World War Z
July 21, 2013
3.5 stars out of 5
Sorry. I promised this review in last week's journal of my trip to LA, the forgot to actually deliver it.
Mel Brooks' son Max. A successful book. Brad Pitt. What could go wrong? Well, something apparently. This is a perfectly pleasant zombie movie, competently executed to the point that it had me, by turns, scared, gasping with surprise, and rooting for the good guys. It was a perfect piece of Hollywood manipulation, but the third act was a joke, and I felt no emotional resonance. By comparison, Independence Day was War and Peace, by which I mean it is possible to have plot as well as spectacle. I ended up caring about Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith. I never cared about Pitt. So, I ended up thinking the film was pretty good, not great. It hit all the right buttons, and with the exception of being at least a half-hour too long (if not an hour too long), it was competently put together. As a rule, I don't go to see zombie movies. I am not sorry I went to see this one, but I am not going to the sequel, if there is one. The CGI in the zombie crowd scenes is, as reported everywhere else on earth, amazing. Fast zombies are scarier than regular zombies.
Sorry. I promised this review in last week's journal of my trip to LA, the forgot to actually deliver it.
Mel Brooks' son Max. A successful book. Brad Pitt. What could go wrong? Well, something apparently. This is a perfectly pleasant zombie movie, competently executed to the point that it had me, by turns, scared, gasping with surprise, and rooting for the good guys. It was a perfect piece of Hollywood manipulation, but the third act was a joke, and I felt no emotional resonance. By comparison, Independence Day was War and Peace, by which I mean it is possible to have plot as well as spectacle. I ended up caring about Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith. I never cared about Pitt. So, I ended up thinking the film was pretty good, not great. It hit all the right buttons, and with the exception of being at least a half-hour too long (if not an hour too long), it was competently put together. As a rule, I don't go to see zombie movies. I am not sorry I went to see this one, but I am not going to the sequel, if there is one. The CGI in the zombie crowd scenes is, as reported everywhere else on earth, amazing. Fast zombies are scarier than regular zombies.