I am definitely not a zombie movie genre expert by any stretch, but I really do love the theme of "zombie invasion" as a plot device for a number of reasons.
1. It's fun to develop my own strategies for surviving a zombie apocalypse (Note to self: after watching World War Z I think I need to work on cardiovascular fitness and marksmanship). For the 2005 movie Land of the Dead (spoiler alert) the zombies were distracted by fireworks, affectionately called "Sky Flowers" by the zombies. I found this both hilarious and ingenious.
2. Zombie movies are suspenseful when done well, but I don't find them as scary as serial killer movies where I can't help but worry that I am definitely going to get stabbed on my way home.
3. Zombie invasions are like pandemics, but without the uncomfortable feeling that someday the pandemic might actually happen and then we really are all going to die at once (Free advice: don't watch the movie Contagion on a plane). I am sure there are those who would disagree with me, but I still group zombies among the "make-believe" creatures.
But I digress. Back to the movie...and spoiler alert number two - stop reading if you're waiting to see WWZ.
I was surprised by how quickly this movie got going. It starts out with Brad Pitt, as Gerry Lane, at home with his family, clearly the doting dad who has given up his career to hang out with the kids and make pancakes. Life seems pretty great, and even though there are other parts of the world that declaring martial law everything seems pretty safe and sound at home in Philly. If he misses his old line of work he's pretty good at smiling and squinting his blue eyes and burying his feelings in pancakes. You can't help but like the guy. Everything takes a turn for the worse however, once the family goes to leave the house. The streets are grid-locked, nobody knows what is going on and pandemonium quickly erupts as the first zombie attack takes place.
These zombies are extremely fast, vicious biters, and their eyes look like they've got the worst cataracts you could ever imagine. I usually think of zombies as slower moving beasts, but these ones move at an alarming speed, which made for some startling moments during the movie. Gerry Lane is in touch with his old buddies in the UN, who offer his family protection in exchange for Gerry's skills to help solve the origins of the zombie pandemic, and thus develop a strategy to escape the zombie attacks. In Dirty Dancing Speak, they put Baby in a corner in a big way, and of course he has to go solve the world's zombie problem.
Apparently, the ending of this movie was re-written and the final version we see in theatres in different from the original cut. I think the question ultimately came down to: does Gerry go on a zombie killing spree or does he become the hero who figures out how to survive them? Given the original light in which he is portrayed earlier in the film, the hero version does seem to work well. I get the sense too that there is the expectation of a World War Z film franchise, and there is enough left at the end to make this possible, but not so much that you leave the theatre unsatisfied. I liked this film a lot, and I think it's one to watch this summer. I did not see the 3D version because I don't like 3D movies usually (I can rant about that another day). I will close with a picture of the zombie pile up from the movie. These zombies are good at team work, which adds another layer to their lethality. In short - just go see it!
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| Zombies are really good at building human pyramids. |
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