World War Z News & Reviews - Possible SPOILERS

[Ubik]

I have no intention of seeing it. Thanks for the heads up. Will avoid at all costs. Probably better to re-watch a classic Zombie film!

[Jonas]

I finally saw it.

It was TERRIBLE. Bafflingly stupid, racist, and completely unrelated to the book. And what I've read about the screenplay they originally filmed (not the JMS one), that sounds *even worse*. Frankly, the only explanation I can come up with is that they set out to ruin the book on purpose, like they're literary supervillains or something.

[Looney]

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa! I can't believe I missed this post Phaze. I am grateful for these forums because they force me to not be "sweary". I love your polite assessment, "steaming turd of a movie." My friend said he thought it was good. I had to just shake my head to keep from getting "sweary" about why he was wrong.

Truth be told, if I didn't know JMS' version of this movie has to be infinitely better, I may not be so tough on this movie. If I didn't know this movie was based on a very popular and well respected book, that I have not read, I probably wouldn't be so tough on this movie. If these factors were taken out, I still think this movie is a complete waste of time. Take out those factors and it goes from "steaming turd of a movie" to don't waste your money on a zombie movie that is not that different from the last fifty zombie movies that were made in the past two years.

[phazedout]

Alas I *did* pay to go see this, at the insistence of a friend.. ye gods what a steaming turd of a movie.

If it helps he apologised afterwards.

IF you'd like me to go in to *why* I didn't like it, feel free to pm me, I may get a bit sweary otherwise and we are a nice, polite forum

[Jonas]

I've decided I'm not going to pay to see this. The book is a masterpiece and this movie's disregard for it is offensive. Shame they ruined the script JMS wrote, which Max Brooks was happy with. I doubt he's as happy with the abomination they ended up making.

[Looney]

Amen to that. He should run as far away as he can from this stinker. The only good thing about it is that he has a credit and it made a lot of money.

[Jan]

In the middle of the 'no story ideas thread somebody came in and said JMS shouldn't take credit for WWZ because it was the worst zombie movie ever. Earlier in the thread, somebody wondered what parts of the finished product were JMS':

The core story approach was mine, very early on, but then I got shut out of the process as they abandoned everything about the book that worked. I only ended up getting a credit after they reinserted a few of my scenes from earlier drafts, mostly in the beginning. The rest I had absolutely nothing to do with.

Jan

[Looney]

World War Z

WORLD WAR Z
(2013)

Well I gave in when a cousin of mine I donÆt see very often told me he wanted to see World War Z. I think this movie turned out exactly like most of us thought it would. My assessment, like so many before me, is that World War Z is a major disappointment. The epic scope of this pandemic tale is not fleshed out and everything about this movie is far too rushed. My eighteen year old cousin, who does not see many movies, completely agreed with this assessment. The world is engulfed in an enormous cataclysm and it feels like the movieÆs hero finds a solution in less than a week.

World War Z is also utterly predictable and lacking in depth. I agreed with my cousin when he mentioned that he felt the action was boring and predictable, and that is saying something for a movie that relies on action as a major driving force. I will say that there are at least two genuinely apprehensive moments, but that is two in a movie that tried to build itself around tension.

Interestingly enough this movie can quite easily be associated with watching a video game play out; exposition, action, level-up; exposition, action, level-up. World War Z really highlights and extenuates this quality quite obviously.

Level One = Introduce family; survive the collapse of the Eastern Seaboard; escape by helicopter. Level Two = Get information on the ship; conflict with ship superiors; fly off to Korea. Level Three = Get information in Korea; refuel plane while battling zombies; fly to Jerusalem. Level Four = Get information in Jerusalem; fight through infection of Jerusalem; fly off to England. Level Five = Find information in England; fight off zombies and prove theory; take a boat ride back to your family.

On top of this, World War Z has many points of exposition and action that are just ridiculous.

My cousin agrees that every infection sequence is ridiculously fast. For instance, a hand full of zombies breech the wall in Jerusalem and in less than a minute of screen time there are several hundred to several thousand infected. That is how every infection scene goes, but the Jerusalem infestation is particularly ridiculous. Many plot points are just plain silly. For instance at the WHO installation in England they donÆt have a disease picked out before they make the extremely dangerous run for the vault, which is ridiculous.

There are many examples of complete failures in this movie. The reality is that in order to make a movie that is based on an elaborate, well thought out and well known story you had better have real artists at the helm; especially if you are planning to make a zombie movie based on a famous zombie story in a market overrun with zombie stories. My estimation is that World War Z, the movie, is exactly what fans of World War Z, the book, feared it would be; a truncated Hollywood star vehicle that pushes aside a quality story for what business executives see as a marketable movie formula. I personally like Brad Pitt, so I am very disappointed with how this movie turned out. I donÆt mean his acting is particularly bad. What I am saying is that I am sure he had a lot of pull with this movie and it did not turn out to be anything worth seeing even once. We all know how this movie should have been done and this only exacerbates what a huge disappointment this movie turned out to be.

[KoshN]

Digresion, thy name is phaze...

Thing is, when I was readin the books, which are, for the most part, first person narritive, I *hear* Paul Blackthorne's voice in my head. In fact when arrow started, I kept expecting him to whip out a stick and shout *FEUGO* at oliver.
Alan

Continued digression:

I hear and see (in my head) Paul Blackthorne as Harry Dresden when I'm reading The Dresden Files novels. Ditto for the rest of the TV show's cast. For characters who never appeared in the TV show, I cast other actors.

[phazedout]

Digresion, thy name is phaze...

Thing is, when I was readin the books, which are, for the most part, first person narritive, I *hear* Paul Blackthorne's voice in my head. In fact when arrow started, I kept expecting him to whip out a stick and shout *FEUGO* at oliver.
Alan

[KoshN]

Well, maybe the movie will lead some people to the book, like The Dresden Files TV series led me to the books.

[phazedout]

'nuff said

[NotSoWize]

A couple of tweets from Damon Lindelof that cover a little bit of the writing history of WWZ -

JMS and Matt Carnahan did the heavy lifting, but an unsung and uncredited writing hero of WWZ was Chris McQuarrie.

Not to mention Max Brooks, who wrote a book so good everyone who came after stood in its awe-inspiring shadow.

Damon Lindelof Damon Lindelof @DamonLindelof 23 Jun

[Jan]

And...who couldn't have predicted this?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paramount-brad-pitt-set-sights-573814

With the successful $111.8 million worldwide debut of zombie extravaganza World War Z -- a passion project for the actor -- Paramount actively will turn to developing a sequel, studio vice chairman Rob Moore tells The Hollywood Reporter. The tentpole earned $66 million in North America, the best opening for an original live-action tentpole since Avatar, and $45.8 million from its first 25 foreign markets.

Last week, when attending the Moscow premiere, Pitt himself hinted at a sequel and said there is plenty of material left over from Max Brooks' novel, upon which the movie is based.

Only the entire book...

Jan

[Jan]

JMS answered somebody regarding what was his in the film:

The general structure of the thing (a UN investigator looking into the cause of the virus), some of the set pieces (the attack in traffic, the plane coming down, etc.), the trip to Israel (which came from the book), and the characters themselves.

Jan