Movie Defense Force: World War Z - Despite The Title, A Great Zombie Flick

Jimothy Sterling

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World War Z - Despite The Title, A Great Zombie Flick

Although having little connection to the popular book asides sharing a name, World War Z is a pretty damn good film.

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Pyrian

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My suspicion is that if they'd named it anything else, people would be mad at how much it ripped off the book. XD
 

Avaholic03

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I watched this movie (the unrated version on Netflix) last weekend, and I pretty much agree with you on all your points. The only real problem I have with this movie (and I had the same problem with 28 days later, I Am Legend, and other similar movies) is that I have a tough time suspending disbelief that a virus would actually give people super-human strength and speed. It's not that I'm some slow-zombie purist or anything, it just doesn't seem scientifically sound.

But, putting aside that complaint, it was a great movie with excellent tension and pacing throughout.

EDIT:
Pyrian said:
My suspicion is that if they'd named it anything else, people would be mad at how much it ripped off the book. XD
I doubt it. It was so unrelated to the book (only a few character names remained the same) that if it were named something else, nobody would have even compared the two. It would, however, have been written off as a 28 Days Later clone, which is the movie I think it's most comparable to (although on a much greater scale of course).
 

ImBigBob

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Good video, Jim. Up until now I've refused to see it specifically because of its tie to the book. However, if you really think it's a good movie on its own merits, then perhaps I'll check it out.

I mean, I did love The Running Man movie, even though it had nothing at all to do with the book.
 

Lvl 64 Klutz

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Avaholic03 said:
I watched this movie (the unrated version on Netflix) last weekend, and I pretty much agree with you on all your points. The only real problem I have with this movie (and I had the same problem with 28 days later, I Am Legend, and other similar movies) is that I have a tough time suspending disbelief that a virus would actually give people super-human strength and speed. It's not that I'm some slow-zombie purist or anything, it just doesn't seem scientifically sound.
It doesn't seem scientifically sound that a virus would give it's host abilities that would allow said host to spread the virus more efficiently?
 

Kmadden2004

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I usually find the best way to describe World War Z to friends is that it isn't a straight up, gory horror movie but more like a traditional disaster film that happens to use zombies as its inciting event instead of a volcano or earthquake.

Plus, Daniella Kertesz was great as Segen. It would be nice to see her get more work.

Also, it has the "aw, that's cute" factor of Peter Capaldi as a W.H.O. Doctor...
 

LobsterFeng

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It's okay. That's all I can really say about it. Having Muse do the score was pretty damn cool though.
 

Dunesen

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Nope.

Ignoring the lack of fidelity to the source material, WWZ does not work as a zombie movie because it undermines the very principle of all zombie movies from Night of the Living Dead on: that it is a complete and total apocalypse, a breakdown of society and social convention, and that a return to normalcy is at best an idealistic fantasy. The entire business of finding 'a cure' implies that this is nothing more than an inconvenience writ large, to be addressed and solved so long as our intrepid hero can hold out long enough to get through enough castles to ultimately find his princess (to use a video game analogy, given this site). At which point everything can go back to normal (the half-assed epilogue narration be damned).

Zombie stories are never really about the zombies themselves, and WWZ's pushing of the 'running zombie' envelope was just an attempt to bring the focus to the undead hordes in order to then 'defeat' them with the 'disease as bio-camo' cure.

You know what would have worked, narratively and thematically? If the entire third act was changed and Brad Pitt's travels and research were for all for naught. If he had to come to the realization that all his efforts to stop the zombies and bring the world back to what it once was were pointless. I can accept the book's 'victory' over the zombie plague because a) it's not a permanent fix, as the characters make clear and b) it requires massive changes to society, military tactics and the cooperation of various nations. A new world for a new threat, emphasizing just how significant this issue is.

But no. The movie wanted to adhere to the action movie formula, right down to the 'one man saves the day' ending. And that necessitated reducing the zombies to less than their traditional status as monsters.

Also the complete lack of blood and gore was just a slap in the face to the zombie genre. I assume the unrated cut restores the balance on that front, but frack it I paid money to see this in theaters. I paid to see blood!
 

Grabehn

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I know nothing about the book, saw this about 3-4 days ago and the most I can remember is that one Pepsi scene that had me both giggling and cringing and how blatant it was.
 

ZZoMBiE13

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When this one came on Netflix I tried to give it an honest try. I chose the unrated cut of course since both were available.

Sadly I was unable to divorce myself from the expectations the name brought with it. I plan to give it another go at some point, but Max Brooks' book just looms so large it's hard to not think of it. It's hard to not wonder what might have been if we gave the source material a chance instead of using an in-name-only title to show us a 28 Later knock-off.

