World War Z
Regie:
Marc ForsterMusik:
Marco BeltramiBesetzung:
Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, David Morse, דניאלה קרטס, James Badge Dale, David Andrews, Ludi Boeken, Matthew Fox, Moritz Bleibtreu, John Gordon Sinclair (mehr)Streaming (5)
Inhalte(1)
UN-Mitarbeiter Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) ist ein glücklicher Familienvater, der mit seinen Lieben bei einem Ausflug nach New York ganz einfach in einem massiven Verkehrsstau stecken bleibt. Doch was hier geschieht, hat mit Rush Hour nichts zu tun: Ganze Horden von Zombies schlagen eine Schneise der Verwüstung und sind im Begriff, die ganze Welt zu zerstören. New York ist in Panik – und beim Versuch, seine Familie zu retten, verlieren sich die Lanes im Chaos aus den Augen. Während sich die UN nun verzweifelt und hilfesuchend an Gerry wendet, muss er seine Frau (Mireille Enos) und Kinder wiederfinden. Auch, um zu verhindern, dass sie in ein grausiges Schicksal stürzen. Denn der Grund für die Invasion der Zombies ist ein Virus, der die Menschen in Untote verwandelt – ein Weltkrieg, der sich rasend schnell auf allen Kontinenten ausbreitet... (Paramount Pictures Germany)
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"Shit happens." Forster previously demonstrated his inability to direct clearly arranged action scenes in Quantum of Solace. Despite its misleading marketing, however, World War Z fortunately is not built on a foundation of action attractions. The most powerful weapon in its arsenal is its consistent use of the zombie genre’s social dimension in the manner of Romero. The constant switching between micro and macro perspectives shows that, when chaos breaks out, the individual knows just as little as the institutions, which realistically do not subordinate their interests to the individual’s personal safety (you are either with us or you’re on your own). The fact that the narrative is not limited to what one person or group of people knows makes it impossible to describe World War Z as a film that uses a video-game narrative structure in a well-thought-out way. Despite that, Gerry’s approach corresponds to the narrative model that game studios call “string of pearls”. Only after the storytelling potential of one setting has been fully exhausted (and the notional end of the level has been reached) is it possible to move on to a different setting. But this isn’t merely a matter of monotonously collecting information that leads to more information. On the one hand, the film defies expectations in how it humorously handles the element of (blind) chance and, on the other hand, it continuously changes the context in which it addresses the zombie contagion. It works its way from the dominant family context through the military, political and medical contexts back to the family context (whose supremacy is pointed out to us with varying degrees of emotional aggressiveness throughout the film). Not only does this confirm the use of the melodramatic formula that forms the basis of most Hollywood blockbusters (really, seeking out melodrama in everything is just one of my quirks), but the chosen narrative arc also nicely serves the film’s humanistic message encouraging us to not be ashamed of our weaknesses (our humanity, which makes us vulnerable, but which is also our most powerful weapon). Thanks to Brad Pitt’s solid performance, the film’s emotional level is not completely superfluous and I unabashedly admit that I was touched by Gerry’s written plea shortly before the end. In terms of distributing information and drawing parallels between the current political situation and the fictional zombie contagion, the clever entertainment ultimately pays a price for the film’s attempt to please too many different groups of viewers. As I have already mentioned, the action scenes are chaotic, the scenes resembling survival-horror games lack original ideas and atmosphere (because we know that there will be running and biting in a few moments anyway), some scenes lack logic (the rusty bicycles were supposed to be quieter than walking?) while forced product placement is prevalent in others (unless you want to see the vending-machine scene as a caustic commentary on consumerism). At any rate, World War Z hums along nicely, has the potential for an even better sequel and, among other films in today’s zombie genre, it is also exceptionally likable due to its tastefulness (which may be a contradiction in terms, but I personally didn’t mind that the crisis also impacted artificial brains, intestines and other delicacies). 75%
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World War Z should have been very incoherent, it mixes very different approaches to the zombie sub-genre, but in the end it’s a surprisingly good an interesting film. The creative disagreements can be clearly seen (if there is something the film lacks it’s a solid vision), but paradoxically, that may have contributed to an untraditional narrative outcome. World War Z is basically three stories in one linked by the protagonist, and though they are connected, they are also very different in many aspects. The beginning is similar to Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (the zombie apocalypse begins, the protagonists try get to safety), the middle part is an action-packed search for the origin of the virus, and the last part is a more intimate laboratory horror story. I had some problems with the middle part, though it does have several excellent set pieces, the search for clues as a whole felt very random and haphazard. By the way, the editor must have gone totally bonkers, in some of the action scenes you can’t see anything, and every shot that was at least a little longer was a joy. Thanks God for that quiet, intimate ending. 75 %. PS: If you want to know what the original ending of the film was like, read this article. I think that in this case it’s pointless to blast Lindelof’s rewrite. The version we saw in cinemas is a lot happier than the dark original ending, but even as a horror fan I don’t think that “dark” always equals “better”. That said, I’d love to watch the battle of Moscow, hopefully the studio will release it, at least in BluRay, they filmed it already.
