Undead and Uninteresting

Film: World War ZDirector: Marc Forster

Tandoori Chicken tastes wonderful, so does a blueberry cheese cake, but that doesn’t mean that mixing the two would serve up a delight. This is exactly what is wrong with Marc Forster’s World War Z. It mixes two universes that are scary in their own regard, but when put together; spell doom – not for the world, but for the film itself. On one hand, you have the successful formula of an epic apocalypse; but on the other, World War Z holds Zombies as the reason for a worldwide crisis.

The story revolves around UN employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to end humanity as we know it. Forced out of retirement in order to ensure the safety of his family; Gerry moves from one destroyed city to another in search of a cure. From its apparent source in Korea to an apparent safe-haven in Israel, Gerry travels around the globe trying to save what is left of mankind.

The narrative is laced with inaccuracies and general prejudices that every arrogant Hollywood production throws at you. A scene where a strategist from Israel tells Gerry about the virus outbreak in India, he says, “The Indians said they were fighting a Rakshasa.” Na huh! We Indians don’t refer to Zombies as Rakshasa and there is a day-light difference between a Rakshasa and the undead. But Hollywood doesn’t care.

The most threatening part of the film, apart from the usual sound and shock elements that raise the hair on your arms, is the fact that the source of the epidemic hasn’t been located in the film. That either hints that the script writer was unsure of how to place it in the plot or, god forbid, they are in talks for a sequel.

To sum up, World War Z brings nothing new to the raging fad that is the genre of apocalypse. The only takeaway are a few adrenaline rushes and, for the ladies, a whole lot of Brad Pitt on screen. And as the world is not on the brink of extinction as yet, just be patient for a better film to come by.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on June 22, 2013