It wasn't that long ago when Paramount's $190 million investment, a loose adaptation of Max Brooks' novel
World War Z was thought to be the next high-profile Hollywood bomb. The behind-the-scenes drama that plagued the troubled production seemed to be more interesting than the actual movie, especially when the studio announced last fall that they were reshooting the entire third act. Blockbusters are typically subject to short reshoot periods, but this was something unheard of. People were writing the obituary long before the project hit theaters. And yet, reports of
World War Z's demise were greatly exaggerated. Securing mostly positive reviews from critics (68% on Rotten Tomatoes), the zombie thriller has become a big hit with audiences. Grossing a surprising $66 million here in the States over its opening weekend, Brad Pitt's latest made enough to finish second at the box office, knocking
Man of Steel off of its perch. It still has a long way to go to make back its budget, but the film is more successful than anyone could have imagined. Turns out casual moviegoers don't care about production woes. When I named this one of the
15 Films You Need To See In 2013, I wrote:
"Most of the films on this list Im expecting to be of high quality and end up earning a spot in my home video collection. Others are here more out of curiosity than anything else. Brad Pitts zombie adventure World War Z is one of those films."
It's true. I wasn't expecting
World War Z to be any good at all. The turmoil surrounding the film made me interesting in seeing how the final product came out, but that was it. Now that I've seen it, I have to say the movie is actually solid entertainment. It's not great and it won't be remembered as one of the year's best, but I was pleasantly surprised with
World War Z's quality. Still, there were some things that they could have done better. Here are the pros and cons of
World War Z.
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR WORLD WAR Z