World War Z (2013) – Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy


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**/**** Image A Sound A Extras B-
starring
Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox

screenplay
by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Drew Goddard & Damon Lindelof,
based on the novel by Max Brooks

directed
by Marc Forster

by
Walter Chaw
Marc Forster's World War Z,
an
adaptation of Max Brooks's cause célèbre novel
(think Stephen Ambrose on
the zombie apocalypse) that had a production so troubled the real
surprise is
Terry Gilliam had nothing to do with it, lands as half an idea,
handsomely
mounted in a really expensive crater. With almost no relationship to
the book beyond honouring its concept of a conflagration told in vignettes, it
feels almost exactly like James L. Brooks's I'll Do Anything,
which
began life as a musical and ended up, after extensive reshoots and careening budget overages, song-free, yet whole somehow despite the trauma. That sense of a sudden change
in direction, in genre, is all over World War Z–something
in its almost
apologetic reserve, something in its unmistakable indecision. Indeed, it serves as a fitting metaphor for a zombie as a corpse similarly brought to shambling half-life, but frankly, it could've been a lot worse. It
works for
what it is in the same way that Steven Soderbergh's Contagion
works, and with the
same limitations, ambivalence, anticlimax, and handsome mounting. If, at
the
end, its Damon Lindelof-penned solution*
(the twelfth-hour salvation of a
freight train jumped its tracks) is as stupid as you would expect
something
Lindelof to pen, at least the journey there is interesting, even
occasionally
(if only very occasionally) arresting. A shame that Forster hasn't
gotten any
better at directing action since Quantum of Solace.

RUNNING TIME
122 minutes
MPAA
Unrated
ASPECT
RATIO(S)

2.40:1 (1080p/MPEG-4)
LANGUAGES
English 7.1 DTS-HD MA
English DD 2.0 (DVS)
French DD 5.1
Spanish DD 5.1
Portuguese DD 5.1
SUBTITLES
English

English SDH
French
Spanish
Portuguese
REGION
All
DISC
TYPE

BD-50
STUDIO
Paramount

Its first miscalculation probably the
implementation of a central character, World War Z
follows the
globetrotting derring-do of former U.N. hotspot navigator Gerry Lane
(is in my
ears and in my heart) as he's pulled back into action to suss out
"patient
zero" in the zombie pandemic. A family-man first, Gerry (Brad Pitt)
escapes Philly, I mean Newark, I mean some hell-hole, finding sanctuary
on an
aircraft carrier where the best and brightest and the Declaration of
Independence are secreted to wait out the early days of the blight.
Gerry
travels to Korea, then to walled Jerusalem where idiot wailers make too
much
noise. He takes a Belarusian jetliner in the picture's coolest set-piece,
then
visits Wales, I think (Cardiff?), where Lindelof saves the day with a
way to
end the movie without a bazillion-dollar epic slaughter that we
still get
glimpses of in a hastily-edited, wearily-narrated epilogue. The film's best
idea is to present the zombies as insectile, clambering over one
another in
complete disregard of personal space. The worst idea is its attempt to give Gerry depth with a family in peril it promptly relegates to
the
sidelines before reintroducing at the end in what feels like every bit
the
equivocal band-aid that it is.

World War Z is bad, yet, miracle upon miracles,
it's not
unforgivably bad. No, it's serviceable fare
more fatally wounded by the prevarication of making a zombie movie featuring millions upon millions of deaths (hundreds shown) within the chaste confines of the PG-13 rating.
Without
gore, without any coherently-shot action sequence that could have lent sense
and scale (and, consequently, tension and pathos) to the proceedings, and
without
real characters to root for beyond broad sketches and Pitt's generic
man of
action, all that's left is a curiosity forever right on the edge
of
being a better movie. The standard for me in this vein remains Juan
Carlos
Fresnadillo's tragically under-seen 28 Weeks Later, the mere identification of which suggests that World War Z also has the
misfortune of
coming at the very end of a played-out thread–one peppered with a few too many masterpieces to compete against. Still, certain elements–such as Daniella Kertesz's star-making turn as an Israeli soldier, that
airplane
sequence, Pitt's undimmed star quality, or the emergence of Mireille
Enos as
someone to watch–provide World War Z with
just enough meat to not
entirely suck. It's mediocre. Huzzah!

THE BLU-RAY DISC
by Bill Chambers Paramount brings World War Z to Blu-ray in an unrated extended cut running 7 minutes longer than the theatrical version (viewable only via the included DVD). The extra footage is virtually
unidentifiable without the aid of a marker–I noticed more arterial spray, especially during
the amputation, as well as a greater density of chaos in the Israeli sequence. Those hoping for a sudden gorefest are out of luck. Not surprisingly, the
much-ballyhooed alternate third act is nowhere to be found: the film was too
big a hit for the studio not to squirrel away a few nuts for a double-dip down
the road. The 2.40:1, 1080p transfer is extremely faithful to what was shown in
theatres, in that the image is soft-focused, somewhat low-contrast, and features a
colour palette that is at once undersaturated and overworked, with skin tones showing
some spotty grading in the opening scenes. Shot in 35mm, the picture was sapped
of grain early in the process but nevertheless retains a filmic patina that is
ultimately very attractive, more glassily 'real' than any of this summer's
other blockbusters. The 7.1 DTS-HD MA track is a robust rendering of a mix that
delivers the swirling pandemonium and click-clack of zombie teeth with the same
depth of detail. Dialogue–barely audible at my screening–is robust and
carefully-modulated against the bassy din.

