World War Z

RATING: D

Some people like zombies, some people don't. I generally subscribe to the latter opinion. I am fine with it if they're able to put together a good story that just so happens to involve zombies. However, this is not of those stories or movies. This is apparently actually based off a book--or at least, the book's title anyway. 

What's the plot to this one? Well, a zombie outbreak starts. Basically literally out of nowhere. Gerry Lane and his family are driving through downtown Philly... stuck in traffic... until something ahead of them blows up, a cop tells them to stay in their car... and then gets run over by a garbage truck that's been taken over by a zombie and is wreaking havoc. So after escaping Philly with his family, Brad Pitt's character has to go search for a cure because... uh... because he's the main star, I guess. (By the way... we *never* find out what started the outbreak.) 

Those first 20-25 minutes or so which involve the start of the outbreak and Gerry fighting to survive with his family actually aren't that bad. In fact, they're pretty exciting and intense. Beyond that, however, we have... the infamous Israel scene where fast zombies climb on top of each other to form a ludicrous looking human wave/pyramid to scale a wall. And a plane crash scene. And... not much else. 

This is actually probably the biggest problem with this movie: the inconsistent tone and pacing. This is probably in due part to the insanely troubled production, but we go from an exciting beginning to some detective work with some typical zombie horror tropes and a bit of shaky cam, and then the action kicks up again for a little bit. And then we get to the final act which is actually rather boring by comparison, and has an insanely dumb "resolution." And the ending is confusing. Is the war over or not? It sure looks like it's more or less over (or at least the worst of it is), but the narrator claims it's only just begun. I suppose that's just to set up for a sequel, though--which will hopefully never happen.

Seriously, there's not much to this movie. The plot is stupid. The zombies themselves are rather over-the-top and don't help matters here. The cast is pretty thin; aside from Brad Pitt, you have Peter Capaldi, Matthew Fox, and Raina from Agents of SHIELD... and that's about it. And those other three names aren't even in the film that much. And although I kind of want to cut the director some slack because of the troubled production, it's Marc Forster, who also directed Quantum of Solace (the worst Daniel Craig James Bond movie), and I'm thinking the guy should never be allowed to direct an action movie again. 

The film might have actually kind of worked if it had stuck to Brad Pitt's character fighting to survive with his family. Maybe then we could have actually had some more developed characters and it could have turned into more of a family survival movie in the zombie apocalypse. Because that first short bit of the movie is sort of promising. Not great or anything, but at least it's interesting. 

Now obviously there would have to be low expectations going into this movie in the first place. But even in a subgenre like this, that doesn't excuse an apparent lack of effort or just messy writing. In more lowbrow parts like this of the action/adventure genre, one probably expects just to be entertained for a couple of hours and not given a masterpiece. This film doesn't even give you that. It doesn't even work as a popcorn action movie. Unless you're a massive fan of the zombie genre, this is a waste of time.