Time: 115 minutes (Unrated Version: 122 minutes)
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I'm not the biggest fan of zombies, but I've grown to like zombie stories in the last couple years. Mainly this comes from reading books like Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy and Rhiannon Frater's The Last Bastion of the Living among others. I read World War Z when it came out and enjoyed it very much. But hearing about a movie version concerned me. I wasn't sure about whether it would translate very well. I had even more reservations about Brad Pitt, who isn't a favorite of mine. I usually find him kind of boring, like Tobey Maguire, he's in the film, but I usually find the other actors in the film more interesting (examples: Tom Cruise and Kristen Dunst in Interview with the Vampire, Bruce Willis and the directing style of Terry Gillam in 12 Monkeys, Morgan Freeman and the dark story of Se7en) than him.
At first, my concerns seemed to be justified. Brad Pitt is the only major actor in the film. David Morse has a small (cameo might be a overstatement) as a CIA operative who knows something and Peter Capaldi appears in the last third of the film as a W.H.O. Doctor (ironic since will become the next Doctor Who in December). IMdb says Matthew Fox is a paratrooper, but I'd have to watch the film to look out for him. Since almost every Brad Pitt movie I can think of features at least one major actor with him, I didn't like this idea.
The movie has a great deal of suspense and a fair amount of gore. The PG-13 was a bone of contention for some people who believe that all horror movies should be R rated and then pray for an Unrated cut. The gore level is kind of muted but the real reason for the PG-13 rating is really because of the lack of adult language. If Gerry or some other character said a couple F-words, then an R would have popped up.
Overall, the movie was better than I thought it would be. It's a smart, thought-provoking zombie movie that should start a franchise of World War Z movies (or maybe a Showtime series).
My Grade: B.
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