CGI, he manages to handle a variety of novel set pieces with care with the Israel disaster being a stand out sequence in tension and suspense.

While the film maintains a consistent tone in the first 2/3s, its production problems become apparent in a disappointing (and rewritten) third act that abandons grand scale spectacle in favor of claustrophobic sentiments and exposition-heavy dialogue. Yet, the biggest loss is the complete lack of the book’s socio-economic themes that seem much more relevant today. Despite some minor dialogue interjections (e.g., North Korea's solution is to remove everyone's teeth!?), the trio of screenwriters attempts to incorporate more action and less talk which does not give the audience any food for thought and thus, rendering the proceedings brainless.

Brad Pitt gives a surprisingly subtle performance that carries the emotional burden (if any) of the story but the rest of the cast are relegated into thankless roles, particularly Mireille Enos, a very capable actress who does not have anything meaningful to do and Matthew Fox whose role has been left in the cutting room floor even though his name appears in the credits(!).

But perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the film are the zombies themselves. Attempting to secure a more seat-friendly rating, “World War Z” has lots of CGI undead hordes acting in a similar manner to the infected in Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” (2002). The recently infected are creepier than usual with bizarre contortions and spasms - a look that “Train to Busan” (2016) will perfect three years later - that plunge and leap to take a bite pilling up like ants to do so. Yet those with heavy make up look unconvincing, lacking blood or inflicted wounds; a costume design that makes them more like overdressed extras (particularly in the third act) rather than flesh eating walking corpses.

“World War Z” is not the mess that many had anticipated it to be. However, it is far from perfect. It might boast some tense set pieces in a scale that we have not seen before and a unique approach to zombie behavior, it lacks the teeth to leaves its mark on the genre.

Suspenseful but dull

+Unique set pieces

+Tension, atmosphere

+Effective jump scares

+Solid performance of BP

+Realistic zombie apocalypse

-Toned down socio-economic aspects

-Bloodless mayhem

-Frenetic editing

-Satellite characters

-Disappointing third act

-Unconvincing zombies