Honestly, I like Brad Pitt ever since Se7en. I don't mind a change in service of a new medium where it makes sense. But this is one I haven't been able to look at through a clear lens.
 

Vausch

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Lvl 64 Klutz said:
Avaholic03 said:
I watched this movie (the unrated version on Netflix) last weekend, and I pretty much agree with you on all your points. The only real problem I have with this movie (and I had the same problem with 28 days later, I Am Legend, and other similar movies) is that I have a tough time suspending disbelief that a virus would actually give people super-human strength and speed. It's not that I'm some slow-zombie purist or anything, it just doesn't seem scientifically sound.
It doesn't seem scientifically sound that a virus would give it's host abilities that would allow said host to spread the virus more efficiently?
Viruses tend to mutate and become less damaging and visually frightening if it helps spread the virus easier. To that standard, it could reach the point where strain B and C virus zombies are actually either normal people that don't bite others after chasing them via a horde.

A zombie movie with nice zombies. That sounds like an interesting romp.
 

Coreless

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I never had any intention of ever watching this movie, I actually can't stand the zombie movie genre at all. The Walking Dead was about all I could stand watching (Only saw the first season) because I think zombies are just stupid as a concept (in my opinion) but since I had nothing else to watch and actually am a fan of Brad Pitt as an actor I decided to watch WWZ on Netflix.

All and all I actually liked the movie, for me it was more the focus on the virus itself that actually kept me watching. All the parts where Brad Pitt was trying to understand the effects of the virus, looking for patterns and seeing its weaknesses I thought was quite a good idea that I don't recall seeing in other zombie movies. I never read the book (or knew there was a book) so I wasn't expecting anything going into it but I enjoyed what I saw and have to agree with Jim that its an entertaining film.
 

MarsProbe

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I read the book a good while back (blahblahblah I was there before it was cool bow before my superiority) so by the time the film came out I had forgotten a lot of the smaller details that I heard had been carried over into the film. I personally thought the film was just "okay". Besides the scenes in the W.H.O facility at the end, I found the whole thing to be just missing that certain...something. I could tell when it was meant to be tense or exciting, but it just never really to there for me.

The main attraction for this movie (other than the book it shares a name with) was the novelty of seeing a rather recognisable (to us locals anyway) part of my home city dressed up as an American city. Other than that, this film was juust kind of....there for me really.
 

geier

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I have not read the book, so perhaps my opinion comes right out of my ignorant ass, but i was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I only heard the backlash on the internet and thought it would be terrible.
I really like that the protagonist is not the super ex military, seal, special forces, bla, bla mega soldier.
And that is, i believe, the biggest problem for most viewers. He was a guy that talked more then used his gun. He worked for the EU/UN and not the CIA/Seal, bla, bla, super soldier producing maschine.

Also the ending was not clear cut. The vaccine was just a temporary solution. It's like the ending from Mass Effect: If it not a super happy ending, todays viewers complain.
Of course the movie was not perfect, it was far from it. But to be honest, i think it was one of the better zombie movies of the recent years. It stands (in my opinion) far ahead of 28 Days later.
 

Avaholic03

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LifeCharacter said:
Avaholic03 said:
I watched this movie (the unrated version on Netflix) last weekend, and I pretty much agree with you on all your points. The only real problem I have with this movie (and I had the same problem with 28 days later, I Am Legend, and other similar movies) is that I have a tough time suspending disbelief that a virus would actually give people super-human strength and speed. It's not that I'm some slow-zombie purist or anything, it just doesn't seem scientifically sound.
Do the zombies (I Am Legend has vampires, btw) actually have superhuman speed and strength? I mean, people always seem pretty capable of outrunning them and overpowering them. The only real danger is that they always sprint towards their targets, don't care about pain or getting hurt, and generally come in groups. They might have good endurance to be sprinting all the time, but we never really see them run marathons, just chase after a human for short periods of time.
So forming a human pyramid to get over a 50' tall wall doesn't demonstrate super-human strength? Or leaping through windows of moving vehicles? Or any number of things we see them do in the film? It doesn't make any sense for an infected/dead person to be able to run down a healthy live person, except as a action movie plot device.

Lvl 64 Klutz said:
It doesn't seem scientifically sound that a virus would give it's host abilities that would allow said host to spread the virus more efficiently?
How exactly would a virus accomplish that? Especially in zombies where the nervous and circulatory systems are compromised and the host is medically dead, how does a virus even fight off the onset of rigor mortus, let alone making the host more agile than it was when it was alive?
 

Westaway

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Jim forgot to mention that it is some of the most blatant Israeli propaganda in a Hollywood film released in recent years.
 

Canadamus Prime

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I saw this movie and went into it not expecting much, but really it wasn't bad. Not the worst movie I've ever seen.