World War Z is one of those films that i kind of wanted to see but knew i would never actually get around to, so you can imagine my delight yesterday afternoon when i was invited along to a screening of it after work!
The film started with a whole lot of promise; you are introduced to the central family in the midst of their morning routine and the audience is immediately able to get a sense of what a normal, happy and loving family they are. Another pro point was that within fifteen minutes of starting the film, the action and the main storyline (mystery virus is turning civilians into zombies) is well and truly underway.
When the zombies start attacking and the film becomes a fight for Jerry's (played by Brad Pitt) family to survive I really did think that it was a great film - the family dynamics added that extra layer of emotion to what would have otherwise been just another action sequence and I felt true tension and panic as I helplessly sat and watched, praying they would all get to a safe place unharmed.
Yep, in that first half hour or so I was well and truly invested in the film. Then it all kind of goes wrong...
You see, (and this is by no means a spoiler - it is mentioned within minutes of the film's opening) Jerry happens to be some kind of ex-member of the United Nations. He has contacts and after one night of he and his family running away from zombies he is collected by the UN and his family are dropped off on a safe boat whilst Jerry is faced with no choice but to go back into the scary, zombie-ridden World to try and get to the bottom of this mystery virus and ultimately save the day. This is the true plot of the film and one that I feel was actually a lot weaker than your basic 'zombie-survival' story... After all, you now know that his family literally face no danger and this seems like a bit of a cop-out. When the terror first began I was convinced that civilians uniting together to survive a zombie attack and a father's struggle to reassure his two young daughters whilst protecting them would have me in tears at some stage (I have this weird thing with unity - a bunch of strangers joining forces for the greater good is always a cue for me to start weeping), I was genuinely preparing to at least shed a tiny tear or get a lump in my throat but the fact is that this film very quickly turns from a drama/ action to a full on action and if you are looking for the level of emotional connection that similar films such as 28 Days Later or Independence Day give you then you will be horribly disappointed.
Now, obviously Brad Pitt is going to be the protagonist. He is. after all, our big bucks Hollywood stud; the guy who the film is about; the reluctant soldier who is convinced to get back out there and fight for the World one last time - of course i expected him to be a huge hero. However, though he might be a hero Jerry is definitely still human (unless the tiny matter of him being invincible was accidentally left out by director Marc Forster) and as time creeps on he survives outrageous, horrific, dangerous event after outrageous, horrific, dangerous event and to be honest, you just start to get a bit tired of it all.
I know that it is fiction but it still seems a little insulting to the audience when you can pretty much do everything possible to kill a character with him not actually dying and hardly ever losing his momentum. There is also an awful lot of convenience that strikes throughout the film - a complete, unavoidable and unaccounted for disaster can happen and Jerry will conveniently end up being walking distance away from the exact destination that he was planning to go to. Literally, Forster could have dropped Pitt's character from a space shuttle a million miles above Earth and have him land on his own front doorstep completely unscathed and it would not have seemed out of place in this film. The smallest things kill any other character but put Jerry through every trauma possible and he will still come bouncing back, ready to save the day!
As well as that, the zombies were generally quite comical in both appearance and behaviour and there were times the zombies would be shown and the entire cinema just burst out laughing and i don't think this was the intended impact of the film. I also found the 3D to be unnecessary for much of the film - only really serving a purpose when a zombie suddenly appears on the screen, which admittedly did cause me to jump out of my skin, but i actually found for the rest of the time the 3D hindered my experience as the scenes tended to be so fast paced with so much happening onscreen that the gratuitous 3D just made it all seem a bit too over the top and actually made me feel a little nauseous at time.
After a strong start World War Z definitely found itself on a steady decline but the real plummet came with the ending. You have no idea how difficult it is to explain this let down of an ending without spoiling it but it really is just so inconclusive - and inconclusive in a bad and offensive way. I am all for film endings being open to interpretation - a lot of the time i actually prefer it to a concrete ending being forced upon me - but this was beyond a simple case of leaving it to the audience's imagination, this was literally Forster coming up with a vague idea for the ending but being too lazy to iron out all of the new issues that it raises and thus completely failing to execute the idea properly. After investing two hours into this film the ending is less than satisfactory and it genuinely felt as though they ran out of time or money to make the rest of the film so had to end it about fifteen minutes earlier than the script had planned; and this is purely because so much needless time is invested in showing how awesome and great and heroic Brad Pitt is. Which, let's face it, most of us already know.
In all honesty, the 'twist' ending creates more problems than it solves and Forster just could not be bothered to address these problems or come up with a new idea, so just kind of stuck it out hoping the audience will be too blown away by the rest of the film to notice... And judging by the bewildered silence that encased the cinema when the credits came up and everybody realised that we weren't going to be getting any more of a solution than that, i don't think that i was the only one to notice!
All negatives aside, the acting was great, the opening half an hour was incredibly strong and if you are willing to leave all logic and disbelief at home for the night then who knows - i am sure you could enjoy it! I just know that I definitely would have enjoyed it more if there was more focus on family and unity and less focus on how fantastic, resourceful and invincible regular human Jerry is.
