World War Z (1 Viewer)

[Goshin]

Son Numbah One and I went to see it yesterday...we've been stoked to see this one for months now, as we're both major zombie fans and have also read the book.


Was it good? Oh HELL YES it was good! Really good. Top ten zombie movies-ever good; maybe top five.


Atmosphere of fearful anticipation? Check.
Scary action scenes? Check.
Dark and mysterious scenes? Yup.


Now, it didn't exactly follow the book... in reality there's no way it could as the book was more a collection of "Z" survivor anecdotes, but it did mostly keep to the flavor of the book and most of the general concepts.


It was really good... but it could have been better. Spoiler warnings....

Spoiler

Pitt's character was supposed to be highly skilled at staying alive, granted, but he was just TOO damn lucky on at least two occasions... the plane crash and the injecting himself with a disease to "camo" from the Z's. The latter theme was portrayed too simplistically... there was no way of knowing just then HOW the zombies could tell someone was "dying" of disease or etc, or how sick you'd need to be to be "invisible" to them... he just trusted to luck and with luck like that he could win the lottery twice running.

That one kinda damaged my willing-suspension of disbelief, especially after being one of only two survivors of a bad jetliner crash...

 

[Aunt Spiker]

My only beef is that they put Pit in it - whatever happened to the idea of finding new actors?

 

[Goshin]

My only beef is that they put Pit in it - whatever happened to the idea of finding new actors?

Actually he did a very good job. He's a better actor than I used to want to admit.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Actually he did a very good job. He's a better actor than I used to want to admit.

Yeah - he's a good actor . . . he's just in everything. I'm Pitted out.

 

[Goshin]

Oh I almost forgot.... approximately zero gore. Deliberate avoidance of it by camera angle.


However, the scary-ass super-fast zombies, who also have a Honey-Badger-Don't-Give-A-Damn attitude about how much they get hurt as long as they can bite you, kinda make up for it.

 

[Helix]

i hate zombie movies; they usually bore the hell out of me. that being said, i'm going to watch this one and see what i think. maybe it will change my mind.

 

[Gathomas88]

Spoiler

Pitt's character was supposed to be highly skilled at staying alive, granted, but he was just TOO damn lucky on at least two occasions... the plane crash and the injecting himself with a disease to "camo" from the Z's. The latter theme was portrayed too simplistically... there was no way of knowing just then HOW the zombies could tell someone was "dying" of disease or etc, or how sick you'd need to be to be "invisible" to them... he just trusted to luck and with luck like that he could win the lottery twice running.

That one kinda damaged my willing-suspension of disbelief, especially after being one of only two survivors of a bad jetliner crash...

I'd say that it was way, waaay better than any movie with World War Z's premise that happened to star Brad Pitt had any business being, but I asolutely agree with your criticisms here.

The director did an excellent job of creating a tense and frightening atmosphere for the first half of the film, but he kind of messed things up by trying to endlessly "one up" himself with every new scene as things went on. By the time the movie's latter half rolled around, things were getting so overtly ridiculous as to strain the story's credibility. The mood basically transitioned from being gritty and tense, to questionable and sort of cartoonish, to "yea... they're clearly just f*cking with us at this point" over the course of less than thirty minutes.

Several people in the audience I saw it with were actually laughing out loud by the time we got to the climax. I'll give the film's creators credit for absolutely going for broke and coming out more or less ahead, but I think the finished product might've come out even better if things had been toned down just a tad. :lol:

Spoiler

Also, Israeli chick was completely pointless. There should've been no survivors of the plane crash besides Pitt's character, and he should've simply woken up being cared for by some random family in the English countryside after blacking out before moving on to the labratory. The film would've been much better served by introducing a new character at that point than by keeping one around who had clearly outlived their usefulness to the story at least fifteen minutes earlier for the Hell of it.

 

[Goshin]

I'd say that it was way, waaay better than any movie with World War Z's premise that happened to star Brad Pitt had any business being, but I asolutely agree with your criticisms here.

The director did an excellent job of creating a tense and frightening atmosphere for the first half of the film, but he kind of messed things up by trying to endlessly "one up" himself with every new scene as things went on. By the time the movie's latter half rolled around, things were getting so overtly ridiculous as to strain the story's credibility. The mood basically transitioned from being gritty and tense, to questionable and sort of cartoonish, to "yea... they're clearly just f*cking with us at this point" over the course of less than thirty minutes.

