Z, it would seem, stands for zombies, who are becoming like the Kardashians of the supernatural horror genre; right now they’re everywhere (as the natural successor to Twilight’s vampire obsession, of course).
By Keeva Stratton
We begin the film on the streets of Philadelphia where Gerry (Brad Pitt) and his young family are stuck in a traffic jam. Within moments, it becomes obvious that this is no ordinary peak hour blockage, and all-out carnage erupts within seconds. But the enemy isn’t a terrorist group; it’s an outbreak of flesh-eating zombies. And their numbers are multiplying by the second (12, in fact).
As Gerry and his family desperately try to escape the city, we discover that his former occupation was as an elite UN investigator, and he is still considered the expert in extracting intel, regardless of how challenging the situation.
After some harrowing experiences, Gerry and his family are extracted from the city via helicopter through the influence of his former boss at the UN, and he is then tasked with accompanying a bright young scientist and a small team of crack soldiers to the first known location of the zombie outbreak, in an attempt to find a solution.
From here, the film adapts a traditional fight for existence plotline, as a range of locations is sequentially explored, to try and discover what is causing the zombie virus and to determine how to defeat it.
One can only assume that this is Brad Pitt’s idea of having fun, as the film is careful to avoid any overt political discourse regarding international relations. This is an unabashed zombie film, pure and simple, albeit without the trashier cult flick trappings that are common to some of the species.
Carrying on in a similar style and tone to the immensely popular Walking Dead series, where zombies are no longer simply outrun (as they should have been in the original Night of the Living Dead), World War Z proves to be a thrilling, action-packed race to the end.
Fans of supernatural end-of-the-world type films will have a lot of fun with this one. It certainly caused a few jumps in the audience, and has enough of a plot to make it interesting.
Directed by: Marc Foster
Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos
Rating: MA15+
Runtime: 116mins
Release Date: June 20
Reviewer rating: 3.5/5
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