WORLD WAR Z: What Are The Critics Saying?

"Diehard zombie fans may find there's not enough gore, no lingering close-ups of the undead feasting on entrails, but grossness is replaced by a richly thick atmosphere of constant threat. The hellish tableaux of cityscapes where the masses are made to look like colonies of bacteria blooming in a petri dish are truly horrifying, and Gerry is always an inch away from being swallowed up in it."

"Zombies are becoming too archetypal a concept in cinema, and it requires something really innovative to fully justify spending a lot of money to re-enter the world of the undead, and though this certainly has its moments, it’s just not quite creative or original enough. That’s not to say it’s not worth seeing mind you, but before you discuss this amongst peers, you’re going to have to settle on whether it’s called World War Zee, or World War Zed. The latter will get you brownie points on this side of the Atlantic that’s for sure."

"Zombie fans will also be bored by the occasional derivative element that pops up, the kind of stuff that any Walking Dead viewer already has figured out. But largely, World War Z is less a zombie movie than it is an intense thriller that just happens to have zombies all over the place. The film's final moments hint at the possibility of a sequel, and I for one would be up for more adventures in this particular land of the dead. World War Z is a big, sweeping -- and fairly fresh -- take on the age-old zombie genre."

"At least the film has one neat trick: in the Israel sequence we see Boschian wide-shots of zombie hordes coursing down streets and sluicing over barriers like a great, monstrous flood. This chimes with the footage of swarming insects in the opening titles, and suggests that the film may have once had a point to make before the rot set in. But there’s no heart to be found amid the guts."

"Despite a lavish budget heading for $200 million (£131 million), World War Z borders on a damp squib for traditional zombie fans. More an action blockbuster than a horror squelcher, it contains spectacular crowd scenes that have an Hieronymus Bosch quality, but the film lacks strong meat — of the emotional and bloody zombie-cannibal sort."

"Conspicuously bloodless, the PG-13 rating rears its family friendly head whenever the camera gets too close for comfort, and a dumbed down finale looks suspiciously like a scene from every zombie flick that’s ever been made. But it’s not just the intestines that are missing – with Lane’s family crisis set against such a monumental backdrop, WWZ is sorely lacking in heart (and with it, any genuine sense of danger). Choosing quantity over quality, intensity over tension and big-screen thrills over low-fi shocks – this is probably what the zombie apocalypse will actually look like."