Very loosely based on the novel: ‘World War Z’ by Max Brooks, this film adaptation directed by Marc Forster attempts to tell an enormous globe-trotting story of a spreading zombie virus, and although it does have a few entertaining elements here and there, so much so that it was one of the highest-grossing films of 2013. I personally found the film to be extremely messy, and overall, pretty forgettable.

Plot Summary: After narrowly escaping an attack in Philadelphia, former United Nations employee: ‘Gerry Lane,’ traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, soon threatening the survival of humanity itself…

Even with a pretty standard plot for a zombie flick, the film unfortunately is still brimming with plenty of cliché moments and jump-scares throughout, in addition, of course, to the film’s overall lack of style. Making the entire experience really struggle to stand on its own amongst the many other films within its genre, which I do feel can be mostly put down to the director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction, Christopher Robin).

Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos both do a decent job as ‘Gerry’ and ‘Karin Lane’ within the film, despite their characters having pretty much no characterisation outside of them being a loving family. Their children, however, portrayed by Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove. I found very irritating, as aside from their constant screaming and crying, their child performances weren’t very convincing to me at all. Strangely, Peter Capaldi also has a small role within the film, despite barley adding anything to the story.

Ben Seresin handles the cinematography throughout the film, and aside from a few scenes were hand-held camera techniques are used to reflect the chaos we see during many of the zombie attacks, many of the visuals are extremely flat. As the cinematography is very bland and uninspired, usually sticking to very standard shots and never really experimenting with anything incredibly interesting. The CG effects throughout the film’s runtime are also very inconsistent, as in some scenes the visual effects work perfectly fine. Whereas in others, they look truly awful, with many of the zombies bouncing around as if they were made out of rubber. I do appreciate the various aerial shots which are used during many of these scenes, however, as I feel these shots really incapsulate the enormous scale of the film’s devastating pandemic.

The film’s original score by Marco Beltrami is decent overall, it works within the film to increase what tension and drama there is on-screen. But outside of the film, it isn’t memorable in the slightest. Coming off as your standard blockbuster soundtrack with the occasional: ‘Inception’ noise thrown in for good measure, it is very possible the score was rushed. As for those who may not know, ‘World War Z’ actually went through a very troubled production process, as multiple different directors, writers and producers were brought-on and then dropped off constantly. This is mostly why the film sometimes feels very unconnected and messy (which also isn’t helped by its quick pacing). Taking this into account, the film definitely could’ve been far worse, but I still found it very noticeable.

Despite all of this, the film does still have some elements I enjoy, as it is simply fun to watch the madness ensue at various points during the film, as the hordes of zombies bring chaos to the streets of whatever city the film finds itself in. My favourite scene within the film is definitely near it’s ending, as the film takes a very different direction in choosing to focus on a small tension-filled scene, which I thought was pretty well-executed for the most part.

In conclusion, ‘World War Z’ isn’t the worst big-budget film you could spend your time watching, it definitely has a variety of problems. From the predictable and generic plot, to the boring characters and the mix of poor CG effects and writing. Which all ensured that I wasn’t such a huge fan, but if you enjoy a mindless zombie blockbuster every so often, then there may be some enjoyment in this for you. But for me personally, ‘World War Z’ simply felt like a hollow experience, and is nothing more than a generic zombie flick. Final Rating: 3/10.