Stars: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken, Matthew Fox (WTF-Matthew Fox is in this movie? How did I miss that? I have a "Jack Shephard is My Fake Boyfriend" tattoo!)
Director: Marc Forster
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars
As loyal readers of this blog will know, I’m a huge fan of Brad
Pitt. Pitt, for me, is one of
those great actors who manages to somehow combine movie star good looks and
charisma with the genuine talent of a character actor. Though some dispute this, I feel that
it’s more because of his longtime pretty boy status than anything grounded in
fact-somehow some believe that you can’t be both gorgeous and exceptionally
talented. This is particularly
true for male actors-Pitt could barely get critical acclaim when he was in
his gorgeous early 1990’s phase, almost shooting gold from the screen, and
despite excellent work in A River Runs
Through It, Legends of the Fall, and Se7en,
he only most recently has been consistently recognized for his extensively
deep body of work (though for the record, he's still a total babe).
(Spoilers Ahead) World War Z, I will fully
admit, is not going to be one of those great films that Pitt will be remembered
for decades from now. It is not The Tree of Life, it is not Se7en, it is not The Assassination of Jesse James. It is, however, a fun little summer film that what it lacks
in originality it makes up for in regular thrills, occasionally pointed
political commentary, and of course, a stellar lead anchor in Pitt’s
world-saving father/hero.
The film starts oddly in a similar vein to Killing Them Softly, Andrew Dominik’s woefully under seen
mini-masterpiece, with a series of news reels, talking about a myriad of
topics, but not so coincidentally, it focuses on the increasingly sporadic
nature and destruction caused by climate change. The movie has Pitt, a father of two young girls, who used to
go on dangerous missions for the United Nations, but is now content to making
breakfast and living a life of domesticity.
Suddenly, though, the city of Philadelphia (it’s almost always New York
that gets hit in disaster movies, so I kept looking for the Chrysler Building,
only to discover a geographical change of pace) is under attack from lethal,
uncharacteristically fast-moving zombies, and Pitt and his family are just
barely able to make it onto the road.
Pitt hooks up with his old buddies at the United Nations, and in a
fairly dramatic sequence of events, the four of them are taken to a ship, where
Pitt is essentially blackmailed into helping the United Nations and the
nations, which are all that stand between his family and the zombies (resources
are tight, and spaces that aren’t filled with ravenous monsters are harder to
find than a 2-bedroom rent-controlled apartment south of 59th
street).
So we follow Pitt across the globe, from Korea to Israel to Wales, each
place slowly but steadily showing how zombies have taken over. Along the way, we learn clues about
the zombies, principally that they see through sound (thus we see the town of
Cardiff, a complete ghost town of a place, silent despite being relatively
fully inhabited). We also learn
that the “zombie virus” doesn’t want to join with a dying organism, and so we are
given the temporary cure-fill people with deadly viruses that we have cures
for, and then they can walk amongst the zombies, with the creatures none the
wiser.
It’s a consistent twist, even if you see it coming a mile away, and while
the film is strong, and occasionally biting (I love the “no way out” aspects
where you truly believe that something could happen to the family, even if your
rational moviegoer brain is aware that Pitt and the children are likely going
to live to the end of the film), it doesn’t deliver enough on the biting
opening. After researching the
film a bit, I did learn that the book was far more biting and after reading the considerably darker, harsher version of the film, I likely would have preferred that better (and it explains why Matthew Fox had such an inconsequential role-apparently Marc Forster is a Terrence Malick fan). However, you're given what you get, and this is still a solid blockbuster.
But overall, this was one of those great, fun summer romps that doesn't insult the audience but at the same time doesn't require too much matter of thought. I liked it-how about you? Were you a fan of Pitt’s latest
adventure? For those that have
read it, who enjoyed the book more?
And do you think that a sequel will further explore those darker layers?
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