Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Fana Makoena, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, David Morse, Ludi Boeken, Peter Capaldi, Matthew Fox, Abigail Hargrove, Sterling Jerins, Fabrizio Zacharee Guidoas, Pierfrancesco Favino, Ruth Negga, Moritz Blebtreu, Ernesto Cantu, David Andrews, Elyes Gabel, Lucy Aharish, Julia Levy-Boeken.

There is nothing like a good apocalyptic film to send people in their droves worrying about the next big thing that will decimate humanity to the point of extinction. Rising sea levels and the air stream suddenly going into meltdown, asteroids that will leave big holes in the round and Morgan Freeman as the last decent man on the planet, a rampaging monster destroying half of Japan (take your pick) or perhaps the daddy of them, nuclear Armageddon in which Sheffield gets destroyed in perhaps the finest example, Threads.

Zombies though, that’s a stretch to far…surely. They don’t spring the imagination in the same way as having Bruce Willis blowing an asteroid in two, Ian Holm toasting mankind as ice covers him up until discovered living happily as a Hobbit or the very real prospect of man’s stupidity of blowing the Earth up several millions times over just because of a different ideology. Zombies…No! Except some of the great films over the last 70 years have had this as a central theme and it works so well because it eats at the very core of what it is to be human, free will and the urge to rise above basic animalistic desires. The brilliant Danny Boyle 2002 film 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead and Deathwatch all are enjoyable and fill the squeamish levels up a notch and whilst there a whole body of films in the genre that fall squarely into the do not re-animate bin, World War Z fits perfectly into the keep for future posterity file.

Based on the book by Max Brooks, World War Z deviates from the main narrative much loved by the readers and delivers a more tangible and direct account of what happens when Mother Nature nibbles back with a horrid vengeance. It has been a hard slog to get this film realised but it is well worth it, even to see Brad Pitt being something other than likeable camera fodder.

However aside from the great visual effects of which there are thousands; the frightening speed in which these zombies move, making out running them, something that seemed so silly and easy to do, now an impossibility and the sub narrative of being in the most walled-city in the world an everyday living target, there is the great cast of which Brad Pitt actually defines the role of Gerry Lane so well that you can almost forgive him for one of the film’s final moments involving cans of drink and the smug look as he realises he has won.

Danielle Kertesz as the young Israeli soldier gives a powerful performance as does Peter Capaldi as one the experts working at the World Health Organisation. The only problem that really comes across throughout is the lack of care given to secondary characters, almost if the story is just about Brad Pitt saving the world. Surprisingly James Badge Dale, David Morse and Matthew Fox really don’t get much of a look in. Matthew Fox especially seems to have been largely forgotten about since being one of the biggest names on television due to the phenomenon that was Lost.

Certainly a very good film, will be hard pushed to get beyond a level of enjoyment that can be realised by everyone but for those that do, they will be not disappointed. Just be careful who you sit next to in the cinema.

Ian D. Hall