I watched World War Z yesterday. With the countless hours of thought and production that go into a film like this, I just don’t see how parts of it can miss the mark of plausibility so badly.
This is what has become of mainstream American cinema. The films look great, the concepts are great, the acting is often great, and then, somewhere in the story, something ridiculous happens that takes you out of the reality of the film and you go,
“Oh, well, this sucks now.”
That’s what American films are. It is a product of our juvenile society.
Like when your kid starts to grow up, everything is going fine, you figure she’s fully into adulthood, and then she dyes her hair purple and trips on the sidewalk and cries for an hour even though there’s nothing wrong with her knee.
Not her fault. She’s not ready yet. She’s a tween.
The following instances in the film World War Z made me come realize this. The movie is stunningly shot and executed in parts. And yet…
1) Brad Pitt plays a former United Nations investigator, who by all accounts was the best in the business. Yet, he has the hair of a guy on a Speedo billboard. There should have been at least one scene where some Navy Seals had the token what’s up with that guy’s hair conversation.
2) In the first scene, a Mack Truck barrels through a Philadelphia street and sends approximately 50 cars exploding out of its way. These cars fly fifty feet into the air – even though the truck is driving maybe 30 miles an hour. Big-rigs are indeed powerful, but in reality the truck would have plowed through like five cars and gotten stuck.
3) In one of the opening scenes, Pitt and family escape to a small apartment where a Hispanic man and his family are holed up. In a pretty lame product placement, the man offers Pitt and his Pitt Wife a Budweiser. Anyone in that situation would be hoarding all of their Budweiser and not offer it to strangers.
4) After the Hispanic family is killed off, the newly diverse Pitt family escapes with an eight year old kid who is somehow completely unfazed by the fact that his entire family was just eaten by zombies. In fact, he seems to be digging it.
5) This is just an annoying thing I observed: It is discovered that Jerusalem is leading the world in anti-zombie tactics, because they had the presence of mind to build a giant wall around their city. Interesting. After an impressive display of their militaristic competence, it is further explained that Israel is now letting in anyone who wants to come through their borders, because that means they will have less people trying to kill them. The political metaphors here are embarrassing.
6) While in Jerusalem, Brad Pitt notices a sick kid who gets caught in the middle of a zombie raid. The zombies avoid the kid, because, as we later learn, he is terminally ill, and zombies have a natural aversion to this. However, the zombies don’t simply not notice the kid – they tiptoe around him like he’s a sleeping roommate. These are the same zombies that routinely bust their heads through windshields without discern.
7) Brad Pitt cuts off a woman’s hand with a blunt bayonet in one swoop, and then proceeds to stop it from bleeding by wrapping an effeminate scarf around it (that he is wearing.)
8) Later, Brad Pitt injects himself with a virus, and, is immediately considered terminally ill by these zombies. If you know anything about pathology, he wouldn’t be ill yet.
This movie had potential. And it may in fact grow up. Who knows? Maybe it isn’t ready yet. But that’s what we like. We don’t want something for adults. We aren’t ready either.