‘World War Z’: Exciting zombie movie

MANILA, Philippines – The last few years have seen zombies go from sub-culture to mainstream, with “The Walking Dead” and other works helping bring the creatures from horror flicks to the cultural consciousness. In literary work, “World War Z” was a high point for the creatures in literature, providing a compelling, insightful novel that not only dealt with the undead hungry for flesh, but exploring various themes of social and cultural import, making commentary on the human condition and using zombies as an overarching metaphor and device to do that. 

Which is to say that the novel, “World War Z,” was a brilliant work of social commentary and insight into human nature.

The film, “World War Z,” has no such ambitions. 

Here is the official trailer:

In fact, if not for the title, the presence of zombies and the loosest of thematic ties, one would be hard pressed to think that this film has anything to do with the novel.

That said, as a zombie flick, it does pretty well. 

When the film was in production, it was publicized that one of the main goals was to make zombies like no one had ever seen. In this regard, they are a wild success. From the initial scenes where the Zs throw themselves violently through windshields and lunge into vehicles, there is a violence and ferocity that we haven’t seen elsewhere.

And they have this herd-like movement that is chilling; it gives you the sense that there really is no hope. Not only do they chase you, but the way that they chase, in a swarm, is overwhelming. On-screen it is truly spectacular, even though the CG at times doesn’t look as well-designed as it should be, especially in a film of this level. 

The way the zombies move is a spectacle in itself. Beyond that are the larger spectacles, the escape from various cities as they are overthrown by a wave of zombie creatures. It’s always something to watch. The trailers might have given us a hint, but the scale and visceral power of the scenes, when you watch them in their entirety, is something else.

A lot of effort was put into making these scenes stunning, and if only for that the movie is worth watching.

Watch this interview with Brad Pitt at the movie’s London premiere:

My apprehensions from the film come from its lack of narrative depth or meaning. The form of the novel was an oral history, collected after the zombie apocalypse had been averted. Here, we are thrown into it. It’s the more obvious choice for a film adaptation, but the problem is that the changes made cause it to be a much more generic film. 

In the novel, you jump to various parts of the world, meeting a large cast of characters, and exploring how each place, social class, community and individual is affected by a zombie outbreak. Here, we get a MacGuffin chase, with Brad Pitt’s character, Lane, trying to find Patient Zero and the supposed cure for the zombie infection. Lane pieces things together, traveling from one point to the next, picking up clues as zombies give chase.

This is all well and good within the context of the summer blockbuster flick. “World War Z” is big, it’s impressive, it’s engaging and it will leave you holding your breath regularly. The set pieces are amazing and it operates as a good, fun, scary flick.

The problem, I guess, is that the novel is a brilliant work, while the film is just a good, fun, entertaining movie. 

“World War Z” gets a lot right in terms of bringing forward an exciting story. But that story could have been much better if there had been a way to tell the many stories in the novel.

Still, the film is a good zombie flick. It’s fun to watch and it’s extremely exciting. – Rappler.com

Carljoe Javier doesn’t know why people think he’s a snarky film critic who spends his time dashing the hopes of filmgoers. He thinks he’s not all that bad, really. He teaches at the State U, writes books, and studies film, comics, and video games…Then again, those people could be right.