OK time for a review of a new movie that's just oot in the cinema, and this is one that I saw in my trip over in London last week up at Leicester square, which was World War Z starring Brad Pitt (which I saw in 3D!) so let's arm up the baseball bat and the machine gun and brave it....
The film begins in Philadelphia with former United nations employee, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family sit in heavy traffic, when all of a sudden there is a series of explosions. Soon after they are attacked by masses of zombies, and those who are attacked are turned into zombies within 12 seconds. Gerry and his family manage to narrowly avoid being killed by the zombies by escaping to the roof of an apartment complex. Gerry avoids being affected by a zombie and is soon picked up by a chopper sent by his fellow UN colleague Thierry Umutoni. Gerry and his family are taken to a US Navy vessel where scientist researchers try to analyse the scope of the worldwide virus outbreak, which has been turning people into zombies. Gerry travels with a virologist who says they must try and find the origin of the virus so a vaccine can be made. They travel to a military base in South Korea where the virologist is killed accidentally during a firefight when they are attacked by zombies, but the zombies are killed by surviving soldiers, who tell Gerry that the zombies are attracted to noise. And from here Gerry continues his quest to try and find the source behind the zombie virus and find a way to stop the virus from spreading to infect the entire human population.
Based on the novel of the same name (written by Max Brooks) World War Z has the potential to be a good horror film, but it is somewhat squandered in the translation to the big screen (starting with the flaws for a change here!). The problem with the film being that it has no real sense of build up and you are thrown right into the action without any real warning. The tone of the film is naturally serious but it also lacks much in the way of any character development, and the characters are also problematic as they are all pretty one dimensional. The zombies also are akin to the ones we saw in 28 days later, who were infected with the rage virus, so once again we get zombies that can be champion sprinters! There is also heavy usage of CGI in the film with the zombies, particularly in the scenes where there masses of zombies running around, especially in the scene where the zombies swarm to climb up the walls in Jerusalem, and these scenes just look pretty false and unimpressive.
There are also some silly scenes in the film, the most notable one being when Gerry and the others are attacked on the plane by zombies, that he throws a grenade which blows a hole in the side of the plane, which causes it to crash. And despite the fact that pretty much everyone onboard was killed somehow Gerry manages to survive as does the young female soldier he rescued from turning into a zombie, Segen, and they are largely unscathed, which is ridiculous and highly improbable to say the least that they would survive! Another unintentionally funny moment in the film is when Gerry and the young soldier, Segen, arrive at the WHO labs, and the doctors show them footage of some of the infected doctors who have been sectioned off, and we see one of them finish taking a piss and zipping his flies up while limping zombie like out the door!
However despite its problems, World War Z does have some merit, such as Brad Pitt's main performance which is fairly good, and while Pitt has not a great deal to work with other than play the part of a reluctant hero, he does it pretty well. The supporting cast are also pretty good, although again they are not really given much to work with in the script, and it was a pity in a way to see Peter Capaldi (who plays one of the research doctors at the World Health Organisation labs) his pasrt reduced to basically a series of grim lines and tense looks (without even a trace of Malcolm Tucker there!). Marc Foster also while not the best choice of director for the film, does a decent enough job, but the pacing of the film is uneven and there is no real sense of terror or suspense, however despite that he stills allows for one or two jumpy moments. And one of the interesting things about the film was that it was partly shot in Glasgow, which doubled up for Philadelphia (although why they didn't just film there seems a bit strange to me) and the opening few minutes are shot in George Square, where you see normal punters turn into zombies and go bananas (as they do, actually that sounds like a normal night out in Glasgow! ;-)).
The film also has quite a good score by Marco Beltrami and apparently the rock band Muse also contributed towards the score as well, although I'm not sure where their contribution lies in the soundtrack mix (as we don't Matt Bellamy bellow out operatic tones anywhere!
So that's it for my rather brief look at World War Z which is by no means a terrible film, but I wouldn't exactly call it a great one either, but if you are interested in checking it out, well it is worth giving a go if only once. But as for as zombie flicks go I have seen much better ones in the past than here. For me the best experience of seeing the film was on the BIG screen at Empire cinemas in Leicester square in 3D, as it was quite an experience in itself to see (although the 3D glasses were a bit uncomfy!).
And I will say bye for now and leave it there.
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