by jellydonut25 » Sat Jun 22, 2013 1:16 am
A buddy of mine really wanted to see this, so I went along...
World War Z - what a f*cking travesty. how they turned THAT book into THIS movie escapes logical thought. Remember the scenes in the book where zombies dragged helicopters out of the sky? or climbed the walls built to keep them out? or swarmed like ants even building hills and towers out of each other? Yeah, neither do I. And remember those scenes that were actually in the book, where there were huge, failed battles against the hordes of undead who won out due to sheer numbers alone? or where we finally figured out a way to fight them effectively? or where Canada is turned into a wasteland? or where we learn the dangers of boats and islands? NONE of that is in this movie. I have ZERO idea why they even decided to call this World War Z...zombies are big enough right now that they could have just called it:
Brad Pitt's Zombie Fantastique - (my title for this) which is actually not a bad movie on its own merits. It has some ideas I've never seen in a zombie movie before, and some unique, creative points. AND the PG-13 rating, though harmful at times, almost seems to go to the movie's benefit at other times. Sure, it wasn't as visceral as it could have and should have been, but it also didn't waste unnecessary time just trying to gross me out and forced me to use my imagination at times with regards to the gore, which I appreciated. I was actually surprised that the best, most tense scenes of the movie weren't just giant action-fest effects-ridden scenes, but were actually a little more contained (I honestly really liked nearly everything that happened in the W.H.O. offices).
I get it, I get what they were trying to do and I understand that they wanted to do something totally different with the idea of zombies. Unfortunately, World War Z is exactly NOT the place to have done it...Max Brooks went out of his way in the book to show us how the "stereotypical zombie apocalypse" could happen, the long-lasting effects it would have not just on humanity, but on the ecosystem, and how humanity could ultimately win and continue on in a world where zombies exist. This is just a zombie movie that changes the typical formula, with mixed results. An enjoyable enough action movie, and a fun experiment, but a SH*T adaptation of the novel.