Movie review: World War Z a bust

(115 minutes, rated PG-13 for violence, language, adult situations and scenarios)

(1 star out of 10)

There is little doubt in many critics' opinion that Brad Pitt is an exceptional actor. I have watched the vast majority of his work, including his latest film, World War Z, and there is little argument he is a truly gifted artist.

I'm hoping maybe one day he will be able to pick out a script that is worth a bucket of spit.

The behemoth-budgeted and latest entry into the string of hopeful, yet mediocre summer blockbusters is Pitt's World War Z. The premise is the same as every other zombie movie to come lumbering down the Hollywood track of late. A virus has mutated and affected all of humanity, short a few actors, who spend the entirety of the movie avoiding being bitten (because that is the only way to ever spread a zombie virus) and seeking an eventual cure.

World War Z, with a production cost well in excess of $200 million and thus making it a Top 20 movie in terms of producing, is more than visually appealing and it is truly remarkable how good movies can look when that kind of money is invested. However, short of a few performances, that is about all that is good here.

The film is based, from my understanding, very loosely on a book by Max Brooks, son of Hollywood comedic legend Mel Brooks, and the iconic actress, Anne Bancroft. I cannot comment on Brooks' writing style or abilities because I have not read more than the first ten pages of the novel, but if I am judging based solely by the end result of the movie, Max got his mother's sensibilities and his father's looks.

The book that Brooks penned was an oral history of the zombie apocalypse and to his defense, the movie is nothing at all like that, solely focusing on Pitt from start to end.

Pitt plays a United Nations pandemic disease investigator, for lack of a better title, who before the whole zombie thing worked in every abject-poverty hole in the world stopping outbreaks of cholera, ebola, and syphilis. Then at the incessant nagging of his wife, he retires to a desk job in Philadelphia. We are subject to all this seen-it-a-million-times drivel prior to the arrival of the first zombie.

Yeah. Snore.

The scuttlebutt in the Hollywood tabloids is that it took more than the five credited writers to complete the movie. Evidently there were a few who tried their hand at fixing the screenplay who said no thanks for the screen credit. Now I understand why they reshot the third act. Why invest $133 million when you can go full-out $200 million?

When the zombies finally do appear is when the film lost me entirely. For whatever reason the team of writers, headed by Matthew Michael Carnahan, ignored the laws of physics, biology and well, logic when it came to human zombies.

In the World War Z world zombies seemingly acquire super powers of speed, strength and a stunning ability to take a punch or bullet. The movie provides no real biological reason for the zombie to want to bite healthy humans other than we would lack a plot point. We do not see zombies eat the non-zombies for sustenance or anything like that. Evidently, they just want to bite someone and make a friend.

We do see that this virus allows them to move much like cheetahs, have the strength of gorillas, the ability to build human walls hundreds of feet tall all without the ability to communicate. Maybe A-Rod can have part of this virus injected into him by Biogenesis.

Biology as an impediment? Not in this movie. For the zombie, it is simply bite and, poof, within 10 seconds the virus has mutated inside the human body. Mind you there are approximately 100 trillion human cells for the virus to commandeer in that 10-second window (or 400 billion in the brain) but who cares about DNA replication that works faster than nicotine when spending $200 million.

I am not exaggerating. It is 10 seconds. It is a plot device.

As I said there were some performances that stood out. Relative newcomer Mireille Enos played Pitt's wife and did an exceptional job of convincing me of someone who is terrorized, yet attempting to stay strong so she can fight for her children's life as best she can.

In the middle of all this jumping from white-knuckle chase to white-knuckle chase David Morse shows up and knocks the socks off his little corner of the movie. Although I am not sure Morse was that good or if he was just such a welcome respite.

Director Marc Foster should get some kudos, too. He got mostly wonderful performances out of his actors and together with cinematography from Ben Seresin and editing from Roger Barton and Matt Cheese, this was a wonderfully visual movie. Hats off to the CGI department too.

In the long line of big-budget summer movies, World War Z is a bust. I strongly suggest you avoid this one and see one of the other mediocre movies that are populating the multiplexes across the country.

In fact, go to the bookstore and find a potential script for Brad Pitt that is worth a #^$@.

I give this move 1 star out of 10.

About the Author

Who was that mysterious man you saw in the theater last night? You tried to get a look at him but he quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke, his cackle trailing in the air, leaving behind his calling card: a half-eaten box of popcorn and a lukewarm soda. He is Our Movie Reviewer named Tim!