Digging in the archives of Nightfall Unlimited garbage, I found this gem. Part of this post is my thoughts on a film adaptation of Max Brooks’ book, World War Z. The first part was written back in 2013 before I saw the movie. I did a review after I saw World War Z, but I am scrapping that. I watched it again recently. I am trying to put fresh eyes over movies I saw and hated and World War Z fits the bill.
Do you like zombie movies? This has been the age of zombie films, possibly starting in 2002 with 28 Days Later which brought a major player in horror film back to the fray. Since then we have seen many zombie movies come over the past 10+ years and a wildly popular comic book and television show in the Walking Dead.
We have seen all different kinds of zombie films, from the traditional Romero zombie and Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake where we saw zombies run. But I am concerned about this film because of the trailers I have seen. For the record it before anyone wants to argue about whether or not this is in fact a zombie film, the Z in the title does stand for zombie and the book for which it is based is called World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.
As I mentioned the film is based on the book written by Max Brooks, who is Mel Brooks son, yes that Mel Brooks. The book has been described as reinventing the zombie genre. One of the things about he book, Brooks did his research to make this as realistic as possible. Brooks also gives a plan on things we can do to help us if there ever is a zombie pandemic. So let us flash to the film and the trailers and concern.
I think overall the story and the film could be really good. I am bothered by the zombies themselves. In the remake to Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead the zombies were upgraded and were able to run. It made it scarier than the older films, but zombies are decaying and with the rigor mortis setting in, it makes not logical sense that they can run. But with running zombies, we could no longer out run this slow moving zombie. But Romero’s zombies make more sense, they are dead and rotting. This is why George A. Romero had them moving slowly and stumbling over things, dragging limbs and other things. To this point, in the trailers for World War Z the zombies are forming swarms and plowing over buses and well they remind me of ants. I think this is a little far fetched considering zombies are pretty much selfish and only after the food, these seem to be working together. I am not sure human beings who are alive can do this. The crazy thing is the are flipping buses and climbing to helicopters.That is my chief complaint so far, as I said it seems like the story will be great, I just do not get the pile up stuff. I guess it is to make it look like your not safe anywhere. Well in a zombie pandemic I would think that anyway. But again we will wait and see as it hits June 21, 2013.
But if you need the fix you can always check out the book or check out any number of zombie movies that are out, there are tons. The Walking Dead comics is always a good way to get your fix, but maybe check out where this all started for Max Brooks and read the Zombie Survival Guide. This is the ultimate field manual for the zombie apocalypse. The last part of the book works as an outbreak journal. Any fan of zombies should own this book, it is amazing. Don’t forget, this book could save your life.
That is the end of my thoughts on what World War Z could have been, back in 2013…Here is the trailer…prepare yourself.
Review
Ok…World War Z, from the first time I saw the trailer, I was not impressed, but it being a zombie film, I had to see it. So I waited for the Blu Ray release and my brother rented it and we began to watch the film. My impressions from the trailer were 100% correct. I worry this will change the face of zombie films forever. Consider this, World War Z made 538 million in the box office, Dawn of the Dead remake and Zombieland both made 102 million and both are superior films. At times I felt the film took the zombie rule book and burned it. It was a big budget horror film…wait it was not a horror film at all. I would not count this as horror, it is right up there with Independence Day, Armageddon and 2012, disaster films, maybe call it a plague film. This was my original feeling, but now…now…I feel the same. This is a terrible movie.
In World War Z, the zombies can run very fast, jump high and tackle like line backers, oh lets not forget the ant like pile ups to scale walls. The zombies would fall from a great height and still get up and move. That would kill a regular human. I saw a zombie jump from a building and grab a helicopter and hang on. I have nothing against running zombies, it worked in the remake of Dawn of the Dead, made the zombies scarier, but I believe in the state of decay and believe when the body dies it begins to decay just like anything living, the body hardens. I understand this was probably a virus, but over time zombie should move slower, not run around tackling people, reminded me of and old Playstation football game, NFL Blitz at times.
What is the motivation of a zombie? Well, in this film it seems it is to increase the victims of the plague. In nearly every zombie film it is about survival, for humans and the zombies. Zombies need to feed to stay alive, this did not seem to be the case, like I said all about increasing the plague. To barrel through cities infecting everyone who did not already have a disease, yes that’s right. So if you take the zombie element out and look at it as a plague film, it may be a better film. But, probably not. I am nearly certain the “Z” in the title stands for zombie.
I did not like this film at all, I went in giving it a chance, but it failed. I really hope zombie films do not take notes from this mess of a movie, if you want to do zombies correct, in my opinion, check out the Walking Dead or any of the George Romero films, hell read the Walking Dead. This was one of the worst half a billion dollar grossed films ever made. I cannot believe this movie has a score of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and Batman V. Superman has a 27%. Different kind of movies, but World War Z is complete shit.
I saw never see this film, I am big into horror and this does not qualify, it is unfortunate that this could change the course of zombie films. I agree with a few of my colleagues, it may be time to give the zombie genre a rest. If you do see this and enjoy the film, please tell me what you take from it. I guess I am just not smart enough, oh and the ending is terrible. Bad from beginning to the end. Go watch Dawn of the Dead after watching this garbage, hell pop in Zombie 2 by Lucio Fulci.
This has also prompted me to do a top 10 list, Best Zombie films. Maybe tomorrow, who knows. I do know, this will not show up.
IMDB.com has a score of 7.0, SERIOUSLY!? I rate World War Z with a 2.8 and yeah, it is out of 10.
