| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | Film Review |
I’m not sure at exactly what point over the last couple of years London became THE city for major film world premieres, but I’m delighted it has. Sunday was the turn of Brad Pitt’s apocalyptic zombie thriller, World War Z, to premiere in Leicester Square. Underlining the stature of the event, Pitt was in attendance with his wife, Angelina Jolie, and folks, it doesn’t get more A-list than that.
As for the film, it’s based on the brilliant book by Max (son of Mel) Brooks and covers the outbreak of a mysterious virus that has turned much of Earth’s population into zombies. The remaining survivors are left with a relatively short task-list: one, somehow survive and two, find a cure. After securing a safe haven for his family, former UN worker Gerry Lane, played by Pitt, is tasked with the second part of that list.
This involves flying from New Jersey to South Korea to Jerusalem and finally to Cardiff (yes, really), to locate either the first victim or an alternative, initially less obvious, remedy. Each location Pitt stops at features a major set-piece where he and his various aides encounter another set of rampaging, marauding and other verbs that connote mass panic, zombies. We’re talking zombie numbers on a hitherto unseen scale. Zombies, thousands of them.
Essentially, World War Z is these four set-pieces strung together by less involving expositional scenes but when the set-pieces are as brilliantly staged and nail-bitingly tense as they are here, it’s impossible to complain. Each one ups the ante on the one before and the extended finale set in a Welsh laboratory will have people causing major damage to cinema arm-rests.
If you’d previously heard or read anything about this film prior to release, it was more than likely about the troubled history and production. I’m glad to report any remnants from this are barely noticeable on screen and Pitt (also producer) and director Marc Forster have delivered an action-packed and, at times, thrilling spectacle which continues 2013’s already huge summer film slate.