World War Z

The behind the scenes story of this film is fascinating. Filled with drama, death, a bad ending, reshoots and 4 or 5 scren writers, World War Z is the movie of the summer that was sure to be a bomb. It was Brad Pitt's baby though. He fought incredibly hard to get this movie made and through all of the negative press, he just kept on moving. He shrugged off the bad press and he shrugged off rumors that he and director, Marc Forster, did not get along, and he shrugged off the fact that the entire third act was being rewritten. The author of the novel had some not too terribly nice things to say about the switch from slow zombies in the book to fast zombies in the movie. There were complaints about a PG-13 zombie movie because zombie movies are known for gore and a sanitized version of that would not work. After showing Damon Lindelof (must hated screen writer of Prometheus) the third act and asking him to write it, he said that much more than the third act needed help. They reshot the ending, the opening, and a few scenes in between all raising the budget into the $200 million range. Typically movies that go through all of that, fail. The trailers did not really do them much good either. I cannot tell you how many people asked me what was going on in that trailer. Apparently it was not clear that zombies were going on. Everyone assumed failure, but something happened on the day it was released. The movie shocked box office analysts because people were kind of flocking to it and more than that, the word of mouth coming out of the theater was incredible. At my theater people who loved the book hated the movie because of the massive changes, including one solid narrative throughout, but the people who had not read the book were raving like crazy. One guy told me the opening was the most intense opening scene he could remember sitting through. I was not totally sold on it, but I like Pitt and I like big budget action, so I was down.

In a quiet home inside Philadelphia, a family of four is getting ready for the day. Gerry Lane(Pitt) is a stay at home dad who once upon a time had a job that put him in serious danger. We find out quickly that he was a United Nations investigator. We see the news talk about a rabies type break out in humans, and that in another country Martial Law has been established, but we are not given many more facts than that when we are thrust into a seriously intense opening sequence involving Gerry trying to get his family out of Philadelphia after an explosion, a runaway garbage truck and a bunch of human beings biting other human beings and all of them turning into something zombie like. These are running, jumping, crazy people who move in packs and are drawn to sound. Gerry notices it takes them 12 seconds from being bitten to turn. He and his family make it to new Jersey, when Gerry gets a call from his old UN partner about needing his help. The family holes up for a few hours with a very welcoming family, and Gerry tries to convince the dad of that family to bring his family along, but the dad refuses. Gerry and his family run up to the top of the apartment building, trying to avoid death and before they get away, the little boy from the nice family joins them, signaling the rest of his family had been taken. Once safe, Gerry is asked by his former partner, Thierry, to escort a scientist to where they believe the outbreak started because the scientist believes he can find what started it and how to cure it. The scientist tells Gerry that often times Mother Nature leaves clues because she wants to get caught. The scientist does not last long and the rest of the film follows Gerry as he attempts to figure out what caused this outbreak and how it can be defeated.

World War Z is insanely intense, well paced, and features some incredibly excellent action sequences. It knows how to use light and sound to put the audience on the edge of its collective seat and it knows when to turn up the adrenaline to just the right amount to get our hearts pounding until we just need a break and then it lets up on the gas, lets us calm down, just to rev us back up again. It is a seriously enjoyable thrill ride and I cannot believe it was such a troubled production. The opening is crazy, there are three sections in act two that are just some of the best orchestrated action sequences you are going to find in the zombie genre and the third act, while a bit of a letdown, features a really cool sequence of quiet uncalm. Let us begin at the start. The opening scene which leads us into the opening sequence is sublime. We get a nice set up of a happy family, but a little bit of strain when talking about dad's old job. The oldest daughter needs her inhaler, so that will come up again, for sure. Dad quit his job to be closer to his family, which makes the fact that he has to leave them as this all gets crazier even more difficult. Then, BOOM! Almost without warning, a traffic jam turns into this crazy action scene, dizzying camera movements, a thrilling score and then just when you think you cannot handle it, everything slows down as Pitt's character focuses on one man transforming and we hear counting. Then, BOOM! That man gets up and starts ravaging for people to munch on. This uneasy feeling that we have no idea if the movie is going to be fast or slow never really leaves. It is one of the finer points of the film. It slows down and speeds up with such confidence and with such break neck speeds that you are always wondering where it is going to be next. That is one of the pluses to having fast zombies. The next crazy scene is when Gerry and the scientist are being led out of a plane. it is pitch black, with fog, and everything is slow and quiet. We can hear each character breathing heavier and heavier, and suddenly it gets crazy again.

