Now for a PG-13 zombie flick, I have to say that what the director did for this flick and being very restricted with the gore and especially with the zombies mutilating their victims, he did a good job of making these zombies look creepy and at points horrifying. The creepy side is based off of their movements and how these zombies twitch constantly, while the horrifying moment is based off of how fast these zombies can run and how ferociously they attack their preys. There is a moment in the second and third half where I actually felt the intensity of the moment and thought the director did a good job.
I really can't say much about the performances because this is simply Brad Pitt's movie. The main focus is on Brad Pitt and as always, Brad Pitt is a very good actor and the character that he portrays as is very likable. My only gripe when it comes to the cast is that there are recognizable actors from left to right who only speaks a couple of lines and is very limited with their roles. It would have been nice to see them more often rather than having a smaller role.
I do like the premise of the film and have to say that I did enjoy this zombie flick; however, the execution by the director just didn't fully present well in the end. Before watching this film, I had this problem that the execution will not be presented well based on the director, who have previously directed "Quantum of Solace." Sure enough, what I feared did sort of happen in a way. How some of the moments and scenarios were executed didn't fully work for me and there were some problems with how the movie progressed. How Brad Pitt's character went from Point A to Point B was very formulaic and really felt like a video game. For example: Brad's character gets to a destination, figures something out, goes through an end chapter scenario and enters Chapter 2 of the game. It's not a huge gripe, but I didn't like and intended the film to progress this way. Also, my other gripe involves Brad Pitt's character finding something out about the zombies. At the third act of the film, Brad's character goes to a lab to where he reveals to some scientists toward some information about the zombie. My only gripe with this scene is that the director did not take the liberty to show how Brad's character figured out this solution and that there wasn't enough information on screen to have us, as an audience, to see how he was able to figure everything out. At a degree, we do see, however, how the scene was shown and how Brad's character connects everything is not fully explained.
Overall, this film was decent enough to watch and not as bad as many people speculated the movie to be. I did have fun, thought the zombies were creepy and had some cool moments. However, because of the bad execution and the progression of the plot, I have to give this film a B-.
I really can't say much about the performances because this is simply Brad Pitt's movie. The main focus is on Brad Pitt and as always, Brad Pitt is a very good actor and the character that he portrays as is very likable. My only gripe when it comes to the cast is that there are recognizable actors from left to right who only speaks a couple of lines and is very limited with their roles. It would have been nice to see them more often rather than having a smaller role.
I do like the premise of the film and have to say that I did enjoy this zombie flick; however, the execution by the director just didn't fully present well in the end. Before watching this film, I had this problem that the execution will not be presented well based on the director, who have previously directed "Quantum of Solace." Sure enough, what I feared did sort of happen in a way. How some of the moments and scenarios were executed didn't fully work for me and there were some problems with how the movie progressed. How Brad Pitt's character went from Point A to Point B was very formulaic and really felt like a video game. For example: Brad's character gets to a destination, figures something out, goes through an end chapter scenario and enters Chapter 2 of the game. It's not a huge gripe, but I didn't like and intended the film to progress this way. Also, my other gripe involves Brad Pitt's character finding something out about the zombies. At the third act of the film, Brad's character goes to a lab to where he reveals to some scientists toward some information about the zombie. My only gripe with this scene is that the director did not take the liberty to show how Brad's character figured out this solution and that there wasn't enough information on screen to have us, as an audience, to see how he was able to figure everything out. At a degree, we do see, however, how the scene was shown and how Brad's character connects everything is not fully explained.
Overall, this film was decent enough to watch and not as bad as many people speculated the movie to be. I did have fun, thought the zombies were creepy and had some cool moments. However, because of the bad execution and the progression of the plot, I have to give this film a B-.