Netflix just added Brad Pitt sci-fi classic – 11 years after release it still splits opinion
Netflix seems to be on a roll when it comes to adding Brad Pitt classics. It was only a couple of weeks back that Bullet Train was added to the streaming service, dividing viewer opinion like few others – but it quickly landed at no.1 in the chart. Now another Pitt classic has been added (since 22 May) – and again it's an opinion-splitter!
World War Z returns to Netflix once more, having previously been available but removed from the best streaming service multiple times in the past, and it's a likely contender for another no.1 movie to top the charts in coming days. That it scores a generally average 67% on Rotten Tomatoes is unlikely to stop many people watching this 11-year-old Pitt sci-fi classic.
If it's truly fair to call World War Z a true 'sci-fi': it's fictional, that's for sure, and as it deals with a sort-of extraterrestrial life (zombies!) it's also built around a semblance of science; yet it's also a social and political commentary movie that puts a question mark over leadership and power.
What World War Z definitely was upon its release back in 2013 was on trend. Zombie movies were arriving in cinemas left, right and centre – some more survivalist in nature (I Am Legend, 2007), some more horror-focused (Zombie Apocalypse, 2011), others far more comical (Zombieland, 2009).
As an adaptation of Max Brooks' 2006 novel of the same name, World War Z takes a more family-focused approach to its narrative. Pitt is called upon to help during the zombie war, with the movie following his journey to get back to his family. There are plenty of plot pittfalls (geddit?) along the way, which is why some viewers are so scathing of the flick.
Love it or loathe it, however, for a rainy Bank Holiday weekender it's the perfect action-horror nonsense watch. It's got its fair share of suspense, peril, ridiculous CGI scenes, and you can try and figure out where Matthew Fox's role was supposed to be (as he was famously edited out of the movie entirely). That ought to set enough Netflix viewers' curiosity off to launch World War Z into the UK chart's top spot in no time.
