World War Z - The Review

Are you watching,Milla Jovovich? War War Z is a zombie movie done with care. Touted as an adaptation of a book with the same name by Max Brooks , although the movie bears little semblance to it. The flick stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who travels the world to find a way to stop a zombie-like pandemic. This is one nerve-racking ,pulsating film designed to keep you at the edge of your seat.I love the movie's dynamic nature, shuttling from Philadelphia to Korea one minute and to Israel, the next.Bringing different perspectives to the picture.

(Spoiler Alert)

Gerry must navigate his family through the midst of the chaos that eschews from the Zombie outbreak in Philadelphia. His skills as an investigator are needed to find Patient Zero and a rescue helicopter is sent to take him to a aircraft carrier where his family will find shelter for the remainder part of the movie.

A smart move by the writer as it frees Gerry from the burden and monotony of the protecting his family throughout the course of the movie. So with his family safely secured, Gerry jets off to  South Korea with a virologist Dr. Andrew Fassbach to locate patient zero and find a vaccine for the virus.

Soon after landing in the military base,the virologist's life is cut shot abruptly when he falls on his gun during a skirmish with zombies on the base.Which now leaves Gerry as the sole hope to find a cure. His interview with an ex-CIA captive in the military base reveals his next destination - Israel. The Israelis had fortified and quarantined safe areas with their cities based on prior knowledge of the epidemic.

No sooner had Gerry arrived in Isreal, did the zombies figure how to scale the high fortifications surrounding the cities . Sounds from the megaphones seem to draw them and ignites a feeding frenzy. A frenzy that revealed my squeamish side. In the race to escape the zombie onslaught, Gerry notices that a frail old man and a boy possibly ailing from cancer, were avoided by the zombies. While escaping, Segen (Daniella Kertesz), Gerry's escort, is bit by a zombie. Gerry quickly amputates her arm to stop the spread of the infection.

They manage to stow away on another plane after the pilot who had brought Gerry flees in panic. The plane charts course to a WHO research facility in Cardiff.When they were just about getting to their destination,an air host unwittingly unleashes a zombie tucked away behind the toilet door. This causes Segen to launch a grenade at the zombies thereby disintegrating the plane in Ironman 3 like fashion while in midair.

Gerry along  with Segen, somehow survives the air cash. They march their way to the WHO research facility. On getting there, Gerry postulates that the virus selectively ignores seriously injured or ill individuals. To prove this,one has to inject oneself with a curable pathogen. Sounds like a plan,right? The problem is the vials are stored in a wing of the facility that is infested with dormant Zombies.

After a series of cat and mouse manuevers,Gerry finds himself locked inside a pathogen lab with zombie as its guard. The only way out is for him to try out his theory.  Zombies subsequently act like he is not even there after he injects himself. This then provides the much needed ammunition for the human offensives that begin against the zombies.

This is a far more intelligent movie from say, the Resident Evil franchise. I suspect there will be more spinoffs from this effort. Like the book, it has brought new life to the zombie genre.

Rating 9/10

by Chinedu Efoagui