Former UN employee Jerry Lane finds himself in the epicenter of an epidemic of an unknown virus that turns people into zombies in seconds. Trying to find an antidote to the virus, Lane travels with his group almost all over the world affected by the epidemic. Now the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance, and Jerry is his only hope.

4k movies reviews
Don’t be confused by the zombie apocalypse theme – ‘World War Z’ is as far from horror as the recent ‘Warm Bodies’; only unlike them, the movie tries to be ‘as realistic as possible’; that is, those funny moments that will inevitably appear as the story unfolds are actually intended to be completely serious.

The beginning of the movie will be filled with family hugs, cute jokes and other sentimental tinsel, in order to fully let the viewer know that the hero of Brad Pitt is just a model family man and father, selflessly taking care of his daughters, one of whom, meanwhile, has asthma. The idyll, however, will not last long – the two-hundred-million-dollar budget of the film will soon make itself known by the demonstration of explosions, destruction and other chaos, in which the hero’s family is suddenly drawn. The first thirty minutes of the movie, of course, look very spectacular. No matter how much the creators hoped that they wanted to make the story ‘as realistic as possible’ – they still failed to do without the typical superhero pathos; because here again the fate of mankind is centered in the hands of one super-positive hero, who is not only ‘unkillable’ in principle, but also the only person on the planet who could figure out how to resist the infection. The astute viewer, by the way, will guess it already at the fortieth minute of the movie after the episode in the Korean military base, so you can expect nothing extraordinary in the finale. Nor should you think that the finale will put everything in its place; because a lot of significant questions will remain in limbo. The creators set a high bar for themselves with a bright and spectacular beginning, including the intrigue; and tried to maintain it throughout the movie – and they succeeded only in terms of visuals and skillful boo-moments, enhanced by good 3D; but not in terms of central logic and the ability to competently bring the viewer to the denouement. And to make the denouement itself properly interesting. ‘Started with a good start…’ – well, you know what I mean.

In the beginning, the movie is catchy, and the characters grab attention, even despite the shabbiness with which the carefree relationships in the family are shown. However, as Jerry begins his travels around the various corners of the globe, the plot development looks rather strained, and more reminiscent of a video game in which several missions in various locations are clumsily linked by a single story campaign. All the ‘realism’ dissipates rather quickly – the Zombies look real, but it can’t be said about the political and social aspects of the plot. In this regard, it would not be superfluous to recall, for example, how the epidemic was shown, say, in Soderbergh’s ‘Infection’. There, the interaction of many instances and the joint efforts of many people trying to find a solution to the problem were clearly demonstrated. Here the story assumes a painfully schematic and spontaneous quest of the only hero (with fantastic luck), in the shadow of the monumental figure of which are all the other secondary characters, including his fellow travelers. Such naivety and shambolic pathos do not color the film at all.

And in the final scene, it is impossible to keep from laughing at the sight of screaming zombies clacking their teeth – and the movie seems to be parodying itself. Here already the sense of danger comes to naught, and there is a complete absence of that suspense, with which the first half an hour of the movie was saturated. So ‘World War Z’ was not saved by any reshoots – the movie looks like a classic example of missed opportunities, and is not a well-crafted silly action movie with an inappropriate childish rating, which has a couple of spectacular scenes and nothing more.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (85.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
Turkish: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH.