Luckylyn August 22, 2015 Share August 22, 2015 Since I finished the book, I finally watched the movie World War Z and am completely confused. I don't know why they call the movie World War Z or claim it's based on the book because the movie has very little to do with the novel. They pretty much only have zombies in common and that's it. Everything unique about the novel was stripped away to make a generic zombie movie. Why buy the rights to a novel and completely ignore it? They easily could have made the movie without buying the rights to the novel because they have so little in common. This is not a case of a movie changing a few things from the book but of a film that drops pretty much every single story line from the novel and adds new ones. I realize the interview format of the book is tricky to adapt, but it could have been done using a faux documentary format. Even if they didn't want that type of format, they could have shaped it into a global ensemble story that would have handled zombies in ways that no other movie has. The political and moral issues from the book were ignored. There were so many interesting characters and compelling stories that were discarded so that one bland character can be the focus. How the situation is resolved in the movie and the book are completely different to the point where they have nothing to do with each other. The movie itself I found kind of boring. It lacked a certain spark. 2 Link to comment
Joe August 22, 2015 Share August 22, 2015 Sometimes movie rights are bought just because of the name. It might have started life as a completely independent project called World War Z, but then someone discovered the book of the same name. So they bought the movie rights. Alternately, it starts as a faithful adaptation. But someone changes one bit that doesn't quite work for the screen, someone else has to compress events for the running time, a third person has what they think is a great idea, and so on. 1 Link to comment
LeafontheWind August 22, 2015 Share August 22, 2015 There were so many revisions and reshoots for this movie, they had an entirely different third act when it was first filmed! I too was very disappointed because this is one of my favorite books. 1 Link to comment
ikmccall August 22, 2015 Share August 22, 2015 This would have been so much better if it had been more faithful to the book and had been a miniseries on HBO. I can watch it if I view it as a stand alone project that just happens to have the same name as one of my favorite books. 2 Link to comment
MrsRafaelBarba August 22, 2015 Share August 22, 2015 Brad Pitt turned this into a White Savior film. Leo DiCaprio lost the bidding war to Pitt/Plan B, wonder how this would've turned out had he won? 1 Link to comment
Bruinsfan August 22, 2015 Share August 22, 2015 Brad Pitt turned this into a White Savior film. That's what I figured, the man isn't exactly lacking for ego. 1 Link to comment
Ohwell August 22, 2015 Share August 22, 2015 It's a good thing I never read the book because I enjoyed the movie. 3 Link to comment
LeafontheWind August 23, 2015 Share August 23, 2015 This would have been so much better if it had been more faithful to the book and had been a miniseries on HBO. I can watch it if I view it as a stand alone project that just happens to have the same name as one of my favorite books. I agree with all of this. I hope someone does pick it up as a mini series one day. AMC likes zombie stuff, maybe it can be their next project. I also enjoy it as a stand alone film, so I just pretend it is an odd coincidence that there is a book with the same title. 1 Link to comment
MrsRafaelBarba August 23, 2015 Share August 23, 2015 This should've gotten the BOB/The Pacific treatment on HBO. 1 Link to comment
Bruinsfan August 23, 2015 Share August 23, 2015 (edited) I do frankly think the book has its own major problems (zombies that only decay for a while and then stay preserved and capable of motion forever, Max Brooks' woeful lack of knowledge about how effective modern military weapons would actually be against mindless opponents that never take cover or fire back), but at least it didn't have instantly-transforming magic flying fish school zombies that can bring down helicopters. Edited August 23, 2015 by Bruinsfan Link to comment
nobodyyoucare August 23, 2015 Share August 23, 2015 Actually modern war weapons are meant to wound people on the belief that wounded soldiers tie up resources or cause organ damage to the lungs/tissue. Neither of which would affect zombies that require the brain to be completely destroyed. Hence why the zombies in the book can have their heads chopped yet still bite centuries later or be hit by artillery/bombs and still move. FYI there was a screenplay that was loyal to the book hence why Mel Brooks did sign the rights away. This screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski was tossed and production delayed for several years. http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/12/03/j-michael-straczynski-on-world-war-z-the-scale-of-what-were-doing-here-is-phenomenal/ Link to comment
