Mob Mentality
8.5 out of 10 | Movie and DVD
Rated: PG-13 Intense frightening zombie sequences and disturbing images
Release Date: June 21, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
Release Date: June 21, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
Director: Marc Forster
Writers: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, Damon Lindelof, J. Michael Straczynski, based on the novel 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse' by Max Brooks
Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, David Morse, Fana Mokoena, Abigail Hargrove, Sterling Jerins
Writers: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, Damon Lindelof, J. Michael Straczynski, based on the novel 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse' by Max Brooks
Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, David Morse, Fana Mokoena, Abigail Hargrove, Sterling Jerins
SYNOPSIS: United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.
REVIEW: Director Marc Forster, helmer of the 2011 Machine Gun Preacher and 2008 Quantum of Solace, takes on a beloved genre novel and brings it to the big screen. Based on the book 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse' by Max Brooks and adapted by a cadre of writers and storytellers in the form of Matthew Michael Carnahan (State of Play), Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), Damon Lindelof (Star Trek Into Darkness), and J. Michael Straczynski (Thor), we find out if we would realistically survive a global plague of the undead.
Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt, Killing Them Softly) is an ex-United Nations investigator enjoying life at home with his wife Karin (Mireille Enos, Gangster Squad) and two daughters Constance (Sterling Jerins, the upcoming The Conjuring) and Rachel (Abigail Hargrove, The Butterfly Circus). On their way to drop of the girls to school, explosions, gridlock, panicked pedestrians, and aggressive people attacking others drive Gerry and his family to escape out of the city to an apartment building in Newark, New Jersey where Gerry's ex-superior gets him and his family safe passage to an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean. Tasked with accompanying a brilliant scientist named Fassbach (Elyes Gabel, Body of Proof) on a mission to find patient zero or having his family sent off the safety of the aircraft carrier, Gerry heads out with the scientist and a Seal team to Korea in search of answers. Every stop made is wrought with little clues and many mortal perils. Can Gerry find the answers to this world wide plague before there is no humanity to save?
Based on the genre best-selling and highly regarded book 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse' by Max Brooks (Mel brook's son!!), Brad Pitt's character treks around the globe in search of the source of the zombie outbreak. Unlike the book, World War Z the movie does not take place five years after the initial outbreak. Instead it rides along at the moment of the outbreak and Gerry Lane's investigation. Some of the same elements from the book are included in the film. As Gerry travels around the Middle East, the Far East, and other locales, the events he witnesses and the information he learns to have a passing similarity to the journalistic writings from the book.
World War Z, in 3D, is worth the price. Unlike Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel already out this year, World War Z manages to use the 3D to good effect – for both scares and cinematic embellishment. From the undead lunging straight at the camera, two soft ash drifting down in a burned-out prison cell, to the simple use of added depth, the director did the right thing with his interpretation of the technology.
The film actually seem to work in reverse with some of the major action sequences occurring in the first hour of the film. From the gridlocked streets of New York, the rooftops of an apartment in New Jersey, a soldier protected camp Humphreys in South Korea, a walled off city in Israel, and a infected plane ride, each sequence is wrought with wartime intensity. In the last act of the movie, as Gerry gets closer to the answers he seeks in a W.H.O. research facility, the pace slows down to a more suspenseful and controlled crawl.
A worthwhile reel of cinema, World War Z encompasses more than just one genre to which it would be obviously affiliated. Horror, hard wartime action, investigative mystery, drama, and suspense thriller, this movie transcends a mere zombie flick into something a little bit more, following in the footsteps of greater than genre dramas like AMCs The Walking Dead.
There will be criticism for this film. From the uber fast and lightning quick undead ravaging citizens at the beginning of the movie, to their hive or insect mindset of singular purpose, some moviegoers may find these zombies not to the familiarity of the slow shambling zombies used to. Like 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake, the faster flesh eaters provide a powerful tension that the slower shambling zombies do not. Forster does give the audience slow zombies at the end of the film with near dormant zombies waiting for something to offer stimulus and warm flesh meat.
World War Z is surprisingly good as a standalone genre efforts. Fans of Max Brooks and his book may be a little disappointed in the overall film, but there is room to go back in into aspects of the books should be a sequel be greenlit. I would have liked to see World War Z made into the HBO miniseries like Tom Hanks and Ron Howard's Band of Brothers, but I was thrilled at what Marc Forster and Brad Pitt did create. Not exactly what I was looking for or what I expected, but I did leave the theater satisfied.
World War Z will give you plenty of action, drama, suspense, and zombies. Take it as a standalone film with a derivative spin from the book and you will just might want to take a bite out of this one.
Based on the genre best-selling and highly regarded book 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse' by Max Brooks (Mel brook's son!!), Brad Pitt's character treks around the globe in search of the source of the zombie outbreak. Unlike the book, World War Z the movie does not take place five years after the initial outbreak. Instead it rides along at the moment of the outbreak and Gerry Lane's investigation. Some of the same elements from the book are included in the film. As Gerry travels around the Middle East, the Far East, and other locales, the events he witnesses and the information he learns to have a passing similarity to the journalistic writings from the book.
World War Z, in 3D, is worth the price. Unlike Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel already out this year, World War Z manages to use the 3D to good effect – for both scares and cinematic embellishment. From the undead lunging straight at the camera, two soft ash drifting down in a burned-out prison cell, to the simple use of added depth, the director did the right thing with his interpretation of the technology.
The film actually seem to work in reverse with some of the major action sequences occurring in the first hour of the film. From the gridlocked streets of New York, the rooftops of an apartment in New Jersey, a soldier protected camp Humphreys in South Korea, a walled off city in Israel, and a infected plane ride, each sequence is wrought with wartime intensity. In the last act of the movie, as Gerry gets closer to the answers he seeks in a W.H.O. research facility, the pace slows down to a more suspenseful and controlled crawl.
A worthwhile reel of cinema, World War Z encompasses more than just one genre to which it would be obviously affiliated. Horror, hard wartime action, investigative mystery, drama, and suspense thriller, this movie transcends a mere zombie flick into something a little bit more, following in the footsteps of greater than genre dramas like AMCs The Walking Dead.
There will be criticism for this film. From the uber fast and lightning quick undead ravaging citizens at the beginning of the movie, to their hive or insect mindset of singular purpose, some moviegoers may find these zombies not to the familiarity of the slow shambling zombies used to. Like 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake, the faster flesh eaters provide a powerful tension that the slower shambling zombies do not. Forster does give the audience slow zombies at the end of the film with near dormant zombies waiting for something to offer stimulus and warm flesh meat.
World War Z is surprisingly good as a standalone genre efforts. Fans of Max Brooks and his book may be a little disappointed in the overall film, but there is room to go back in into aspects of the books should be a sequel be greenlit. I would have liked to see World War Z made into the HBO miniseries like Tom Hanks and Ron Howard's Band of Brothers, but I was thrilled at what Marc Forster and Brad Pitt did create. Not exactly what I was looking for or what I expected, but I did leave the theater satisfied.
World War Z will give you plenty of action, drama, suspense, and zombies. Take it as a standalone film with a derivative spin from the book and you will just might want to take a bite out of this one.
I enjoyesd this movie a lot! Edge of your seat tension with lots of suspense throughout. Glad they didn't turn it into a strictly gory horror flick. Worked better as a suspensful, mystery/drama with some horrow thrown in. More along the lines of a Contagion - which I also loved. But maybe I am easy to please. Good review!
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