Last night my wife and I were lucky enough to attend an advanced screening of the upcoming zombie apocalypse film, World War Z. Going into the movie I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, I was a little unsure of the visuals from the trailer showing high speed zombies creating makeshift towers of themselves to scale buildings, and I have to admit the idea of a film rated with a PG-13 (or 14A rating here in Canada) showing zombies had me a little nervous; after all, what is a zombie movie without the blood and gore?
As it turns out, the movie was pretty fun! It had a lot of great scares, more than a few really intense sequences and it worked well as both a global overview and as a personal story involving one family. I’m currently reading the original novel, so I’ll have to hold off on how the film compares to the original book, but I think it’s safe to say they are two different things – with the movie potentially being the first in a potential trilogy.
The viewing we saw was in 3D, and although it didn’t give me a headache like last year’s John Carter, I didn’t feel the 3D was in any way necessary. What I did really enjoy however was the music, much of it performed by the band MUSE.
All in all, a lot of the frightening sequences in the film involved the collapse of modern society, rather than the monsters (which were quite frightening in their own right), which I think was a pretty smart move. Although the book has no specific main character, I think the audience needed someone to follow as they move through this story, and honestly I really liked Brad Pitt’s portrayal of a man doing the best he can to save his family.
If the sequels get greenlit, I would definitely be interested in checking them out.
