World War Z - 7 stars out of 10

World War Z - 7 stars out of 10

In the midst of the "Walking Dead generation" or horror films, "World War Z" brings a fresh spin to the zombie genre.  I love "Dawn of the Dead" and "Quarantine," but the plot device of zombies-chasing-a-group-of-people-as-each-victim-begins-to-hunt-their-loved-ones has turned into an easily predictable equation.  Max Brooks' story breaks away from the survivalist mentality of most zombie films and addresses the issues that are avoided by other writers: "Are these zombie attacks occurring elsewhere?" and "How do we prevent this from being the end of human society?"  The film has just enough survivalist scenes to satisfy that horror movie junkie urge to see a group of people being chased by zombies (with only a few surviving) while taking a realistic and intellectual approach to the societal issues caused by the extinction of mankind.  This isn't the type of film that I expect Brad Pitt to align himself with but his good acting is what keeps the story believable.  It was clever to center the plot's resolution around discovering the origin of the zombie outbreak, but allowing a different temporarily solution to resolve the story while leaving the origin of the outbreak as a mystery to be revealed in the sequel(s).  I personally prefer the classic zombie films but welcome a fresh concept to a genre that is growing very tired.