World War Z Review

It's been quite the journey for World War Z in getting to the theater. It was originally scheduled to come out in December of last year, but due to same major internal conflicts which was mostly due to a poor ending to the original script, the movie was postponed for six months and that ending was completely scrapped. Damon Lindelof and a couple others were brought on to fix the problem by writing a brand new ending. One can imagine the level of stress as all this is unfolding. As the movie finally neared its final release date, many fingers were being crossed that it would all work out. All this led to many believing that World War Z would be one of the summer's box office flops, but there must've been many sighs of relief as box office numbers totally exceeded expectations (projections for the movie were in the high $30 millions to low $40 millions, but the movie instead scored in the upper $60 millions). However, not only did this huge venture pay off financially, but in my opinion it also totally payed off movie-wise as I thought this movie was fantastic!

World War Z is based off of Max Brook's novel of the same title that came out in 2006. I have not read that novel, but from what I hear it is given from the prospective of a writer interviewing people after a zombie outbreak ends. The movie takes a much different approach by going with the present point of view (no interviewer or flashbacks) starting at the beginning of the outbreaks. Going in I was expecting an entertaining end of the world movie full of zombie action and yes, I did get that, but I also got something that was a lot more than just that. The movie is a super intense zombie thriller that is borderline horror. It's not the non-stop action style that I was expecting. It goes back and forth from zombie action to quiet scenes the whole movie and thus it is quite terrifying. If you don't like jump scenes, don't see this movie because they occur over and over from beginning to end. Definitely keep small children far from this movie as it will give them zombie nightmares for months. Personally I loved this, though. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time scared to death of what was going to happen next. Also on this note, the zombies were awesome. What made them awesome was that they were very human. They weren't your typical gross and gory undead monsters. Just humans. Crazy, hyper, super fast, morbid humans. And once you got bit by a zombie, you were turned in about 10 seconds into one and thus the zombies multiplied rapidly, instantly destroying cities while causing mass chaos throughout.

What really made this movie so awesome was that it wasn't just an action packed zombie horror/thriller. It had a great story to go along with it. Yes, I can enjoy brainless action movies when I'm in the mood, but this wasn't one of them. It was smart. It also had a fantastic lead role in Brad Pitt and he almost single-handedly carries this movie to greatness with his superb performance. I especially have to give a round of applause to Damon Lindelof and the other writers that came on and fixed the ending, because that ending I thought was the best part of the movie. I am disappointed that the trailer spoiled the plane scene right before the ending, but it was still awesome as well (if you don't know what I'm talking about, forget that I just said that) and was apparently where the re-writing started. Visually the movie was a spectacle. I hear some people complaining about the look of the zombies, but I don't understand where they are coming from. I was really pleased that when we got to see the zombies close up, much of them weren't actually CGI. Sure, when it got the scenes like the mountain of zombies climbing the wall of Jerusalem, those were CGI. But I still think they looked really good, so none of the CGI bothered me at all. Also, if you are expecting a completely realistic movie, you probably shouldn't go watch a zombie movie in the first place.

Overall this movie was quite the thrill ride for me. When it finished, I myself breathed a sigh of relief because for a moment or two during the movie I felt like I wasn't going to come out alive. I felt like I was going to get attacked by those zombies and get transformed into one myself, but I made it. Like I said, if you don't like movies with tons of jump scenes, this movie isn't for you. But if you do like those movies, you're going to love this because it is all around a fantastically fun movie and one of the best movies of the summer. How does it compare to our other zombie movie this year in Warm Bodies? Well, hard to compare because it is completely different, but I would pick World War Z. I'd also call this the best end of the world movie this year and we've gotten quite a few of those this year, so that's saying something. World War Z gets a 9 out of 10 from me.