World
War Z: ***/*****, or 7/10
Huge
big budget blockbuster adaptation, albeit loosely, of the Max Brooks
novel of the same name. More serious in tone, the film explores the
consequences of a viral pandemic that turns its victims into zombies,
only driven by the urge to infect more people. A star vehicle for
Brad Pitt, World War Z follows an ex-UN employee who is
blackmailed by his former superiors into tracking down the origin of
the plague in exchange for the guarantee his wife and children are
protected from the terrors of the outside world. Unfortunately, it
turns out it's not so easy to pinpoint just where the virus
originated, necessitating him to travel around the globe whilst
following various breadcrumbs in hopes of finding an answer, and if
possible, a cure. Of course, this results in an array of close calls
with ravenous zombies in various major cities, including New York,
Philadelphia and Jeruzalem. The movie incorporates both close
encounters with only a few zombies as well as major zombie offensives
against large human populations as seen through Pitt's eyes. It's the
former that make for the most suspenseful edge-of-your-seat moments,
while the latter gobble up the vast majority of the FX budget, as we
see zombie armies attacking helicopters and city walls in force. Such
scenes look grandiose and work equally well as further examples of
ever active post 9/11 paranoia, but ultimately feel hollow compared
to Pitt's more personal experiences up close with the creepy undead.
However, in those instances, these zombies just don't appear as
frightening or disturbing as those of previous zombie flicks. In
fact, if you're watching the TV-show The Walking Dead on a
regular basis, World War Z offers little you have not seen
before (save for zombie attacks on a bigger scope) and certainly
isn't as poignant as a parable showcasing the failure of humans to
work together for mutual survival, nor delivers it any moments of
intense horror and gore that can match that show's contents. As an
exploration of the legitimacy of our fears for pandemics, this movie
also proves less effective as more scientific accurate fare the likes
of Contagion: think of it more as the silly popcorn variety of
that more intelligent type of flick. In addition, Brad Pitt is much
too big a movie star to convincingly play the everyman out for basic
survival and answers in a world overrun by the living dead. A less
well known actor would have worked better for this movie's purposes,
but in this day and age of ever increasing numbers of Hollywood
flops, studios are afraid to make summer movies that cannot benefit
from having big names to draw in audiences. World War Z
witnessed its fair share of production problems, including a need for
drastic rewrites and 20 million dollar reshoots of its entire third
act. To the credit of those involved, you wouldn't think this film
experienced such obstacles, as it has a fairly solid ending –
including a surprising method of avoiding zombie contact – that
still leaves ample room for an unavoidable sequel or two.
Warm
Bodies: ****/*****, or 7/10
Zombies
admittedly are having a big break on the silver screen this year.
While World War Z is the sort of epic flick meant for the
usual audiences blockbuster movies are made for, the zom-romcom Warm
Bodies should attract crowds looking for more unusual horrific
fare, and even – gods willing – teenage girls that want to fill
the gap left by the finale of the Twilight movies by exploring
similar themed films. Fortunately, the fact this movie combines
thematic elements from the horror genre with all the qualities of
romance is as far as the parallel between Twilight and Warm
Bodies ought to be drawn, as the latter is a delightful off-beat
comedy that hopefully will stay a one-shot instead of being milked
for many more movies to come. The film follows R (Nicholas Hoult of
X-Men: First Class and Jack the Giant Slayer fame), a
teenage zombie male who does what zombies usually do: incoherently
move about the place looking for people to eat, either alone or in a
pack with his undead friends. One day he happens upon the brains of a
living teenage boy, and after devouring them finds he is attracted to
his girlfriend Julie (Teresa Palmer), the sole survivor of the zombie
attack that claimed her boyfriend's life. Hiding her from the other
living corpses, R soon displays amorous behavior towards her, or
attempts at such as good as any dead boy could make, and because of
these sudden feelings appears to regain his past humanity slowly but
surely. Eventually the plot allows for a certain degree of romance
between the pair which is developed compellingly enough to make it
rise above its ludicrous premise. The problem the fledgling lovers
face is how to overcome the prejudices dominant in a world where one
group in society aims to eat the other. Matters are complicated by
the fact Julie's father (John Malkovich) is the stern and
uncompromising leader of the human survivors, while the rise of a
subspecies of zombies named 'Bonies', zombies so far gone they have
lost every shred of humanity and form a danger to both humans and
regular zombies, also is cause for concern. Can R and Julie's mutual
love for each other bridge the differences between both groups in
time for man and dead man to overcome their hatred and unite against
their common foe? As the movie draws towards its close, the plot
focuses more on action and the expected preachy messages, but it's
the first half of the movie that makes for a wonderfully funny
viewing experience totally worth your while as R, via voice-over,
details his dreary everyday life, illustrating a zombie's daily
routine to hilarious results. While people who might fear the love
affair between live girl and dead boy is not convincingly carried
through, they're in for a nice surprise. In fact, it turns out
there's not so much difference between the awkward experiences of
young love as seen through a dead boy's eyes as there is from a
living one. Few guys who tried to hit on girls in their teen years
won't recall similar instances of acting odd in front of the opposite
sex that made them wish they were dead, right?
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