World War Z

I can't say I was too excited to see World War Z, even though I had read the book sharing the same name and

a part of the feature was filmed where I study in Falmouth. I am also a massive sucker for zombie films and Brad Pitt, so why did this not appeal to me? Maybe it was because of the troubled production, lack of resemblance to the novel or just because the trailers sucked, I did not care for this film. However I offered to take my brother to go and see it and my reaction to it even surprised myself!

I am just going to start this review by saying World War Z is awesome! Now, after it's marketing campaign I did not enter the cinema expecting a film that resembled anything from the book so I was not disappointed when all it had in common was the title and few interesting details about other countries during the zombie epidemic. The film follows Brad Pitt, an ex United Nations employee named Gerry Lane who is called back into work to help find a cure to a dangerous zombie virus that has swept its way across the world taking out most of the population.

This film is not like most zombie films. Most zombie films are small and contained due to a budget and production constraints. This one is massive and doesn't really fall into the 'zombie' genre, it's more of a disaster flick that could easily have been directed by Roland Emmerich, however this film is directed by Marc Forster. Again unlike most zombie films this one doesn't have as much gore and guts, instead it has much more spectacle and huge set pieces that make for a more watered down zombie film, this way it got a PG-13 rating America, though it was still rated 15 over here in the UK. It was

good to see a zombie film that was much bigger in scale than anything you have ever seen before! The lack of gore may leave some fans of the genre disappointed but I had no quarrel with it.

World War Z gives you one hell of a ride. The outbreak starts within the first 5 minutes and the film doesn't slow down from there on in. You are constantly on the edge of your seat and the whole experience is very thrilling and enjoyable. That's what surprised me about the film, I had so much fun watching it! The hordes of CGI zombies may not be the best thing you've ever seen but it sure does look cool! And one thing this film does that many other zombie films and TV shows fail to do (I'm pointing at you The Walking Dead) is make the zombies scary. None of these zombies were just cannon fodder, they were terrifying! If you got near one you are pretty much dead because they were just savage animals full of rage and would stop at nothing to get bite of you.

Brad Pitt holds this film together, he is brilliant as Gerry Lane and the best thing about the film. However it is the other characters that you don't really care about because none them have enough screen time to really shine or make you feel for them, this is something that lets the film down because a show like The Walking Dead you care for most of the characters and get upset or annoyed if they die.

But this film wasn't about emotional depth, it was about spectacle, it was about showing as many zombies as you could on screen, taking down planes and helicopters and even whole countries! The rewritten ending by Damon Lindelof may feel small in scale compared to the rest of the film but it still kicks ass! World War Z is the surprise hit of the summer and although it may lack in emotional depth it makes up for it with huge spectacular fun and that's what summer blockbusters are all about really, so therefore I am giving it a rating of 4/5.

Thanks for reading!