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Finally got around to seeing World War Z. I had pretty low expectations going in, and the movie only managed to just barely surpass them. Spoilers ahead.
What I liked:
Truly epic scenes of zombie mayhem and some well directed action sequences like the plane infection break out.
What I didn't like:
very bland characters, bland resolution, very little done to address the breakdown of social order or the breakdown of infrastructure needed to keep survivors alive.
The only reason this movie managed to surpass my expectations is because it managed to do at least one thing right, and I expected nothing to be done right. The scenes in Isreal and the plane flight out of Isreal were pretty spectacular and well-staged, I have to admit. It had a few other nice touches here and there, like North Korea's solution to the zombie outbreak. The soundtrack wasn't bad either.
The problem was the screenplay- in an effort to make the characters likable, the screenwriters robbed them of personality or plausibility. Particularly bad was the protagonist's wife, with no disrespect to the actress who played her, who did what she could with such poorly written role, emotionally supportive but physically dependent. What an albatross. There is also the standard lapses in logic like, why is there still electrical power? Where is all the food and water coming from? How can professional television broadcasts still be produced after most of the civilized world has been destroyed and the bulk of its population killed?
Reportedly the original third act was to take place in Russia, and it involved the protagonist being conscripted into an army to fight against the zombies which stretched over a time period of months. I think this would have been a more dramatically satisfying ending than the trite solution found at the W.H.O. A brutal slog would have been more plausible and interesting than a magic bullet. All in all, I would say the movie is worth watching as long as you manage your expectations and don't take it too seriously.
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