Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland
Markus Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Rated PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images
Now playing at Century 20 Oakridge Mall in San Jose, California:
In an era which saw the resurgence of the gore-centric zombie in movies and now with the television show “The Walking Dead”, how do you make a PG-13 zombie film interesting? The answer is, you can’t really. And as much as “World War Z” tries to abide by the MPAA restrictions by replacing the flesh eating horror aspect of today’s zombies with high amounts of action and suspense, at the end of the day this is still a PG-13 zombie movie that seems to have left most of its visual potency/potential on the cutting room floor.
Synopsis: Brad Pitt (who looks like he just came off the set of that Chanel commercial) plays Gerry Lane, a family man who is just trying to eat breakfast with his wife and two daughters when the zombie apocalypse hits. But little do the zombies know that Gerry is equipped with “a special set of skills”. These special skills (I guess) give him the ability to be one step ahead of everyone else in the movie, while simultaneously the ability to continuously claim to have no idea what’s going on. Oh and let’s get this joke out of the way. Yes, his character does sort of adopt a young Latino child little a less than half way through the movie. Coincidence?
Side Note: OK, so I haven’t read the critically acclaimed Max “son of Mel” Brooks novel that “World War Z” was loosely based on, but I’ve heard the allegations of how only the name was used, while pretty much all other aspects where scrapped. And though this may anger loads of people who loved the original source material, they need to get over it because this is nothing new in the world of Hollywood adaptations. Plus, there is much more here to gripe about than a non-existent adaptation.
But first the good stuff:
In a movie like this where your average viewer is all too familiar with the villain(s) at hand, what audiences really want to see is something new when pertaining to the zombie look or mythos. So it was not surprise that the things I enjoyed the most about “World War Z” were the few aspects of this zombie movie which could be perceived as fresh or different. Such as: addressing the eccentric ways other countries would deal with an outbreak of global proportions and presenting these particular zombies as an unthinking mass liken to a psychotic mob that quickly devours cities full of people like locusts.
While it does speak to how post-heavy the CGI is when Brad Pitt is on record criticizing the look of a movie he financially backed, for the most part the direction from Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Quantum of Solace) isn’t bad. In fact, his direction is more or less the reason “World War Z” is way more entertaining and suspenseful than it has any right to be. That said, the visuals are hindered by a story with hardly any preface and a troubled script that is unbearably sentimental at times.
Along with a few battle sequences and more than a few stretches of unexpected suspense, Pitt’s performance is a smaller, but still prevalent reason as to why “World War Z” is watchable. He does his best here, much in the same way Tom Cruise attempts to save “Jack Reacher”, especially during the overly melodramatic lulls when audiences may be pleading for some kind of action. There is also one really memorable cameo from character actor David Morse (The Green Mile) who plays a toothless Ex-CIA Agent. And while he is only on screen for a few minutes, he does make enough of an impact to garner a few lines in this review.
OK, so I know you thought that I was never going to get to them, but here are my gripes: There are basically two huge factors which hold “World War Z” back from being a strong recommendation.
1. How the zombies look and act: In mass quantities (shot from extremely long distances) the zombies take on the terrifying feel of the aforementioned swarm of locusts devouring everything in their path. But in latter scenes, when Pitt must go one on one with these zombies (in extreme close ups) their mannerisms do come off as involuntarily spastic and awkwardly laughable.
2. The PG-13-ness: The cutaways here are nothing short of embarrassing. When somebody gets attacked, Forster cuts. When a solder has an appendage cut off, Forster turns the camera away as if something more interesting is going on on the other side of the room. Suffice to say, when any kind of violence that could beget blood or gore rears its head, Forster cuts away in a back handed constant reminder that, like a small child, there are things in this movie that we (as audience members) are being shielded from. I guess you could say that as much as Forster does to make this tame zombie movie entertaining, he does just as much to relegate it to the B movie status that it takes on.
Final Thought: Filled with suspenseful, entertaining and surprisingly well thought out moments, in the end “World War Z” is too PG-13 for its own good. And even with the few “new” zombie elements, I would never expect someone to pay for this movie if they have access to a zombie television show with more brutal realism and better writing.
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