******SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!******
You might be thinking to
yourself, “Wait a minute – didn’t I already read Needless
Things’ review of World
War Z
starring hunk-a-riffic Bradley Pitt?”
Yes, you did. But that
was Beth V’s review. If you for some insane reason didn’t
read it you can go do so now.
It’s probably way better than mine anyway.
Okay - I’m not even
sure I can write 1,000 words about this movie, but I’m all caught
up for this week and I do think there is enough in World
War Z
for me to talk about. We’ll see, I guess.
Mrs. Troublemaker,
however, had different plans.
We had both read and
thoroughly enjoyed Max Brooks’ brilliant, epic, and unique novel.
If you haven’t read it you should. World
War Z
is a fast, easy, and exciting read that you’ll get through in no
time (provided that – unlike me – you have some sort of reading
time available to you). It presents the overused and clichéd zombie
apocalypse in a way that nobody else has, using the central idea of a
reporter traveling the world after
the primary outbreak and resultant global disasters. He is gathering
stories from people across the world to document how it all went
down.
The movie going by the
same name does feature a dude traveling the world, but the people he
interacts with have few stories and no depth. It’s all about the
fact that Brad Pitt is just too pretty to die. And is also going to
Save the World.
We ended up seeing this
thing at the Movie Tavern because Mrs. Troublemaker is desperate to
like a Big Hollywood Horror movie and I really like their boneless
Buffalo wings.
It seems the missus is
terribly dissatisfied with Hollywood horror lately. She hasn’t
liked any of the horror moves we’ve gone to see very much and seems
to always be let down by the ones she gets excited about. We both
knew full well going into World
War Z that
it had nothing to do with the book, but I think she was really hoping
that we might get a solid zombie flick. I did not share her
confidence. But it was Date Night and seriously – Movie Tavern’s
wings and fries are pretty darn good.
I’ll be totally honest
here – I went in not wanting to like the movie. On a completely
rational level I understand how Hollywood works, I appreciate that
Max Brooks is getting a payday, and I knew it was entirely possible
that the movie could still be awesome even if it didn’t borrow from
the book at all. But on a much more emotional level I was furious
that we weren’t getting a proper adaptation of such a brilliant
work of fiction. I wasn’t fully aware of this until the movie
started and I found myself hoping that Brad Pitt and his stupid
family would get their faces eaten off by zombies.
The opening scene
features a domesticated, world-weary Pitt making breakfast for his
family. I didn’t feel one bit of emotion from the actors in this
scene, but I don’t know if that’s their fault or mine. Pitt came
off more like a nanny or weird uncle than a dad. It was just strange.
Oh, but before I get too
much further, let me mention the awful techno music that popped up
from time to time in World
War Z.
I found the entirety of the opening credits/montage depicting the
initial outbreak to be almost unbearable thanks to some kind of
mellow techno garbage that I think was trying to be sinister. It
wasn’t. It was just irritating. And it happened a couple more times
in the movie. It was composed and performed by Muse, who I think are
a band (or programmer – whatever) that I’ve heard of. Apparently
I hate them. I thought their music watered down the impact of the
scenes it was used in and made the whole movie seem like some kind of
weird infomercial that somebody like Bono would make.
So I found the opening of
the movie intolerable and wasn’t liking the family too much. Not so
much I didn’t like them as I wasn’t buying their family dynamic.
But I was aware of these feelings as they were happening and I was
afraid I was intentionally looking for faults in the movie. I tried
to tone it down.
I don’t know if I was
successful or if the movie just did such a good job of sweeping me
up, but when the action got going I was totally in. For a while,
anyway. Once Brad’s family gets caught up in the disaster that hits
New York, the movie starts an exciting chain of events that doesn’t
let up for maybe twenty to thirty minutes. I never actually cared
about the Brad Family, but I was curious to see what was going to
happen to them and some very
exciting things happened to them for a while.
The zombies in World
War Z
are definitely among the scariest I’ve seen in a movie. While I
dislike running zombies on principal, I like them for narrative
purposes. And the running zombies in this movie are horrifying.
Unlike other zombie flicks, these are not presented as individual
threats like monsters, but as a force of nature like a fire or a
hurricane. When they are chasing or attacking, you really get the
feeling that these are non-sentient, undead beings that are utilizing
every single bit of their physiology to infect and destroy; with no
regard for their own limits or well-being. As a matter of fact, I’ve
never seen zombies treated in quite this way. It made every zombie
horde scene in the movie terribly effective.
Speaking of zombie
hordes, I’ve also never seen the scope of a zombie outbreak
represented so well. WWZ
truly made me feel the scope and the horror of the situation.
Watching as entire cities fell to the plague was actually dismaying
on a level. As I was watching I really felt like this was how it
would go down. Nobody would be making jokes or swinging weed-whackers
around. We would all just fall before the wave.
While certain aspects of
World
War Z
are very effective, this movie is no
fun at all.
It is a disaster movie, not a horror movie. It’s just that the
disaster is zombies. Actually, now that I think about it this is a
brilliant observation. Another factor that makes it not a horror
movie is the almost complete lack of gore. There were several scenes
where I was actually taken out of the narrative by the intentional
obfuscation of a gooey moment. Whether it was a horde of zombies
chowing down or somebody being forcibly amputated with a machete or
just a good old-fashioned zombie head stompin’, there is an obvious
and noticeable effort to avoid showing any kind of splatter. It was
kind of irritating, but now that I think I get the movie a little
more – the whole disaster angle – I think I get it.
Which doesn’t mean I
think World
War Z
is a great movie.
It does a number of
things very well – creating a massive scope for the plague,
presenting a new and terrifying type of zombie horde, and the pacing
is solid; the movie never lost me – but overall it just didn’t
click for me. I never cared about any of the characters except for
this one Southern military guy in South Korea that kind of looked
like CM Punk. He was pretty cool. But overall I never cared much for
anybody because I never got a sense of who they were other than that
they were trying not to get infected or eaten by zombies. While I can
certainly sympathize with that, it is hardly an interesting and
defining characteristic.
3
out of 5
Having
said all of that, WWZ
is a visually spectacular movie that should be experienced in the
theater. I highly recommend you see it at a matinee show. I don’t
think the sheer scale will be fairly represented on the small screen.
This
isn’t one I’m going to buy; and probably won’t ever watch it
again. But I have to respect what the creators were trying to do. I
get it. It just isn’t for me. Maybe this is the zombie movie my
parents would watch.
Oh
– I almost forgot the most important thing I took out of World
War Z.
Riddick
looks AWESOME:
-Phantom
Sorry, neither you nor Beth V have been able to sway me. I will see this movie either when it shows up at the $1.50 theater near me that is clean and well-maintained because it is owned and operated by Cinemark, or through redbox.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't see it in the theater, don't bother. The scope and scale are all that make it noteworthy.
DeleteIf you have a thirst for zombie movies, this one will quench it but won't deliver anything you haven't seen before.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually agree with any part of that statement. Zombies have never been shown in such mass as a pure force of nature before. It simply hasn't been done. It's worth seeing on the big screen just for that. And I also don't agree that it will quench your thirst for zombie movies. If you are a fan of zombie flicks, the total lack of gore and dismemberment is going to be a massive let-down.
Delete