WORLD WAR Z

Stars: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken, Fana Mokoena, David Morse, David Andrews, Moritz Bleibtreu, Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove.
Writers: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof; based on the novel by Max Brooks.
Director: Marc Forster.

Rating: 3.5/5

Director Marc Forster transforms the geo-political/first-person focus of Max Brooks’ bestseller World War Z into an inter-continental blockbuster for a Hollywood star to play the all-American everyman. Fans of the novel had every right to be nervous, especially amidst reports of well-documented production problems and spiralling budget levels.

Thankfully, Forster delivers big-scale action entertainment, a compelling work that flexes its own sinewy muscles while still fulfilling the hopes of zombie fans, who have wanted to see the walking dead given the mega-budget treatment for some time. Die-hard supporters of the novel will begrudge the shift in focus and lack of ideological insight the novel presented. Most, though, will be thrilled to see wave after wave of flesh-eaters rendered large and in multiplexes.

Brad Pitt stars as family man Gerry Lane, whom we first meet at home cooking breakfast for his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and pre-teen daughters, Constance (Sterling Jerins) and Rachel (Abigail Hargrove). As they banter, television news coverage features scenes of global chaos, as populated centres fall into unexplained anarchy.

Soon, we are with the family in a Philadelphia traffic jam. Helicopters whirl, distant screams can be heard, people are soon running. Almost instantaneously, the Lane clan are caught up in the downfall of civilisation; citizens are going all cloudy-eyed and twitchy, transforming into teeth-chattering, flesh-craving monsters. Forster kicks his film off with this extended sequence that is classic edge-of-the-seat filmmaking; the first 30 minutes, during which the family flee the city via helicopter (Jerry has friends in high places), is truly thrilling.

What follows are a series of immersive action scenes as Jerry, whose experience uncovering terrorist cells somehow makes him an expert re a global health pandemic, traverses the globe trying to establish the cause of the outbreak so that he may develop a cure. A floodlit, rain-soaked take-off in South Korea; a massive wave of zombies scaling one of Jerusalem’s giant walls; and, finally, an outbreak aboard a commercial airliner in which Gerry is travelling, are all handled with a directorial flair that utilises every corner of the widescreen frame (Oscar-winner Robert Richardson shot all the early footage, though is uncredited; Ben Seresin is afforded sole DOP status).

The zombies themselves are never seen chomping into pink flesh or ripping at entrails, as hard-corers who grew up on the George Romero classics might expect. They are portrayed more as a singular surge of destruction, not unlike the African killer ants in Byron Haskin’s The Naked Jungle. The script, which was worked over by lots of LA’s best script doctors but has been credited to Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Godard and Damon Lindelof, takes a very softly softly approach to even uttering the Z word; this is a depiction of the zom-pocalypse that wants to keep it very real (similar to the approach Steven Soderbergh used in his version of a cheesy disaster flick, Contagion).

Where the film will divide lovers and haters is in the finale. In a Vanity Fair article that details exactly how expensive it is to rework a tentpole film that doesn’t play well on first viewing, it is revealed a massive Moscow-set zombie bloodbath was filmed then discarded. It is clear from what is left on-screen that the film was gearing up to a huge denouement (its is called ‘World War’ Z, after all), and given Forster’s handling of the action in the film’s first two acts, it is a shame we don’t get to see the footage (the Blu-ray extras menu will be awesome).

Fears that Pitt’s character lost his family-oriented, audience-friendly persona in favour of a zombie-slaying Rambo type demanded reshoots. The new ending is a workmanlike rehashing of Resident Evil, but it plays at odds with the scale and overall aesthetic of Forster’s setpieces up to that point. It is a little hard to get too worked up over 80 zombies in a closed-in environment when your hero has just escaped 2000 of them in the Middle East.

Nailing the everyman archetype while still exuding action-hero chops, this is certainly Brad Pitt’s picture, but there are some support players whose presence (or lack thereof) hint at the film we may have seen. David Morse, German star Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run) and British actor Peter Capaldi (In The Loop) are reduced to 20-word parts; worse, Matthew Fox gets just a profile shot, his entire role all but excised. Most impressive is Daniella Kertesz as an Israeli soldier befriended by Pitt's character and who allows the family-oriented hero to focus on his caring-for-others side at critical moments. 

Overall, though, fears that the film was shaping up as a Heaven’s Gate/The Postman/Howard the Duck-style money pit have well and truly been laid to rest. World War Z delivers perfectly exciting mainstream thrills guided by a savvy A-list star and box office receipts should reflect that.