Extras are limited to three HiDef
featurettes–"Origins" (8 mins.), "Looking to Science" (7
mins.), and the four-part "WWZ: Production" (36 mins.)–from the ubiquitous Laurent Bouzereau. The most notable thing about them is that producer/star Brad
Pitt is a no-show, leaving a gaping hole that makes all the
testimonies to his team spirit ring hollow, however unfairly. Also, despite
being denied screenplay credit in the finished film, J. Michael Straczynski is
not just interviewed, he's the only writer interviewed. Par for the Bouzereau course, this making-of material is flashy and impatient, scuttling past Errol
Morris-worthy subjects like entomologist David Hughes, breeder of zombie ants,
to get to the next starfucking soundbite. And forget about any insight into the extensive reshoots–director Marc Forster's comments are even framed in such a
way as to suggest World War Z's current ending was on deck from the start. Still,
all the stuff on Scott Farrar's seamless CGI is good (if abbreviated), and a moment with a disbelieving extra is precious for being candid by Boozy's standards.
"Two people to make a hijab," she says. "This is a Hollywood
production." A Digital Copy rounds out the presentation; also available in a separate Blu-ray 3D release.

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*SPOILER: The solution of
the piece is that if
humans inject themselves with a terminal disease, the zombies will
avoid them
because the zombie contagion desires a "healthy" host. Except–and one of the characters explains this as the reason infecting
zombies with something else wouldn't help–that being dead means you don't have a
functioning
circulatory system. Which also means that unless the disease is
neurological
somehow and terribly advanced, it also shouldn't matter whether the
host has a
terminal illness. return

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9 Comments

  1. Hugo

    If you’re a fan of the film then you will notice the extra bits added in, more headshots and blood flying around, more of Pitt actually beating down zombies,especially in Newark, plus a “Drive” looking head stomp and more craziness in the Israel scene. I did read the director say while a lot of stuff was shot for the aborted finale, none of the FX work was done so it didn’t make sense cost wise to compete it as solely a DVD extra or curiosity piece that I’m sure the majority of the viewing public doesn’t even know exists.

  2. Hugo

    If you’re a fan of the film then you will notice the extra bits added in, more headshots and blood flying around, more of Pitt actually beating down zombies,especially in Newark, plus a “Drive” looking head stomp and more craziness in the Israel scene. I did read the director say while a lot of stuff was shot for the aborted finale, none of the FX work was done so it didn’t make sense cost wise to compete it as solely a DVD extra or curiosity piece that I’m sure the majority of the viewing public doesn’t even know exists.

  3. Hugo

    If you’re a fan of the film then you will notice the extra bits added in, more headshots and blood flying around, more of Pitt actually beating down zombies,especially in Newark, plus a “Drive” looking head stomp and more craziness in the Israel scene. I did read the director say while a lot of stuff was shot for the aborted finale, none of the FX work was done so it didn’t make sense cost wise to compete it as solely a DVD extra or curiosity piece that I’m sure the majority of the viewing public doesn’t even know exists.

  4. Unfinished effects have never stopped a studio from including deleted scenes before. (See almost any of the recent Marvel films on DVD or Blu-ray.) Consumers are savvy enough these days to accept a little greenscreen and unrendered animation. Anyway, I didn’t mean to advocate including it as a branchable ending, just as a bonus feature.

  5. Unfinished effects have never stopped a studio from including deleted scenes before. (See almost any of the recent Marvel films on DVD or Blu-ray.) Consumers are savvy enough these days to accept a little greenscreen and unrendered animation. Anyway, I didn’t mean to advocate including it as a branchable ending, just as a bonus feature.

  6. Unfinished effects have never stopped a studio from including deleted scenes before. (See almost any of the recent Marvel films on DVD or Blu-ray.) Consumers are savvy enough these days to accept a little greenscreen and unrendered animation. Anyway, I didn’t mean to advocate including it as a branchable ending, just as a bonus feature.

  7. Hugo

    Sorry, wasn’t criticizing, just relaying what I read elsewhere, I’d personally would have liked to have seen it, just to try and figure out what the director and writers were thinking in terms of tone, especially since I like the way they chose to go small instead of big for the finale. I know it wasn’t what people wanted but considering the way they were going to go with Pitt’s wife shacking up with Mathew Fox I think they went the right route.

  8. Hugo

    Sorry, wasn’t criticizing, just relaying what I read elsewhere, I’d personally would have liked to have seen it, just to try and figure out what the director and writers were thinking in terms of tone, especially since I like the way they chose to go small instead of big for the finale. I know it wasn’t what people wanted but considering the way they were going to go with Pitt’s wife shacking up with Mathew Fox I think they went the right route.

  9. Hugo

    Sorry, wasn’t criticizing, just relaying what I read elsewhere, I’d personally would have liked to have seen it, just to try and figure out what the director and writers were thinking in terms of tone, especially since I like the way they chose to go small instead of big for the finale. I know it wasn’t what people wanted but considering the way they were going to go with Pitt’s wife shacking up with Mathew Fox I think they went the right route.

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