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Overall, it soon became clear that for something that’s been so hyped – and for over a year – World War Z is a major disappointment. There is some zombie action which is very well done, as described above, while earlier, the action camera work is done like a cameraman with Parkinson’s who’s jumping about on a space hopper. They can’t even organise a decent conclusion here, either. And, like Man of Steel, there’s a complete lack of humour on display, all of which made me feel, if you want to do a zombie film these days, Edgar Wright is your man, as proved in Shaun of the Dead.
Acting-wise, no-one really does much to write home about. Brad Pitt does what he does, his screen family tag along, and the only other two actors who stood out did so because they made me think “Hey, that’s….!”, namely The Thick Of It‘s Peter Capaldi as a doctor from the World Health Organisation (thus named “W.H.O. Doctor”) and the ubiquitous David Morse (below), who turns up in a five-minute cameo. Shame he wasn’t around for longer. John Gordon Sinclair‘s appearance as a Navy SEAL Commander must’ve been a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it… and I must’ve blinked.
And a couple of other asides. While wifey is stuck on the aircraft carrier and is given a mobile phone to communicate with hubby, she types his number in as ‘Gerry’. Fair enough, but she does this with a phone’s usual hackneyed keypad and while the last number would go through W, X, Y and Z, hers somehow skips straight from W to Y. Don’t they have “X” in the U.S. alphabet?
Also, while I’m a fan of 3D films, I saw this particular one in 2D. The reason for that was because, like a lot of summer blockbusters including Man of Steel, The Wolverine, Star Trek Into Darkness and a lot of Pacific Rim, World War Z wasn’t even filmed in 3D. It was all done in post-production.
So what’s the point of paying extra for something that’s fake?
The director of this movie is Marc Forster. The last film I saw from him was 2008’s Quantum of Solace which, at the time, was the worst Bond movie made to date, and the shortest at 106 minutes. Somehow he managed to make a film which was even less worthy in World War Z. Still, at least his Bond crown has been beaten following Sam Mendes’ bore-fest, the 143-minute yawn-a-thon that was Skyfall.
Cert: 
Running time: 116 minutes
Year: 2013
Released: June 21st 2013
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (ARRIRAW (2.8K))
Rating: 5/10
Director: Marc Forster
Producers: Ian Bryce, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt
Screenplay: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof (based on the book by Max Brooks)
Music: Marco Beltrami
Additional Music: Matt Bellamy
Cast:
Gerry Lane: Brad Pitt
Karin Lane: Mireille Enos
Segen: Daniella Kertesz
Captain Speke: James Badge Dale
Jurgen Warmbrunn: Ludi Boeken
Parajumper: Matthew Fox
Thierry Umutoni: Fana Mokoena
Ex-CIA Agent: David Morse
Andrew Fassbach: Elyes Gabel
W.H.O. Doctor: Peter Capaldi
Constance Lane: Sterling Jerins
Rachel Lane: Abigail Hargrove
Tomas: Fabrizio Zacharee Guido
Naval Commander: David Andrews
Navy SEAL Commander: John Gordon Sinclair
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.