Review: World War Z (Cinema)

Good

Sometime in the near future for reasons fleetingly covered but not explained in World War Z (WWZ), a terrifying virus will spread across the planet and mutate mankind into non-conscious zombies with no free will, the zombies sole desire is to colonise the world and make everyone just like them, terrorising mankind in the process as they orally pass on the virus and transform the remaining humans into zombies.

Anyone walking out of the cinema believing they've just watched two hours of frequently anti-Islamic symbology, well, you're not the first.

WWZ has budget over the normal horror movie, I think because it's positioned more as a thriller with occasional gnashing teeth. I don't recall there being any blood at all. There were some extremely tense moments during a great opening twenty minutes, one epic sequence in Isreal at the midpoint, a zombie attack on a plane and some shenanigans in a laboratory that felt it should have been the springboard for an epic end and not the end itself.

WWZ is good. Brad is good. For the first third the tension is really cranked up and in 3D, I've never been more aware of seeing a 3D environment. But the story quickly evolves down to Brad and co., globe hopping through near zombification moments to the very end. It's frenetic, it is near death but it all feels popcorn with little actual threat. For a movie about a global epidemic there is little other than the frenzied zombie attack on Jerusalem to give any real sense of the global. An attack as it happens, caused by happy clappy religious types singing to the glory of god for sparing them, which drives the zombies into a frothing rage.

WWZ has a lot of promise and serves up some great entertainment but nothing better in my opinion than your standard Friday night DVD.