I chose this partly for being relatively popular and partly because Netflix will drop it at the end of the month. Aside from that, all I knew going in was what the Z stood for. The first question in my mind was how the story would differ from that of the quintessential Dawn of the Dead.
Well, for starters, there is an unambiguous protagonist, Gerry (Brad Pitt), whose background as a UN investigator makes him especially important to combatting the viral zombie outbreak. Only about half an hour in, he gets his wife (Mireille Enos) and daughters (Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove) from overrun Philly to a reasonably safe outpost. But even favor from the UN deputy secretary-general (Fana Mokoena) won't let them all live there indefinitely; Gerry has to pull his weight by going back into danger for clues on how to vaccinate against zombification. And yes, the characters do say "zombie" eventually.
As zombies go, they're not too hideous. They don't look putrescent or even gory, hence the lack of an R rating, tho they develop odd stretch marks after a while. They don't even seem interested in devouring anyone, only biting, which makes sense from a virus standpoint. Still pretty scary, because infectees appear to be in endless agony within seconds. They lurch only when they don't sense any healthy people around, running otherwise. Infiltrators are advised to stay quiet and, believe it or not, avoid killing them if possible, because that fires up the rest.
True to the title, there's a pretty strong military presence, reminding me of Aliens in contrast to Alien. The only soldier I deem worth caring about is an unnamed Israeli lieutenant (Daniella Kertesz) who loses a hand to avoid infection. She's what I want from an action movie woman who isn't a superhero: tough and useful but emotional and credible.
Intelligent? Now and then, which is more than I can say for some zombie flicks. Gerry can be resourceful, as when he tapes a magazine to his arm for armor against teeth. I also appreciate that there's no major conflict among the uninfected. But every so often, someone does something I would charitably call "flaky." And IMDb lists a number of major factual errors, a few of which I noticed.
It didn't take me long to determine I was going to give WWZ an average score. A worthy addition to my Halloween viewings, but hardly a capstone. I hope to end the month on something a bit more enjoyable.
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