Several people in the audience I saw it with were actually laughing out loud by the time we got to the climax. I'll give the film's creators credit for absolutely going for broke and coming out more or less ahead, but I think the finished product might've come out even better if things had been toned down just a tad. :lol:

Spoiler

Also, Israeli chick was completely pointless. There should've been no survivors of the plane crash besides Pitt's character, and he should've simply woken up being cared for by some random family in the English countryside after blacking out before moving on to the labratory. The film would've been much better served by introducing a new character at that point than by keeping one around who had clearly outlived their usefulness to the story at least fifteen minutes earlier for the Hell of it.

Yeah, the last 30-45 min were just a bit overdone. Still GOOD... but could have been slightly better.

Still, I'm not complaining overall.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Well - Pitt or no - I really want to see it. The only movie that's given me the creeps from the trailers.

 

[Jango]

I'm a zombie enthusiast and have converted my wife, so we went and watched it the other day. She gave it 4* and I gave it 4 1/2. If you're cautious to see this because of critics and reviewers, but like the undead, go with your passion for biters!!

 

[Aunt Spiker]

I'm a zombie enthusiast and have converted my wife, so we went and watched it the other day. She gave it 4* and I gave it 4 1/2. If you're cautious to see this because of critics and reviewers, but like the undead, go with your passion for biters!!

I'm all for funny, quirky, lovable zombie flicks but it is nice to see them bring back the sub-genre with focus on the disparity of it all.

 

[VanceMack]

Saw it. Liked it a lot. My wife read the book and is a zombie enthusiast...she was very satisfied with what they did with it. Not 'true' to the book, but close enough.

I remember thinking after watching this that it would/should be the end of zombie flicks for a while. We have had the comedies, the TV dramas, we have explored most every facet of the 'zombie' from the WWZ zombie to the Walking Dead Zombie to the I am Legend zombies to the romantic comedy zombies. Unless they can come up with something new...I think we may be at saturation. This movie would be a good one to end on for a bit.

 

[samsmart]

Son Numbah One and I went to see it yesterday...we've been stoked to see this one for months now, as we're both major zombie fans and have also read the book.


Was it good? Oh HELL YES it was good! Really good. Top ten zombie movies-ever good; maybe top five.


Atmosphere of fearful anticipation? Check.
Scary action scenes? Check.
Dark and mysterious scenes? Yup.


Now, it didn't exactly follow the book... in reality there's no way it could as the book was more a collection of "Z" survivor anecdotes, but it did mostly keep to the flavor of the book and most of the general concepts.


It was really good... but it could have been better. Spoiler warnings....

Spoiler

Pitt's character was supposed to be highly skilled at staying alive, granted, but he was just TOO damn lucky on at least two occasions... the plane crash and the injecting himself with a disease to "camo" from the Z's. The latter theme was portrayed too simplistically... there was no way of knowing just then HOW the zombies could tell someone was "dying" of disease or etc, or how sick you'd need to be to be "invisible" to them... he just trusted to luck and with luck like that he could win the lottery twice running.

That one kinda damaged my willing-suspension of disbelief, especially after being one of only two survivors of a bad jetliner crash...

The problem I have with the "World War Z" movies is that the elements that the movie has in common with the book are only barely there, and the plotline with the bacteria is original to the movie and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the book.

The book "World War Z," written by Max Brooks, is pretty seminal to the zombie genre. For one, it is a work of literature, a medium in which, prior to it and "The Zombie Survival Guide" that he also wrote, wasn't very conducive to zombies. The zombie genre has been most favorable to film and comic books the most and literature the least, so for the book "World War Z" to acquire the acclaim it has is absolutely extraordinary.

Another thing that makes the book "World War Z" important is the way in which it is the subject matter of the book. If you watch most zombie movies they have a small cast of characters and the movie focuses solely on how that small group handles a zombie apocalypse during a small span of time. The book "World War Z" is quite different in that it has stories from all over the world from the beginning of the zombie outbreak through the worst of the apocalypse and continues to the aftermath. In that way it is quite unique and epic in scope, and is part of what made it the great work that it is.

The movie "World War Z" seriously undermines the book "World War Z" with the bacteria plotline. And that is what made the movie disappointing to me - it was not an adaptation of the book "World War Z."

If someone watches the movie and then expects the same things in the book, it isn't there. At all. And that's a shame because it does a serious disservice to those who are fans of the book. Of which there are many.

And this would have been an okay movie - as long as it wasn't titled "World War Z." But because it does have that title but only has a sheen of relation to the book, it's a huge disappointment for me.