Director: Marc Forster, 2013 (PG-13)
World War Z had
terrific promise. It featured Brad Pitt in most every scene, a story based on a
best-selling book, and a zombie-apocalypse theme that seemed likely to resonate
with “The Walking Dead” viewers. Sadly, it fails to live up to the potential
and becomes a somewhat lackluster action-adventure.
Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a family man. Former UN
investigator, he has exchanged his travel visas for pancake flippers and now
spends his days cooking and caring for his family: wife Karin (Mireille Enos)
and two sweet little girls. He says he doesn’t miss the life of travel and
danger but it will drag him back. . . . else this film would be a certain dud.
On a routine car ride in downtown Philly, one of the movie’s
best scenes introduces the film. A traffic jam suddenly becomes chaotic when
zombies swarm over cars and trucks. It is here that Gerry witnesses a zombie
transformation, setting himself up as expert investigator when the UN
eventually take him back. Before this happens, he and his family must escape
the city carnage, and survive a night of terror in an apartment.
Once we move beyond the introduction, we discover this is a
world-wide epidemic and no one knows why. Reenlisted, Gerry is sent on a global
voyage seeking patient zero and the cause of the breakout hoping to discover a
cure.
We see much of the world: Korea, Israel, Wales, but the
scenery is not beautiful. After all, it is plagued by zombies and severe
destruction. Gore abounds, but so do plot holes. And by the time the movie goes
from fast action to deep suspense in the third act, the climax has been
telegraphed. It is so obvious that most of the suspense dissipates.
The book focused on interviews with multiple characters to
share different aspects of the zombie wars. Rather than writing this for the
screen, Forster’s film focuses on one man, leaving even his family behind for
the most part, and sadly loses much of the narrative drama. What results is a
typical zombie flick, but with Brad Pitt. He performs well, looking like a
middle-aged dad with long-hair, but even he cannot retain interest with this
screenplay. Apparently it was so disappointing that the entire third act was
completely revised and reshot after screening for the studio. That is always a
bad sign.
There is not much of redemptive value here. But one scene
caused me to reflect on life and death. In the opening chaos in the streets of
Philadelphia, Gerry sees a man bitten and go from being alive to being undead.
It took a mere 10 seconds – Gerry counted them. How long does it take us to go
in the reverse direction?
It may take 10 seconds to become undead (in this zombie
movie) but it takes only a twinkling of an eye to attain life, and become
really alive. The film may be fictional trivia, not worth much of a viewing,
but Jesus’ life is literal truth and worth all you can imagine.
Copyright ©2013, Martin Baggs
No comments:
Post a Comment