World War Z is like
a hastily made pizza. It is flat, cheesy in some parts with different portions
of it tasting different. It will fulfill your hunger for the time being but
will leave you wanting for something that is more complete. The movie plays out
like a series of distinct scenarios that are loosely connected into a story.
Each scenario involves some people who have to complete some task by going from
point A to point B with obstacles presented in their path by (you guessed it!)
zombies. There is no overall theme of the movie ,except that it's a zombie
apocalypse movie, nor is there any emotional core or driving force to the
movie. The special effects are great and some of the visuals are stunning ,but
no amount of seasoning and ketchup would hide the fact that you have a poorly
made pizza.
Brad Pitt plays a
retired U.N. investigator whose peaceful domestic life is thrown into a
disarray when a virus starts turning people into zombies everywhere. He is
trapped with his family in the city and there is anarchy everywhere. There are
some chase scenes and finally after one night his family is extracted and now
they are safe aboard an aircraft carrier that now functions as the headquarters
of the anti-zombie operation. Now Brad Pitt's character travels around the
globe looking for clues to find the origin of the virus and stop the
apocalypse. The movie tries to show how different countries in the world would
cope with a zombie apocalypse. North Korea pulls out the teeth of the whole
population while Israel builds a huge wall. The movie culminates at a WHO
health centre where there is a hide-and-seek sequence with the zombies to find
a solution to the problem.
Brad Pitt gives a
fine performance but he plays a flat character with no depth, backstory or
development. He is the perfect family man, the ideal soldier and always knows
what to say and do. There is no set-up as to how he knows the things he knows
except some reminders throughout the movie that he was a U.N. investigator.
Whenever he does something you are forced to think, "How did he know to do
that? Umm… I guess he was in the U.N. , so he must know " . His only
vulnerability is his family that is safely aboard the aircraft carrier. In
other words, he is boring.
His family serves no purpose in the movie except in the beginning when they are
looking for safety. There is no fixed supporting cast. Each country he goes to
there is a different supporting cast. Hence no other character gets enough
screen time and hence it is hard to associate with any character in the movie.
The only interesting
characters in the movie are the zombies. The CGI zombies as well as the zombies
played by real actors, with make-up and real twitching, are quite fun to watch
and sometimes really scare you. They create some of the memorable visuals of
this movie including the zombie-pyramid at the wall in Israel.
In summary , World
War Z feels like a series of events strung together played out by flat
characters. Only the visuals are remarkable and that too only around halfway
through the movie. You get a sense that something big is about to happen
towards the end but nothing happens contrary to the buildup in the other parts
of the movie. The ending feels abrupt and incomplete(maybe they are planning a
sequel).
now i suddenly have a craving for pizza :-)
ReplyDeletesorry...that was not my intention.
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