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In spite of all the media failures (being over-budget, reshoots), Forster presents a rather unconventional zombie spectacle that works more along the lines of a flamboyant action movie in which a middle-class family and the world around them are drowning. The brilliantly paced direction (supported by good editing) pushes forward a plot vacuum that boils down to the fact that it takes the title and two or three prominent geopolitical allusions from a brilliant book, whilst then treading its own path to get to its roots, i.e., the horror in the lab. However, having a tighter dramatic arc, not limited to alternating the three locations where the protagonist arrives and the undead horde a minute after him, would not have hurt the film. [I want the Battle of Moscow, at least as a bonus on Blu-ray] 3 ½.
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I will admit that all I knew about this movie was that Brad Pitt put a lot of time and money in it. So I thought it might be a decent Hollywood movie. And it was. The creators somehow combined a lot of well-filmed action and added a few philosophical questions on life and family. The finale was a nice surprise. It almost seems like the screenwriter was pondering how to end this movie and wanted to have a different take at it. Why wouldn’t he, when the movie’s biggest issue is that everything is again about zombies? There is an infection spreading, so why complicate things, let’s turn people into zombies again. Why not, when it is so fashionable nowadays, even more when they run around like Usain Bolt? That’s what they’re best at, except for eating people. Well, what can I say? That’s the way it is today.
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Igitigitigit ... in diesem Film geistern die Geister verstorbener Ambitionen herum. Das dreifache Szenario bietet das Zeugnis einer Verschiebung einer nicht vollständig abgedroschenen Personalperspektive (der Hauch von einer institutionellen Krisen sowie leichte Andeutungen einer Katastrophensoziologie, die durch Forsters eher zivil orientierte Regieführung auf ein solides Niveau gebracht wird) zu einem bombastischen Spektakel (Action-Adventure-Struktur mitsamt einiger Sequenzen, die offensichtlich "geskriptet“ worden sind - Jerusalem), zurück zur intimen Ebene (ein völlig neu gestaltetes Ende, welches den monströsen Handlungsstrang in Russland verlässt und eine Art kammerähnlichen Resident Evil im Labor darbietet). Außer der überraschend sicheren Regieführung sowie Atmosphäre wird das Ganze insbesondere durch Pitt gerettet, der selbst nach einer Infektion und mit einer Dose in der Hand aussieht, als würde er ihm am Film wirklich viel liegen (vielleicht die x Millionen, die er aus eigener Tasche hat mit einfließen lassen?). Im Grunde genommen ist mir dieses unentschlossene Lavieren zwischen den Filmen Contagion, Walking Dead und einem typischen "Katastrophenfilm“ recht sympathisch. Schon allein deshalb, weil einige das ihm Schicksal der zerfallend wirkenden Katastrophe á la Invasion prophezeit haben, doch dieser Streifen schielt eher nach dem Planet der Affen: Prevolution. Die einzelnen Levels sind eigentlich ziemlich unterhaltsam, und wenn man von Eselbrücken, Drehbuchfehltritten sowie der Tatsache absieht, dass dieser Streifen lediglich die Untoten mit dem Original gemeinsam hat, so war es doch ein solider Spaß. [70%] P.S. Denjenigen Idioten, dem es in den Sinn kommt, diesen Film, der mit einer hektischen Kadenz abwechselnder ganzer Einheiten, lediglich sekundenlanger Details sowie unscharfer Aufnahmen in 3D umzuwandeln, würde ich gerne in den Allerwertesten beißen. Wenn Sie können, meiden Sie einfach diesen verzweifelten Versuch, irgendwo das übergedunsene Finanzvolumen wieder einzufahren.
