DVD REVIEW: WORLD WAR Z
Thanks to the perpetual Santa Claus that is Netflix, I've been able to see movies I've missed over the summer (or that didn't look all too great to me) and rent them. I've got still quite the catch up to do, with "Pacific Rim," "Monsters U" and "Into Darkness" on the list, but I thought I'd cap it off with something cheery: the zombie apocalypse. (This is more of a filler post since the movies I'm ecstatic about seeing; "Nebraska," "Catching Fire," "American Hustle," "Desolation of Smaug," etc. will be coming out late in the year. Also expect plenty of awards coverage!)
Director Marc Foster has quite the filmography already: Oscar winners like "Finding Neverland" and "Monster's Ball," indies like "Machine Gun Preacher" and, of course, what he may never be able to live down, the oft-mocked 22nd Bond installment "Quantum of Solace." My only Bond film seen is "Skyfall," and "Neverland" was pretty cute, so I had no judgement of Mr. Foster going in.
What I DID know about "World War Z" was that it was languishing in development for several years, with script rewrites, re-shoots, just a disastrous production it sounds like. The budget was nearly $200 million, and many in Hollywood kind of wanted to see it fail like they wanted to see "Avatar" flop. More than half a billion worldwide at the box office, and it seems the haters were quieted.
Here's the thing that strikes me most about "World War Z:" it is truly no "Zombieland," no "Shaun of the Dead"...there is simply not too much fun to be had with the premise of this zombie apocalypse, which of course wouldn't be fun living, but since that scenario can only exist in the cinematic world, most adaptations of it have possessed at least a few drops of self-referencing humor. But uh...not this. Brad Pitt plays U.N. worker Gerry Lane fairly straightforward. He's given the typical loving wife/kids back story, but otherwise the character of Lane is strictly vanilla.
But perhaps I'm reading too much into "WWZ." Does a zombie epic really need solid character backdrop? The people didn't come to see Brad Pitt mull over childhood trauma after all...they came for 3D zombies. That is where the film delivers after all, especially the scene you've witnessed in the trailer where the zombies desperately scale over a wall man has created to barricade them, and the sheer carelessness of these cannibals ferociously stacking on top of one another to get their meals is a bit of a nasty delight.
Overall "World War Z" is a solid rental, and I can't help but ponder if seeing this how it was meant to be seen, in a theater with a pair of glasses and a box of popcorn would've altered my perspective since this is obviously a more "thoughtful" summer blockbuster.
Rating: 2/4 stars
Director Marc Foster has quite the filmography already: Oscar winners like "Finding Neverland" and "Monster's Ball," indies like "Machine Gun Preacher" and, of course, what he may never be able to live down, the oft-mocked 22nd Bond installment "Quantum of Solace." My only Bond film seen is "Skyfall," and "Neverland" was pretty cute, so I had no judgement of Mr. Foster going in.
What I DID know about "World War Z" was that it was languishing in development for several years, with script rewrites, re-shoots, just a disastrous production it sounds like. The budget was nearly $200 million, and many in Hollywood kind of wanted to see it fail like they wanted to see "Avatar" flop. More than half a billion worldwide at the box office, and it seems the haters were quieted.
Here's the thing that strikes me most about "World War Z:" it is truly no "Zombieland," no "Shaun of the Dead"...there is simply not too much fun to be had with the premise of this zombie apocalypse, which of course wouldn't be fun living, but since that scenario can only exist in the cinematic world, most adaptations of it have possessed at least a few drops of self-referencing humor. But uh...not this. Brad Pitt plays U.N. worker Gerry Lane fairly straightforward. He's given the typical loving wife/kids back story, but otherwise the character of Lane is strictly vanilla.
But perhaps I'm reading too much into "WWZ." Does a zombie epic really need solid character backdrop? The people didn't come to see Brad Pitt mull over childhood trauma after all...they came for 3D zombies. That is where the film delivers after all, especially the scene you've witnessed in the trailer where the zombies desperately scale over a wall man has created to barricade them, and the sheer carelessness of these cannibals ferociously stacking on top of one another to get their meals is a bit of a nasty delight.
Overall "World War Z" is a solid rental, and I can't help but ponder if seeing this how it was meant to be seen, in a theater with a pair of glasses and a box of popcorn would've altered my perspective since this is obviously a more "thoughtful" summer blockbuster.
Rating: 2/4 stars
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