I love a good zombie apocalypse movie, and that is why I decided to see this one. The previews didn't give away the zombie aspect right at first, but I knew that the Z was for Zombies. Brad Pitt stars as a United Nations agent with some past experience in social unrest, who is recruited to find the source of a strange affliction which causes its victims to become zombies. This is like a lot of other zombie stories, like the series The Walking Dead on TV, or the recent movie, Warm Bodies. There is a difference in these zombies, though, in that they don't shamble much. When they are alerted, the move very fast. Also, the zombie disease is quite contagious, and any bite from a zombie causes a transformation in as little as twelve seconds.
I find the fast-acting zombie bite and the fast-moving zombies themselves to be a very good explanation of how zombie infections spread. Most of the time, we just see relentless zombies that move slow enough to be outrun. They usually tend to come from all directions and overwhelm with sheer numbers and persistence. So the initial outbreak is pretty sudden and happens very fast, and makes for a good and scary opening.
As the movie opens, Gerry Lane, played by Brad Pitt and his wife, Karin Lane, played by Mireille Enos, are enjoying retirement from his UN job, cooking breakfast and getting his kids, Rachel and Constance, ready for school. There is only a slight hint of what is coming on the TV in the kitchen as the eat their pancakes. They are driving across town in the city of Newark, New Jersey, when traffic comes to a complete stop. As they wonder what happens, it slowly becomes apparent that things are not right. Soon, people are running, and the only thing to do is to follow them. Lane spots a garbage truck barreling through the streets, knocking cars aside, so he jumps in his car and follows as a path is opened up.
Of course, the garbage truck crashes in an intersection, and the Lane family car crashes too. This is where we start to see what the movie is all about. People are running, and being chased by other people, who catch them and start biting them. The don't seem to care about eating their brains, as most zombies do, just to bite them. They are running as fast as the panicked people they are chasing, and after being bitten, the people change into zombies almost immediately. This causes a really fast transition from people world to zombie world.
Anyway, the Lanes' car is wrecked, and the zombies are upon them, so they commandeer an RV that is nearby, and abandoned, and drive like heck to get out of town. On the highway, they stop as Gerry is getting a call from his old boss at the UN, Undersecretary General of Something or other, Thierry Umutoni, who is played by Fana Mokoena. Thierry, pronounced the same as Terry, wants Gerry to help him figure out what is going on, and after a harrowing night in Trenton, New Jersey, the Lanes are picked up by a helicopter and taken to a flotilla of ships where the last vestiges of UN and US power are gathering to try to save as many people as possible.
Gerry is tasked with going to South Korea, where the first reported cases of zombie were reported, where he loses the Special Forces group that he is traveling with to zombie attacks. The plane which he flew to Korea in needs to be fueled before takeoff, but only Gerry and his pilot survive. They follow the clues to Israel, which it seems has done a much better job of protecting themselves from the zombie invasions. He meets a woman Israeli soldier, Segen, played by Daniella Kertesz, who helps him later in the movie. A lot happens that leads to a World Health Organization lab in Scotland, where Lane tries to find a cure for the zombie disease, or at least some answers.
I can't say any more about the story, but I have some comments. First, all of the characters come into the movie, and most are left behind by the storyline. There isn't any real outstanding acting going on, and the story is pretty much the same as many other zombie stories. As a top motion picture, it falls short. Still, it doesn't get overly gory and blood doesn't splatter everywhere, so you could take some older kids to it if you wanted to. The action is good, the zombies are actually pretty scary, and being fast zombies makes for a fast movie. It is a lot like a video game, with different phases, like the drive through Newark, the escape from South Korea, the run through Jerusalem, the W.H.O. laboratory, and so on. It is almost as if the movie were designed to be adapted into a video game, even though it probably already has been a video game.
At any rate, I wouldn't rush right out to see this one until I had seen all the other movies in the theater, but then it would be a pretty good choice. It does make for a good screen experience, versus waiting for the DVD or BlueRay. Pluses for action, good effects, decent continuity, but minuses for the way they sent his family away after he was presumed dead in the line of duty, and also for the fact that when he got sick at the end, he had no symptoms whatsoever. He should at least have been flushed, with maybe some sweating, or throwing up.
I give it 3.5 Shurikens.