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A mixture of many incongruous interpretations and approaches to the zombie apocalypse theme. No surprise then that it couldn’t make a single coherent unit if it tried. But surprisingly, each one of these approaches is handled well in itself and so as the sum of many separate subsets it actually works; outstandingly so in the second half Jerusalem→ airplane→ Wales. Too bad about rating worries and so the lack of a darker tone and more gore in the final part. In the scenes where Pitt sinks his crowbar into a zombie’s head, not even Angelina would want to see a close-up of Brad’s face; whenever a drop of blood “threatens", the camera quickly pans up to Pitt’s tortured face. And considering how many times this happens, it’s almost ridiculous. Anyhow, I’m intrigued to see the potential director’s cut, because if I understand correctly, Forster had a vision, Pitt from his position of producer had a completely different one and, in the end, in the spirit of “the strongest dog gets to fuck", the studio slipped in its own version?
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Von Anfang an wird ein Höllentempo vorgegeben, das zwar nicht bis zum Ende anhält, aber die Fahrt ist wirklich anständig. Rasante Action, eine Menge digitaler und ultraschneller Zombies, etwas Gore und Brad Pitt als Paradeheld, der, wenn er seiner Familie verspricht zurückzukehren, einfach zurückkehrt. Nicht einmal ein abstürzendes Flugzeug kann ihn aufhalten. Die Kamera ist an einigen Stellen wirklich unübersichtlich, aber die Musik von Beltrami ist wirklich gelungen. Es ist ein bisschen schade, dass Fox und vor allem Morse nur Nebenrollen haben. Aber sonst bin ich zufrieden.
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A passable summer blockbuster that could have done better, but trying to please the viewer’s greed it ended up as a visual one-bite snack with an unclear message. Forster presents the pandemic as Mother Nature’s way of making human trash pay for their sins, forcing them to eat themselves. The title sequence and the dulcet tones of The 2nd Law: Isolated System by Muse, a summing up by an deranged virologist (our greatest hope), this all indicates deeper thought. Then there’s a turn about when in War of the Worlds style we escape from the city (even Rachel is here) to get to a boat and then we travel the world with Brad - when I say the world, I mean basements in Korea, Jerusalem (substituted by Malta) and Britain. The whole thing holds together weirdly and it seemed to me that the storytelling structure had maybe been different (better) in a first version of the screenplay and the initial attack on Pitt’s family was meant to appear in some flashback. You can see that it’s a broken vase broke stuck back together again and it holds, but some of the pieces were newly made to fit some gaping holes. The ending in the lab is the only scene with the genre cliché of terrifying, shuffling zombies, while they are quite successful in changing them in the rest of the movie. These stiffs remind me more of Smith’s colleagues in I Am Legend. On the other hand, some individual scenes are filmed exceptionally well, they are engaging (the 3D really bothers me in dark interiors), and work excellently standing alone. The ideas that the creators pull out of the bag are sometimes very novel and refreshing. The toothless David Morse, the burned general’s tapping finger, the airplane and the laboratory chase. The mainstay of the movie is the conquest of Jerusalem, which takes your breath away. In fact, I liked it, despite all of my objections, but I can’t get rid of the feeling that this could have made a much better movie. It had the material for it... If I had to compare it to the book, I would just sadly agree that this wasn’t good.
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Laut Max Brooks hat World War Z nach den Erfahrungen der letzten Jahre an Ernst gewonnen. Früher war es einfach ein anderer, intelligenterer Zombiefilm mit Brad Pitt, produziert von seiner Firma Plan B. Der Hauptvorteil war Pitts klassischer Held, der ultimative sympathische Typ, der immer gut aussieht, und natürlich ist er es und niemand sonst, der die Menschheit retten kann... mit seiner Niedlichkeit. Heute ist die Aussicht auf eine weltweite Pandemie Furcht einflößender.
