Sunday, July 7, 2013

World War Z




 World War Z (Forester, 2013) opens in a very domestic setting, we meet Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) making pancakes for his wife Karen Lane (Mireille Enos) and children, Rachel (Abigail Hargrove) and Constance (Sterling Jerins). 50 year old Pitt, whose age I’m still coming to terms with, obtained the rights for Max Brooks’ World War Z (2006) in 2007 to be made into a film and hence created a main character. Brooks’ original narrative was simply a collection of individual experiences of the war between humans and zombies.


During the opening, we are also introduced to Gerry’s former United Nations identity but learn he has given this up to be close to his family. After his family are involved in some heavy traffic jam and the radio broadcasts the news of a rabies outbreak, its narrative quickly takes on a clear post- apocalyptic setting. Ben Seresin’s cinematography is reminiscent of Children of Men (Cuaron,2006) through sterile tones and as well as the use of deafening rings in moments of chaos. Interestingly, chaos is not just shown by the infected bodies, but in the franticness of the scavenging for food and medical supplies by the surviving humans themselves, as lawlessness quickly becomes the norm. Luckily Gerry’s former status enables him and his family to board a U.S Navy vessel in safety, however in somewhat of a twist he is blackmailed to either investigate the virus or his family will be kicked of board. Whether to stay with his family or to ‘man –up’, Gerry picks the later role taking him too South Korea, Jerusalem and Wales before he can be reunited his family. 

My only real misgiving with World War Z was the conventional and safe ending as Pitt becomes the clear hero and resolution to the Zombie narrative.  Having said that however, there are enough enjoyable moments that make World War Z above average, I particularly liked the use of the words “zombies” and “undead’ as factual information. It was also interesting to see a narrative comprised into two halves. The first, outside and militant focused with naturalistic tones reminscent of The Hurt Locker (Bigelow, 2008 ).While the later half was sterile and creepy, where the characters were stuck in a laboratory filled with fast zombies (quite the opposite to George A. Romeo’s Night of the Living Dead Kind). This diversity counteracted the times when the film lacked lustre in its narrative development, offering innovation to this zombie blockbuster.


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