With zombie and disaster movies coming out left and right it seems, these films need more than just zombies and destruction to stand out. The trailers to World War Z didn’t impress me in the slightest as the movie just looked like another forgettable zombie movie. Even myself (a fan of this type of film) probably would’ve skipped over it if it wasn’t for the surprisingly decent reviews. Unfortunately, World War Z met my initial expectations from the trailers. The movie is not bad but didn’t excel at anything or do anything to stand out from the crowd.
World War Z is based on the book by Max Brooks. I haven’t read the book so this review is a review of the film and not as an adaption.
World War Z follows Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), a former UN employee who is caught in traffic during the beginning of an outbreak. He and his family escape and (due to him being a former UN employee) are sent to a Navy ship in the middle of the ocean. For his family to stay on the ship, Gerry has to go with a team of Navy SEALs to find the source of the outbreak.
While the story is interesting in premise, it doesn’t carry the movie mainly due to the sometimes boring dialogue. Dialogue scenes in this movie just aren’t that interesting and get tiring after a while. The movie is filled with great action scenes and some suspenseful moments but at about two hours in length, a few more of those action or suspenseful scenes would’ve been appreciated.
Brad Pitt does a surprisingly great job in this movie. Although he does appear a little emotionless sometimes, it almost works for the movie as he’s as confused as anybody to why this is happening. The supporting cast has no particular standouts but they all do a decent job with the material given.
What World War Z does very nicely is the action scenes. They’re entertaining beyond belief with great visual effects. Seeing zombies pile on top of each other in order to reach the top of a wall or building is awesome and even one on one encounters with the infected were very well made. The suspenseful scenes in the movie were also very appreciated and nicely broke up the dialogue scenes.
The visual effects in the movie were also pretty good. When there’s hundreds of zombies on screen at the same time, the effects never looked poor although a little more detail should’ve been added to make the zombies look more “realistic.” The 3D in the film, while nothing spectacular, has its moments where I was genuinely impressed. It’s nothing worth spending extra money on as it added next to nothing to the film, but it’s not the worst 3D out there. What was surprisingly well made was the film’s score. Similar to the 3D, it didn’t add too much to the movie, but it was still a well crafted score.
THE VERDICT
World War Z is a decent zombie flick. It’s far from greatness, mainly due to its uninteresting screenplay, but its solid action, performances, and score make it an entertaining summer flick. Not worth checking out in theaters but worth a rental.
For reviews and more from me, Petey Oneto, you can check out my blog but be sure to check back with Resident Entertainment for more of my posts in the future.
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