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Urgent, intense, with a slight intellectual touch. The finale is predictable around halfway through, but it does not diminish its dramatic and impressive quality in any way. It is technically brilliant and very fast-paced. This is the style that I have liked about Forster since Quantum of Solace, one that many condemn. I feel like it is slightly out of sync with today's time and many people can't digest it, but I perceive it as a very progressive aspect of his directing. Minimalistic in terms of acting and visuals, with minimal (depressive and gloomy) music, exceptionally raw and “realistic”, World War Z has an excellent feeling to it. The zombies are unbelievably believable and also one of the few that are taken seriously.
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Ein sehr solider Film. Er hat Schwung, Ideen und vor allem einen ausgezeichneten Haupthelden, der bereit ist, sich den schlimmsten Dingen zu unterziehen. Er macht es für seine Familie, die er beschützen möchte. Es handelt sich um keine schwülstige patriotische Pflicht. Brad Pitt spielt ausgezeichnet, er ist kein Supermann. Es hat mir Spaß gemacht, zu verfolgen, wie logisch sich seine Figur verhält, wie sie sich instinktiv entscheidet und improvisiert (die Herstellung des Bajonetts oder der Unterarmschoner, plus weitere Momente, die ich nicht erwähnen möchte – ich verrate nur, dass der erste mit einem Dach zusammenhängt und in dem zweiten eine Hand und ein Messer vorkommen…). World War Z hätte aber länger sein sollen. Ich hatte nämlich den Eindruck, dass in dem Film ein ziemlich großer Teil der Geschichte fehlt und viele Dinge oder Figuren entweder nicht erklärt oder überstürzt behandelt wurden (David Morse, warum haben in Jerusalem alle auf einmal angefangen, zu singen…). Ansonsten ist aber alles bestens. Manche Situationen waren fast schwarzhumorig (Dr. Fassbach, die Weise, wie Nordkorea gegen die Infektion ankämpft…), das Ende war perfekt (es ähnelt nur ein bisschen dem Ende von I Am Legend). Die Tricks sind fast perfekt, die Action ist zum Glück viel übersichtlicher als in James Bond 007: Ein Quantum Trost, die Zombies wimmeln wie Ameisen und sind sehr (un)angenehm unberechenbar. Am besten hat mir wahrscheinlich die Episode in Jerusalem gefallen (trotz des erwähnten Vorbehaltes). Marco Beltrami hat eine hervorragende Musik komponiert, die ich aber erst nach dem Film interessanter fand. Vier starke Sterne.
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If you put together a great premise (I haven't read the book, but all those glowing reviews hopefully don't lie), a superstar actor and a very skilled director who can cope with the shortcomings of a rather brutally slashed script and the obvious absurdity of the world outlined, where nukes explode without any visible reaction and the most wanted man on the planet is killed, while a regular UN member calmly saves his family and teddy bear, you can still get a genuine genre smash hit. World War Z may be far from perfect (no matter how each of us perceives it) and, although it looks original, it combines all the clichés from famous B-movies and, more recently, computer games, but it’s such a visual and thrilling, old-school and megalomaniac spectacle that you can't be angry at the few holes in logic and the imperfections. Forster did not disappoint, Pitt became even more iconic and the zombies enjoyed their role as favourite bad guys once again. And so did I :-) 80%
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I’m at a loss. I normally don’t watch horror movies at all as I’m not really into this genre, but I thought the basis of a horror movie was at least a hint of a story. I’m not sure if there’s anything positive to be said about this movie. There’s no story at all, some situations are rather comical (whenever Pitt shows up, literally a few minutes later a horde of zombies will appear on the screen, and the screenwriters just couldn’t care less about why, what or how). Even the zombies themselves, who could compete with the best Jamaican sprinters, are peculiar, to say the least. The conclusion was quite hilarious. I’m not sure what I was expecting, since even the trailers made this already look like a fail, but it was truly terrible. 2 stars for Pitt and a decent soundtrack, otherwise it was just a fairy tale for adults, sadly without any semblance of a logical story.
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