World War Z

A mixture of many incongruous interpretations and approaches to the zombie apocalypse theme. No surprise then that it couldn’t make a single coherent unit if it tried. But surprisingly, each one of these approaches is handled well in itself and so as the sum of many separate subsets it actually works; outstandingly so in the second half Jerusalem→ airplane→ Wales. Too bad about rating worries and so the lack of a darker tone and more gore in the final part. In the scenes where Pitt sinks his crowbar into a zombie’s head, not even Angelina would want to see a close-up of Brad’s face; whenever a drop of blood “threatens", the camera quickly pans up to Pitt’s tortured face. And considering how many times this happens, it’s almost ridiculous. Anyhow, I’m intrigued to see the potential director’s cut, because if I understand correctly, Forster had a vision, Pitt from his position of producer had a completely different one and, in the end, in the spirit of “the strongest dog gets to fuck", the studio slipped in its own version? (26/06/2013)

A passable summer blockbuster that could have done better, but trying to please the viewer’s greed it ended up as a visual one-bite snack with an unclear message. Forster presents the pandemic as Mother Nature’s way of making human trash pay for their sins, forcing them to eat themselves. The title sequence and the dulcet tones of The 2nd Law: Isolated System by Muse, a summing up by an deranged virologist (our greatest hope), this all indicates deeper thought. Then there’s a turn about when in War of the Worlds style we escape from the city (even Rachel is here) to get to a boat and then we travel the world with Brad - when I say the world, I mean basements in Korea, Jerusalem (substituted by Malta) and Britain. The whole thing holds together weirdly and it seemed to me that the storytelling structure had maybe been different (better) in a first version of the screenplay and the initial attack on Pitt’s family was meant to appear in some flashback. You can see that it’s a broken vase broke stuck back together again and it holds, but some of the pieces were newly made to fit some gaping holes. The ending in the lab is the only scene with the genre cliché of terrifying, shuffling zombies, while they are quite successful in changing them in the rest of the movie. These stiffs remind me more of Smith’s colleagues in I Am Legend. On the other hand, some individual scenes are filmed exceptionally well, they are engaging (the 3D really bothers me in dark interiors), and work excellently standing alone. The ideas that the creators pull out of the bag are sometimes very novel and refreshing. The toothless David Morse, the burned general’s tapping finger, the airplane and the laboratory chase. The mainstay of the movie is the conquest of Jerusalem, which takes your breath away. In fact, I liked it, despite all of my objections, but I can’t get rid of the feeling that this could have made a much better movie. It had the material for it... If I had to compare it to the book, I would just sadly agree that this wasn’t good. (30/06/2013)

I will admit that all I knew about this movie was that Brad Pitt put a lot of time and money in it. So I thought it might be a decent Hollywood movie. And it was. The creators somehow combined a lot of well-filmed action and added a few philosophical questions on life and family. The finale was a nice surprise. It almost seems like the screenwriter was pondering how to end this movie and wanted to have a different take at it. Why wouldn’t he, when the movie’s biggest issue is that everything is again about zombies? There is an infection spreading, so why complicate things, let’s turn people into zombies again. Why not, when it is so fashionable nowadays, even more when they run around like Usain Bolt? That’s what they’re best at, except for eating people. Well, what can I say? That’s the way it is today. (15/10/2013)

Brrrr... in this film, the ghosts of dead ambitions are haunting. The script (re-written three times) bears witness to a shift from a not entirely perceived personnel perspective (a whiff of institutional crisis and slight hints of the sociology of disaster brought to a solid level by Forster's more civilian direction), to a bombastic spectacle (action adventure structure including some sequences that are obviously "scripted" - Jerusalem), and then back to the intimate plane (a completely redesigned ending that left behind the monstrous action storyline in Russia and edited in a bit of intimate Resident Evil in a lab). In addition to the surprisingly certain directing and atmosphere, the whole thing is saved by Pitt, who, even when infected with a can in his hand, looks as if he really cares a lot about the film (perhaps it’s the x million invested in it?). At its core, I like this indecisive wash between Contagion, The Walking Dead and a forgettable "disaster" film. If only because some people had foretold that it would have the fate of the disintegrated catastrophe a la The Invasion, but the film is more like Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The individual levels are actually quite entertaining, and when one abstracts from awkward transitions, the screenwriting issues and the fact that the only thing in common with the original are the undead, it was solid fun overall. [70%] P.S. I would love to bite the idiot who came up with a film with a frenetic cadence of alternating wholes, second-long details and out of focus shots converted into 3D. If you can, just avoid this desperate attempt to save an overburdened budget. (19/06/2013)