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

Erttheking

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Avaholic03 said:
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?
Well, from what I've seen of previews for this movie, these zombies don't seem like walking corpses a la walking dead. They seem more like infected, a la 28 days later. And I think what the virus does is that it just overwhelms them with a powerful urge to eat non-infected, drowning out all other feelings. These include the feelings that keep us from running like they do, feeling tired, the feeling of a sprained ankle, and other things. The infected constantly running like this with no regard for personal safety would most likely end up killing them, but by then they'd already have their teeth in you. Basically the virus causes the infected to ignore all of the safety systems the body has.
 

SonOfVoorhees

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The movie was entertaining enough by its own merits. But the name and being based on the book that had more originality in it than the movie really spoiled it. I just wondered why they never took many of the scenes from the book that were awesome? I really wanted to see the Battle of Yonkers in a movie - you could totally feel the terror of the soldiers as modern weapons didnt do that much to the zombie hoard. Also those dog handlers with the dogs they use to bait zombies etc The part with the ships trying to rescue people but zombies end up on them, plus those underwater grabbing people feet dragging them down. But then with the zombies surging every where at speed none of the stories in the book will work anymore. Maybe they should just make it into a tv series.
 

Zontar

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Sleekit said:
well "world war z" might be a decent movie...but sadly there's no way i'm forgiving the using of the name until they at least start talking about about the TV mini series that book should actually be...
Mini-series? Given the premise and the source material, HBO could make a series which would be longer then even the Walking Dead (and would also show them how a zombie tv series is done right). Hell, all you need is Brooks being in every episode at the beginning, end and maybe some point in the middle interviewing the survivor and the rest of the episode could be a standalone. With the very premise they could not only adapt all material from the book, but add much more.

But alas, this shitty movie trilogy (god why did they have to make more?) is all we get. Another generic summer action movie that does nothing to differentiate itself from the crowd and doesn't even try to make itself worth our time, let alone money. I know the critics don't have the balls to say it, but the fact this movie made a profit shows the greater movie going public are morons.
 

Charles Phipps

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I think zombies aren't a tired genre but you need some sort of hook for enjoying them. Shana Festa's Time of Death: Induction is a zombie novel where the humans AREN'T bastards and work together with the military (which is NOT evil) while maintaining a hopeful disposition. Jessica Meig's The Becoming succeeds for the simple fact everyone in the story is a badass zombie-killer. The Dead Rising games are just FUNNY. Peter Clines' Ex-Heroes is superheroes versus zombies. Pavlov's Dogs is about zombies vs. werewolves.

You don't need to innovate the formula much, just innovate it a little!
 

Tradjus

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What killed this movie for me was the portrayal of the Zombies. Not that they aren't shamblers, innovation is fine, but I just couldn't take them seriously. They are just.. so obnoxiously ridiculous. They flop around like fish, sprint at breakneck speeds and ignore the laws of gravity, and are just so.. FUNNY. I mean, nothing about them terrifies me, if you added some sort of comedy soundtrack too this movie it would work perfectly as a Zombie Parody.
 

Callate

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I think what Jim says about visual invention and style is true- the "flowing water" zombies is kind of neat.

But good God, the humans are so dumb...
 

Deimir

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I've heard that the Unrated cut improved the movie a lot from its PG-13 trappings, but when I went to watch the Unrated version on Netflix, it played the theatrical cut. Plus I'm 99% certain there's still that ridiculousness involving the plane crash no matter how much more gore they add.
 

DoctorImpossible

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Agreed with all of this, very fun film, just wish they hadn't wasted the WWZ name on it.

I really like the idea of an actual WWZ mini-series as opposed to a film.
 

daxterx2005

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Yeah this movie suffers from "in name only syndrome"
Its a good movie but piggybacks off the name and nothing else.
Godzilla, Halloween III etc.
 

attackshark

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effects were cool, but a lack of interesting characters, a myriad of common sense plot holes, with just a hint of sexism and national superiority drags this movie into the do-not-watch territory. there were little details that i liked, but they were, at best, sprinkles on the shit cake. the fact that the movie misses the point of the book, while i agree it can be secondary, also does not help; this is a WORLD war, not white guy saves the day.
 

vagabondwillsmile

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I never read the book, though having seen the movie I would like to. The one and only thing I didn't like about the movie is there are far too many instances of *Hey, I'm a clutz and dropped something when my life depends on being quiet*. This, to the point of being eye-roll and groan worthy. Other than that I thought it was great. The production could have so easily done this in a way where the characters weren't at fault, considering the settings, but instead went for the low hanging fruit there. There are so many scenes that build suspense really well. One in particular (you know the one) is very uncomfortable and the air is just thick with tension. And I really liked the soldier character, Segen. She was cool.
 

Diddy_Mao

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It's rare that an adaptation can manage to pull off a good movie while still being a piss poor adaptation.

A lot of this is pretty much exactly how I feel about the Hellboy movies.

Terrible, awful, no good, very bad adaptations of the source material.
Still pretty damn fun Supernatural/Action flicks in their own right.
 

luvd1

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For crying out loud. THERE ARE NO ZOMBIES IN 28 DAYS LATER!!! It's about a virus that was genetically made to examine overwhelming aggression. No one is undead, just very, very angry. No zombies... Right!!!
 

The_State

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LifeCharacter said:
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.
Actually, there are a couple instances of superhuman zombie strength in WWZ. In the Israel section you see a zombie push its arm through a metal-mesh grate and lift up a soldier in full kit with one arm. That's well more than two-hundred pounds; with a single bicep curl. And in the America section, zombies headbutt their way through car windshields.

And that's not all. The zombies will bend or even break the behavioural rules that the movie set down for them. Zombies are relentless and tactless hunters, but one will hide silently in an airplane refreshment cupboard, in an airplane FULL of living, breathing, edible people, until the time is just right for them the pop out Jack-in-the-box style to nom on a flight attendant. Zombies are attracted to noise, but not the noise that other zombies make; only edible humans are capable of knocking things over. I know there was another one that galled the hell out of me, but I cannot recall what it was.
 

maxben

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Westaway said:
Jim forgot to mention that it is some of the most blatant Israeli propaganda in a Hollywood film released in recent years.
I take offense at this comment. 1. The book was already super pro Israel, which even as an Israeli I saw as odd and unlikely. 2. Jerusalem makes a great set piece. It looks great, the narrow streets make this a lot of fun, and the city itself as a thematic importance that can't be beat. 3. How many Hollywood films actually feature Israeli propaganda. Your comment acts like that's a normal occurrence. It would be like saying that Transformers 4 is the most blatant pro Chinese government propaganda from Hollywood in the recent years. Fact is, there is almost NO (and none off the top of my head) pro-Chinese government propaganda coming out of Hollywood. In fact, the only other movie that I can think of that mentions Israeli actions was Munich, and that movie was hated by many Zionist organization and ended with the main character, the Mossad agent, having a mental breakdown because of all the horrible things he did. Not to mention that that was also based on a historical account (loosely of course).