World War Z (B+)

Talented director Marc Forster has hidden almost all the problems of this film’s troubled production and created a taught, thoroughly entertaining adventure tale.

I’ve never read Max Brooks' critically acclaimed novel World War Z, but apparently that doesn’t mean much as this movie is wildly different from that story (or collection of stories), which were told from several different narrators as if they were talking to a journalist. Brad Pitt acquired the rights to the book swiftly; this has been a passion project for him as both a producer and a star. The film went through a very troubled production with the ending rewritten multiple times during filming. Shockingly, Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, Quantum of Solace) manages to edit everything into a coherent, tense thriller that rises above the so-so screenplay to create something that is a blast to watch.
The movie is about Gerry Lane (Pitt), a UN official who is brought out of retirement to help find some sort of vaccine for the zombie virus that had brought the entire world into chaos (kudos to this film for actually using the word “zombie”). Lane travels around the world, going to three different continents and numerous cities, all the while dreaming of being reunited with his family.
Pitt is fine as Lane, despite having a bizarre hairstyle that would be more fitting on a hobo than an international peacekeeper. His co-star, Daniella Kertesz, gives a breakout performance as Segen, the young but tough-as-nails Israeli soldier who accompanies Lane for most of his journey. Mireille Enos has a few scenes as Lane’s loving yet utterly useless wife, Karen Lane. The film contains several other noteworthy actors (including James Badge Dale, Fana Mokoena, and Matthew J. Fox), but Forster wisely chose to cut down their roles so as to keep the focus on the story.

There are a few moments where the production woes do show, most notably a sequence in South Korea where Lane interviews an ex-CIA agent (David Morse) in trouble for selling weapons to terrorists. It comes off as weird and vaguely anti-patriotic; it is pretty obvious this was a much more important plot point in the original draft. After all, you don’t cast a twice Emmy-nominated actor for a role like that. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if when the scene was originally shot it wasn’t supposed to take place in Korea at all--it lacks the landscape shots Forster uses to establish every other location in the film.
Still, these are minor flaws in what is overall a very engrossing film. While a PG-13 rating for a zombie movie brings some issues (mainly, much of the fighting has to happen offscreen simply because zombies are an inherently R-rated concept), a PG-13 budget (read: far bigger) has great benefits, especially when the picture is overseen by a talented director. I’m skeptical that any movie has really captured the scale and chaos of the fictional phenomena of a zombie apocalypse so well. While Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (which, like World War Z, featured fast zombies) could show a small horde tearing apart a few unlucky humans in graphic detail, Forster’s Z is able to depict the massive wave of mindless carnage they create. Part of what makes zombies so cool is that they are a virus personified, continuously spreading and regenerating. It is something that really needs a big budget to be shown.

Forster has a penchant for shaky-cam, a technique I personally find annoying (though I don’t downgrade a movie for it, because I understand that a lot of people find it greatly enhances action sequences): Here, though, it is put to great effect. It captures the feeling of panic perfectly; coupled with some well-timed jump scares, this movie ends up arguably more scary than Snyder’s Dawn, though I would say both pictures are firmly planted in the action, not horror, genre. (A warning to parents: this is probably the most intense summer blockbuster this year and is not a great choice for younger children, even those accustomed to PG-13 movies). Forster and his team also create some incredible visual effects: The zombies’ hive-minded, ant-like onslaught where they climb on top of each other to get over any obstacle is original and really cool.
Of course, it isn’t a real zombie movie without a suspenseful, claustrophobic journey through a deserted building: that is something that must be crafted with skilled direction and a suspense, something all the money in the world can’t buy. World War Z’s final action sequence, set in a laboratory in Wales, achieves it. The scene is incredibly captivating (even if Lane does use surprisingly poor judgement); it is clearly the highlight of the film as well as the main reason the movie has been getting such an enthusiastic response from critics and audiences alike.
Forster’s exciting visuals, action scenes, and genre-mashing outweighs this picture’s flaws and make it one wildly entertaining adventure.