All in all I award World War Z: ★★✯☆ ☆
(two and a half)
When the zombies start attacking and the film becomes a fight for Jerry's (played by Brad Pitt) family to survive I really did think that it was a great film - the family dynamics added that extra layer of emotion to what would have otherwise been just another action sequence and I felt true tension and panic as I helplessly sat and watched, praying they would all get to a safe place unharmed.
Yep, in that first half hour or so I was well and truly invested in the film. Then it all kind of goes wrong...
You see, (and this is by no means a spoiler - it is mentioned within minutes of the film's opening) Jerry happens to be some kind of ex-member of the United Nations. He has contacts and after one night of he and his family running away from zombies he is collected by the UN and his family are dropped off on a safe boat whilst Jerry is faced with no choice but to go back into the scary, zombie-ridden World to try and get to the bottom of this mystery virus and ultimately save the day. This is the true plot of the film and one that I feel was actually a lot weaker than your basic 'zombie-survival' story... After all, you now know that his family literally face no danger and this seems like a bit of a cop-out. When the terror first began I was convinced that civilians uniting together to survive a zombie attack and a father's struggle to reassure his two young daughters whilst protecting them would have me in tears at some stage (I have this weird thing with unity - a bunch of strangers joining forces for the greater good is always a cue for me to start weeping), I was genuinely preparing to at least shed a tiny tear or get a lump in my throat but the fact is that this film very quickly turns from a drama/ action to a full on action and if you are looking for the level of emotional connection that similar films such as 28 Days Later or Independence Day give you then you will be horribly disappointed.
Now, obviously Brad Pitt is going to be the protagonist. He is. after all, our big bucks Hollywood stud; the guy who the film is about; the reluctant soldier who is convinced to get back out there and fight for the World one last time - of course i expected him to be a huge hero. However, though he might be a hero Jerry is definitely still human (unless the tiny matter of him being invincible was accidentally left out by director Marc Forster) and as time creeps on he survives outrageous, horrific, dangerous event after outrageous, horrific, dangerous event and to be honest, you just start to get a bit tired of it all.
I know that it is fiction but it still seems a little insulting to the audience when you can pretty much do everything possible to kill a character with him not actually dying and hardly ever losing his momentum. There is also an awful lot of convenience that strikes throughout the film - a complete, unavoidable and unaccounted for disaster can happen and Jerry will conveniently end up being walking distance away from the exact destination that he was planning to go to. Literally, Forster could have dropped Pitt's character from a space shuttle a million miles above Earth and have him land on his own front doorstep completely unscathed and it would not have seemed out of place in this film. The smallest things kill any other character but put Jerry through every trauma possible and he will still come bouncing back, ready to save the day!
As well as that, the zombies were generally quite comical in both appearance and behaviour and there were times the zombies would be shown and the entire cinema just burst out laughing and i don't think this was the intended impact of the film. I also found the 3D to be unnecessary for much of the film - only really serving a purpose when a zombie suddenly appears on the screen, which admittedly did cause me to jump out of my skin, but i actually found for the rest of the time the 3D hindered my experience as the scenes tended to be so fast paced with so much happening onscreen that the gratuitous 3D just made it all seem a bit too over the top and actually made me feel a little nauseous at time.
After a strong start World War Z definitely found itself on a steady decline but the real plummet came with the ending. You have no idea how difficult it is to explain this let down of an ending without spoiling it but it really is just so inconclusive - and inconclusive in a bad and offensive way. I am all for film endings being open to interpretation - a lot of the time i actually prefer it to a concrete ending being forced upon me - but this was beyond a simple case of leaving it to the audience's imagination, this was literally Forster coming up with a vague idea for the ending but being too lazy to iron out all of the new issues that it raises and thus completely failing to execute the idea properly. After investing two hours into this film the ending is less than satisfactory and it genuinely felt as though they ran out of time or money to make the rest of the film so had to end it about fifteen minutes earlier than the script had planned; and this is purely because so much needless time is invested in showing how awesome and great and heroic Brad Pitt is. Which, let's face it, most of us already know.
In all honesty, the 'twist' ending creates more problems than it solves and Forster just could not be bothered to address these problems or come up with a new idea, so just kind of stuck it out hoping the audience will be too blown away by the rest of the film to notice... And judging by the bewildered silence that encased the cinema when the credits came up and everybody realised that we weren't going to be getting any more of a solution than that, i don't think that i was the only one to notice!
All negatives aside, the acting was great, the opening half an hour was incredibly strong and if you are willing to leave all logic and disbelief at home for the night then who knows - i am sure you could enjoy it! I just know that I definitely would have enjoyed it more if there was more focus on family and unity and less focus on how fantastic, resourceful and invincible regular human Jerry is.
All in all I award World War Z: ★★✯☆ ☆
(two and a half)
World War Z is out nationwide from June 21st!
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Love,
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