Brad Pitt’s ‘World War Z’ shows signs of life in early reviews

Speculation has swirled ever since “World War Z�, the forthcoming zombie disaster movie starring and co-produced by Brad Pitt, was pushed from last winter to this summer by Paramount Pictures to allow for a wholesale rewrite and a reshoot of its final act. Such drastic changes so late in production rarely bode well for the success of a film, but some early reviews suggest “World War Z� might not end up dead -- or undead -- on arrival.

In a glowing review, Variety’s Scott Foundas says the film “emerges as a surprisingly smart, gripping and imaginative addition to the zombie-movie canon.� He continues: “Showing few visible signs of the massive rewrites, reshoots and other post-production patchwork that delayed its release from December 2012, this sleekly crafted, often nail-biting tale of global zombiepocalypse clicks on both visceral and emotional levels, resulting in an unusually serious-minded summer entertainment.�

Foundas adds that director Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace,� “Monster’s Ball�) “handles the large-scale action here with considerable aplomb and much striking imagery,� while Pitt, playing a former United Nations troubleshooter, is “a refreshingly human-scaled movie hero, with no outsized strength, agility or superpowers to help him win the day.�

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The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy is more measured. On one hand, he says, the film is “an immersive apocalyptic spectacle that tosses the viewer into the deep end of a global zombie uprising and doesn’t let up until close to the end.� All that action, however, comes at some narrative expense, with “Z� resembling “a bunch of impressive set pieces stitched together rather than a good story convincingly told.�

McCarthy adds that fans of the original book by Max Brooks “will find much to be disappointed in,� as the novel’s multicharacter oral-history format has been “implausibly but understandably� reduced to a one-man show in which Pitt races to save the world.

Empire’s Nick de Semlyen says “World War Z� “is slick, tense and hangs together fine, far from the disaster many predicted during its tortured birthing. But it’s also just a little bit bland and generic. In particular, horror fans jonesing for grand-scale carnage are unlikely to come away entirely satisfied.�

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On the plus side, the “opening salvo is terrific,� “the effects are handled well,� and on the whole it “just about succeeds on its own merits.�

Paul Bradshaw of Total Film says “Z� certainly looks the part: “There’s never been a more impressive horde of flesh-eaters on the big screen. Sprinting, gnashing, leaping and head-butting their way through civilization in a swarm of thousands, the zombie apocalypse finally looks big enough to be believable.�

However, Bradshaw says the PG-13 film is “conspicuously bloodless� and “sorely lacking in heart (and with it, any genuine sense of danger).�

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The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin agrees with that last part, even calling upon the same turn of phrase: “There’s no heart to be found amid the guts,� he writes. Instead, “What we get is a collection of moderately violent action set-pieces untroubled by humor or broader coherence.�

Finally, IGN’s Scott Collura says “Z� is “less a horror movie than it is a globe-spanning, international thriller, albeit one with zombies in it.� He adds, “You could say this is the epic of zombie films … and it works for the most part.� But the film’s third act is “less effective,� and there are visible “fracture lines� left behind by the production problems.

How the rest of the critics — and moviegoers themselves — react to the film remains to be seen. “World War Z� opens June 21.

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