World War Z

Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, & Daniella Kertesz

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

When the first World War Z book was published it took young readers by storm and climbed to the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list. It was destine to become a movie, especially now, with the popularity of zombies, but ultimately, the highly anticipated film fails to deliver anything different. U.N. Employee, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), is out with his family when a recently discovered virus hits the United States and all hell breaks loose. The first 45 minutes of this film were literally like the pilot of The Walking Dead. No one knows what's going on, people are panicking, it was all very predictable. The film does go into a different direction after that, but how many different ways of doing a zombie film are there? Lane starts traveling the world seeking a cure for the disease, while at the same time trying to avoid being attacked. The unfortunate fact is that no matter how good the acting or the writing, there is very little you can actually do with a zombie film. The zombies and the circumstances behind the outbreak are always a little different, but ultimately it becomes about survival or the race to find a cure. Brad Pitt is terrific, and as I have been saying for year, it doesn't matter how good looking the guy is, he belongs in action films! This is the genre where he excels and even though World War Z was painfully predictable, Pitt makes it worth watching. He is the focus of the story and it takes a lot of quick thinking and tremendous stunts to keep him alive. For me that was the best part of the film. There was a lot of hype behind World War Z and it was a very intense film, but like I said, there is very little you can do with an end of the world/zombie film that hasn't been done over and over again. While some what entertaining, World War Z is ultimately just another copy cat.