Movie #18 - World War Z

As my very intelligent man said "If you don't think of this as a zombie movie, you can really find it to be a good movie".

Very loosely based on the popular novel by Max Brooks, World War Z takes a global apocalypse and looks at it through the eyes of a single man.   How is this possible?  By creating a character not in the book, which is Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) who used to work for the United Nations in a never-quite-explained job involving going into high risk zones.  Now out of the UN and a contented family man in Philadelphia, Gerry and his wife are stuck in a traffic jam which turns out to be no ordinary day.  The movie has barely begun when we are thrown into a tense, chaotic scenario along with Gerry and his family as emergency services vehicles fly by with sirens blazing and people start attacking others.  Narrowly escaping, Gerry is contacted by his UN boss and told to get to a safe extraction point so they can get them out - Gerry is needed by the UN to investigate the origin and cause of the outbreak.  Cue Gerry flying in and out of different countries, having a series of exciting adventures.

While this has been referred to as a zombie movie, you should not go expecting the usual slow moving undead searching for brains and guts to munch on.  This movie is much more akin to the excellent "28 Days Later" from a few years back which had an outbreak of a virus which caused intense rage.  This movie has fast moving people attacking others but there is very little goriness.  Some may be disappointed with this, but if you give it a chance it is actually a very good mystery thriller. 

I found it to be extremely tense for long stretches of time, and the guy sitting beside me was literally on the edge of his seat regularly.  This is largely due to the director (Marc Forster) deciding to use a lot of handheld style shots with narrow focus so that it felt quite chaotic and close and you don't really know what's going on.  It really gave you a sense of 'being there' which I know I felt would be really scary.  There are a few large scale shots, particularly in Israel, but the majority of the action takes place in close confines.

There are few other characters who make an impact since the movie is full of whirlwind visits to each country in Gerry's quest for clues and answers.  A female Israeli soldier is probably the best support as she bravely helps a man she doesn't know, against seeming incredibly odds.  Gerry's wife is well drawn as a reason for him to take on this crazy task but doesn't get much else to do.  Brad Pitt really has to carry this movie and he does a sensational job of doing just that. 

This is not a zombie movie and I really liked it.