While Gerry Lane is stuck in metropolitan traffic with his family, something terrible seems to happen in the city: first the police mobilize, then an explosion, followed by the panic of the citizens. Some people seem to be struck by aggressive fits and uncontrollably throw themselves at pedestrians and cars, heedless of causing harm to themselves and others. Gerry, his wife, and his daughters flee out of the city, learning that chaos is spreading everywhere, all over the world, caused by a virus of unknown origin that is turning those infected into a furious monster with a homicidal instinct. Gerry is a former United Nations employee and for this reason is brought to safety on a ship off the coast of New York, where a former colleague informs him that the infected are officially the living dead and asks for his help in the cause by directing him with a scientist and some soldiers to South Korea, where the patient zero seems to have been identified. Gerry accepts and for him it will be a very dangerous adventure that will lead him to explore various areas of the world affected by the virus.
In the renewed fashion of the living dead in cinema and TV, zombies are popping up everywhere and in all kinds of ways, from the classic man-eaters that are popular on television thanks to the series "The Walking Dead," to the lovesick ones of "Warm Bodies" and the demented ones of the Cuban "Juan of the Dead." A real invasion inside and outside the screens that today gains another important piece with "World War Z," namely what in more takes has been defined as the most expensive zombie film ever produced in Hollywood.
Derived from the novel "World War Z: The World War of the Zombies," written in 2006 by that Max Brooks who had already had success with the cult "Manual for Surviving Zombies," the film directed by Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball"; "Quantum of Solace") and produced and starring Brad Pitt is a strange object, as much — too much — anchored to the films of recent years, as clearly moved by the desire to differentiate itself from any type of zombie film ever made.
It was not an easy task to translate the novel by Brooks into images, given the fragmented and too corally narrative of the writing, it is understandable that the production of the film has foreseen rather long times, especially in the writing phase, involving three of the most talented screenwriters in Hollywood: Matthew M. Carnahan ("The Kingdom"; "State of Play"), Drew Goddard ("Cloverfield"; "That House in the Woods") and Damon Lindelof ("Prometheus"; "Star Trek: Into Darkness"), the latter two called in to help the first at a later time. And it is equally understandable, although absolutely not shareable, to choose a single point of view on the story, in order to avoid those prolixity typical of so much American catastrophic cinema by Roland Emmerich. But what has come out of the film "World War Z" is an anomalous blockbuster that is a zombie movie only in small part, preferring — as was presumably already clear from the trailers — the action and catastrophic aspect.
We will therefore have a fulminating opening, with the outbreak of the epidemic in the metropolis where our protagonist Gerry Lane lives, framed in chaos and city traffic that becomes a real deadly trap for those who find themselves there at the time of the disaster. From that moment on, the film proceeds in steps through a series of key scenes with which the whole story is built and that lead Gerry to confront the zombies — in order — in a claustrophobic building, in a South Korean airport, in Jerusalem with the now famous scene of the pyramid of zombies, on a commercial airplane, and in the laboratories of the WHO. Each macro sequence, taken on its own, works wonderfully with peaks of spectacularity in the Jerusalem scene that are truly impressive, as are other scenes, such as that of the airplane or in the laboratories, capable of also offering some true horror chills. However, it is in its entirety that the film shows a bit the rope, appears fragmented and too little attentive to telling us a compact story in favor, instead, of the constant search for amazement.
The omnipresent Brad Pitt sometimes appears a bit lost and perhaps not credible enough, in his impeccable model look, as a United Nations agent called to save the world, unlike the two actresses of the film, Mireille Enos ("Gangster Squad"), who plays Gerry's anxious wife, and Daniella Kertesz, who is instead the soldier Segen.
And now let's move on to the zombie issue. Even if they behave in a very similar way to the rabid ones in "28 Days Later," in "World War Z" there are real living dead, those you have to shoot in the head to stop and sometimes incinerate to send them to the other world. These zombies appear in two stages: fast and furious like Boyle's infected when they are under stimulation, slow and shuffling like Romero's when they are "asleep," that is, far from visual and auditory stimuli. The curious thing is that, when they are not in furious hordes, they emit a call and sometimes move strategically like the velociraptors of "Jurassic Park," which makes them fearsome but also gives rise to some unintentionally ridiculous moments. But undoubtedly, what will remain of the zombies of "World War Z" are the mountains and uncontrolled flows of the living dead that carry forward things and people in the scenes set in Israel.
The action scenes are very fast and chaotic, which is not absolutely a defect because they manage to create the right catastrophic tension, but we must also consider a fact: "World War Z" is also presented in 3D with not despicable results although not particularly exciting, but the action scenes as they were conceived and shot do not benefit from the third dimension, resulting only confusing and causing headaches. Therefore, the advice, if possible, is to enjoy the film in 2D.
The blood and violence are perhaps the real flaw of this film, a story of furious living dead that is however thought as a PG-13, therefore a film almost for families, so much so that dismemberments, amputations, and decapitations of which the film is obviously full, all happen off-screen and in fact not even a drop of blood runs.
In short, with "World War Z" the Paramount tried to make the most imposing and spectacular zombie film ever produced and hit the target, even if this does not mean that the film is entirely successful. Surely it will be remembered for the different way in which the living dead are shown to us, but if you are looking for a full-fledged zombie movie, well... perhaps it is better to look elsewhere.
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