The two sequences that most people are talking about are the scene in Jerusalem (a spectacular scene for a few reasons) and the much teased airplane scene. The airplane scene is probably most people's favorite and for good reason. it is not a lengthy scene, but very rarely do zombie movies take to the sky and the effectiveness of this scene coming right after this amazing sequence in Jerusalem, makes it a doozy. Again, everything starts off quiet, and Gerry is beginning to think he knows what to do to at least help the situation. Then we see the first zombie, then it cuts away to Gerry again and everything is still, calm. We hear rustling, and then slowly the camera pans to the action and we see craziness and hear screaming, but Gerry does his best to contain his section, keeping them quiet as he can until insanity breaks through. In an enclosed space, zombies do their worst damage. There is nowhere to escape, but Gerry has to create space. It is an awesomely effective scene and it pushes things forward on top of it.

However, the entire sequence in Jerusalem takes the cake. First off the action in this sequence is the best in the movie. it is quick, dirty, looks unrehearsed, and is completely exhilarating. However, the scene also deals well in exposition. We have Exposition Man, whose job it is to just give Pitt and us exposition. However, it is done in such a great way that we are visually stimulated and getting all of this information. As Exposition Man talks, he and Pitt are traveling through Jerusalem, which is a completely boarded up area now. It is completely free from zombies because they built a giant wall and happened to complete it before the attack. Why? Well, because when they first heard the word zombie, the 10 leaders got together and 9 agreed it could never be and when all 9 agree, the 10th man has to disagree and he has to start digging for information. It is a wonderful bit of exposition and it is encased in Jewish paranoia from centuries of mistreatment. There is a reason for it that makes sense to the characters and to the story. All around them as this exposition is going on we see happiness, but every so often the camera pans outside the walls to where the zombies are and at this point Pitt has learned that they are attracted to sound and inside the walls, as this is going on, they start singing over a microphone and it is getting louder and louder and louder and soon the zombies are climbing each other to get over the wall and the exposition stops and the zombies come crashing down and chaos ensues. It is one of the best sequences I have seen this summer, if I am being completely honest. Everything that happens in it makes sense for the story and for the characters. it is not in there just to be in there. It is how action sequences in action movies should go.

Pitt does a great job, which is important because he is in 95% of the film. The movie does a good job of cutting back to the family to remind us of the emotional pull at work here. The film does not stick the landing as well as I would have liked, but the climax does have some cool ideas in it. Again, sticking Pitt in an enclosed space with zombies is very effective. Especially with zombies who have been dormant and might move differently than the zombies Pitt had seen early in the movie. World War Z is so effective about building this high level of intensity that I did not even miss the gore of a zombie movie. In fact, this definitely feels much more like an Outbreak kind of movie and less like a zombie movie. The level of panic has real world implications. There are not many answers to be found, which is kind of nice. Is it a viral? The immediate panic of foreign terror is palpable and that is why zombie movies work. They play on our natural fears of the unknown. World War Z surrounds us with that panic, while giving us a hero at the same time. Not only is he a hero, but he is one of the most recognizable movie stars in the entire world. We can place our hopes on him, while still holding onto our panic and the movie allows us our panic and does not completely comfort us. However, one of my favorite things about this film, and one that, I think, sets it apart from most zombie films, is the optimism in humanity. At the beginning, a unknown family shelters our protagonist without questioning it at all. Jerusalem is letting in anyone who can make it there. Zombie movies are filled with cynicism and here goes one that believes in humanity and I have to admit it was refreshing.

Final Grade: A