World War Z

Whenever Hollywood decides to take a book and turn it into a movie there are inherent dangers. You could wind up with a producer/director who decides that what the author wrote doesn't "really" work on the silver screen and they take certain...liberties.  Other times you get people involved who love the book so much that they hold true to it with such fervor that you almost feel inept as a member of the audience.

World War Z (WWZ) is somewhere in between. If you read, and really enjoyed the book, you might not like the direction the movie took since the book is more about the overall experience of surviving a zombie apocalypse told by myriad members of humanity. The movie is more singularly focused, meant to have  goal that audiences could get behind and root for.

The problem is that it never delivers on that goal.

Heroes are supposed to be people we care about; people we desire for victory because to watch them fail is to feel failure ourselves. Think back to the first time you saw Star Wars: A New Hop and Luke is making his attack run on the exhaust port. When Vader has him in his sights your heart skipped a beat! But then Han swooped in and saved the day and a feeling of relief and begrudging respect and affection came washing over you.

That's where WWZ falters. The story is all wheels spinning and now resolution. You're left with a feeling of incompleteness. The family characters, who in the end pick up an extra boy after his stupid parents get murdered, create little rooting interest. And when every situation creates drama, the drama starts to lose effectiveness as a plot narrative.

The writer never achieved what he set out to achieve: make me care about what Brad Pitt is doing. When he "discovers" a way to "battle" the zombies, the audience is less than overjoyed. Why? Not because we are heartless bastards, it's because the writer failed to bring us there.