Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: World War Z

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Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 06-22-2013, 06:41 PM:

A zombie apocalypse afflicts New Jersey (cue a plethora of NJ jokes) and ex-UN investigator, Brad Pitt, and his family are stuck in the middle of it. As it turns out, the whole world is over-run with the undead, except Israel who had the sense to physically stonewall the rest of the world, though strangely still maintains a fully functioning international airport. Brad is, naturally, tasked with saving the world.

World War Z is nothing we haven't seen before in the zombie/contagion genre. It is, however, a slickly polished production that, while having few surprises, entertains for the most part. The horror quotient is low for this kind of movie, instead playing more as an action thriller.

The film is both predictable and, in places, highly illogical (like the Israeli airport example above) and the bows are drawn longer and longer as the film progresses. There's also an anti-muslim subtext present during the Israel sequence that is as obvious as it is embarrassingly islamophobic; strangely the source of the zombie virus doesn't turn out to be China - one of the few surprises in the film. But if you can overlook its misdemeanors and roll with it, World War Z is good holiday fun which will be soundly whupped at the box-office by Man of Steel next week.

7 out of 10

Posted by Tony Gallimore (Member # 5358) on 06-25-2013, 03:22 PM:

quote: Stu Jamieson
World War Z is nothing we haven't seen before in the zombie/contagion genre.

Well said. IMHO, even Brad Pitt couldn't pull this slog of low grade same oldness out of the gutter. Doesn't anyone have an imagination anymore who can write a fresh script that'll at least entertain. There weren't two good bites in the whole thing. The last promising zombie production I recall was " Warm Bodies ", and that because the zombie question was addressed from another perspective, the zombie's. Zombie's as directors... now there's a plan!

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 06-29-2013, 07:02 PM:

actually, a movie from the perspective of the zombie isn't new, it was done before in a comedy horror flick called 'Wasting Away' (2007) - which was far more entertaining than World War Z.

as for the lack of actual gore, it's been promised by the director that the bluray, home video release will be juicier.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 07-06-2013, 06:11 PM:

Was it just me or was the 3D horribly weak in this movie?

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-06-2013, 06:57 PM:

quote: Marcel Birgelen was the last to post

Yes, it was

-Claude

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 07-26-2013, 09:48 PM:

I didn't see it in 3D but I heard from a lot of folk it was rather pointless. I doubt we'll see it in the home video version (coming out before the end of the year), but I'd like to see some of the original ending ('Battle in Moscow') that was jettisoned and re-filmed.