PRO: Opening credits montages > exposition. We jump RIGHT INTO THE ACTION after a succinct introduction to our cast.
CON: The inter-stitching of what appears to be real news footage depresses/scares me.
PRO: Brad Pitt plays a man named Gerry, which leads me to believe he is reprising his role from The Mexican.
CON: Gerry’s wife (Mireille Enos) is way less dramatic than Julia Roberts in The Mexican, and proportionately less attractive.
PRO: Fana Mokoena has a fascinating nose. It may be the worst reason to be glued to the screen, but I couldn’t blink when he was on camera.
CON: His name is Thierry, which on-screen sounds like Terry, which rhymes with Gerry. Gerry’s wife grabs a phone at one point and says, “It’s Thierry,” but it sounds like, “It’s Gerry.” I’m thinking, there’s TWO GERRYS?!? Is this an M. Night Shyamalan masterstroke?
PRO: Gerry goes globe-trotting to find a cure/source to the zombie apocalypse that has overrun the planet. Everywhere he goes, he encounters the same scene (CARNAGE! HUMAN BUFFET!) unraveling in distinctly different ways (soldiers trapped in a South Korean airfield, the not-so-safe-haven of a walled Israel, a few scientists in a Welsh W.H.O. facility).
CON: Of all the places we see humanoid rabies destroy everything but our hero, the least plausible escape is from an airplane. We almost need the twist that Gerry has 47,000 guardian angels watching him for me to buy that.
PRO: Overall, the logic driving this story makes perfect sense to me. Pretty much all of my complaints are really nitpicky.
CON: Except this one. I’m having a baby in September. These kinds of scifi/action/horror hybrids tax me in new ways I never imagined, but now, I can’t help but think of how hopeless it will be for me to protect my daughter when a wave of undead chuds bumrushes the house. Not a good feeling.
PRO: It’s nothing like the book, but big friggin’ deal. When is it ever like the book? The story crafted by J. Michael Straczynski, Damon Lindelof, and two people I’ve never heard of (Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard) is good.
CON: Matthew Fox is in this? David Morse’s cameo is a real tease. I hoped for a larger role for that dude.
PRO: Newark, New Jersey, has a cameo role, too! JERSEY RULES!
CON: The city is in ruins. People are shooting each other. Nowhere is safe. …I wish director Marc Forster would have taken the time to shoot some footage for that scene instead of relying on stock reels. ZING!
FINAL RATING:
Mojo's Work 
Excellent!!
Yeah I didn’t like the stock reels either, cheapened the film. Fun film though, far from scary but highly entertaining.
Good review. It did get me a tad bit scared in the first 20 minutes, but it slowly and surely started to leave as soon as the human story continued to come in through the front of everything else. Should have just stuck with the invasions and how freaky they were.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’m starting to question my manhood over here.
Good review! And that nose was certainly interesting… I found it quite distracting! Lol. And… Julia Roberts? Ew. She annoys me!
And, yes, Brad’s character certainly had A LOT of lucky escapes. 😉