Bruinsfan August 23, 2015 Share August 23, 2015 I was thinking more in terms of using carpet bombing, or high rate of fire mounted machine guns that would chew vast fields of zombies into immobilized hamburger even if not all of them caught bullets to the brain. Brooks had to tie himself into knots with the contrivances that allowed the military to lose the Battle of Yonkers. Link to comment
nobodyyoucare August 23, 2015 Share August 23, 2015 Even carpet bombing is designed to suck air out of lungs rather then blow people to bits. Mounted machine guns are meant for suppression fire namely to keep people down and not fire back. Even then the rounds just go through the flesh and don't tear someone to immobile bits. As noted you can kill only the Brooks zombies by complete destruction of the brain case. The heads can still bite and severed limbs can still move as does the body. 1 Link to comment
Raja August 23, 2015 Share August 23, 2015 I was thinking more in terms of using carpet bombing, or high rate of fire mounted machine guns that would chew vast fields of zombies into immobilized hamburger even if not all of them caught bullets to the brain. Brooks had to tie himself into knots with the contrivances that allowed the military to lose the Battle of Yonkers. You just have to accept that zombies defy both physics and biology. The knot tying is at that end when creating the monster. Now how do we deal with this with trying to bring the real world in with everybody going into battle shooting for the center of mass with ammunition designed to wound thus taking out of combat three soldiers to care for the wounded friend instead of one who was killed. The only thing that matters is a head shot and only Rambo gets head shots when shooting a machinegun Link to comment
Constantinople August 24, 2015 Share August 24, 2015 The movie itself I found kind of boring. It lacked a certain spark. Agreed. They should have named it World War Zzzzzzzzzz 1 Link to comment
Ubiquitous August 24, 2015 Share August 24, 2015 Brad Pitt turned this into a White Savior film. Leo DiCaprio lost the bidding war to Pitt/Plan B, wonder how this would've turned out had he won? DiCaprio's become quite a fatass, has he not? Link to comment
JBC344 August 24, 2015 Share August 24, 2015 Brad Pitt turned this into a White Savior film. Leo DiCaprio lost the bidding war to Pitt/Plan B, wonder how this would've turned out had he won? Really? Considering the work that Brad Pitt has brought us in the last few years I don't think that describes him at all. I agree that the movie has its issues but considering what they were able to salvage and go on to make 100's of millions of dollars, I think they recovered pretty nicely. Also no one puts that much time and money into a project thinking/wanting it to be bad. My hope is that they learned their lesson and will do better with the sequel. 1 Link to comment
Rick Kitchen August 25, 2015 Share August 25, 2015 DiCaprio's become quite a fatass, has he not? Not really. This was taken about three weeks ago. http://static.celebuzz.com/uploads/2013/08/08/leonardo-dicaprio-shirtless-spain-080713-6-640x462.jpg Link to comment
JBC344 August 25, 2015 Share August 25, 2015 To be fair to the poster. Whenever Leo isn't working on a movie he does have a tendency to get "fat". Same thing with Channing Tatum. It's actually very endearing to have proof that it isn't just the women of Hollywood. Link to comment
beetnemesis August 26, 2015 Share August 26, 2015 I watched this movie in theater. It is a good zombie flick but, it lacks something, I expected more zombie vs the living scenes. Its still a definite recommend. 7/10 Enjoy Link to comment
Rick Kitchen August 26, 2015 Share August 26, 2015 There's a sequel in the works. No word as to whether Brad Pitt will be in it or not, but I HOPE they use the original material. Link to comment
JBC344 August 26, 2015 Share August 26, 2015 Brad Pitt is definitely in the sequel. Supposedly it starts shooting soon. Link to comment
beetnemesis September 17, 2015 Share September 17, 2015 Wow, great movie! This wasn't your usual kill all zombies movie, although I don't mind those, this had a lot more action and excitement. I hope there's a sequel. Definitely worth a watch 9.5/10 1 Link to comment
caracas1914 September 18, 2015 Share September 18, 2015 The poor Hispanic kid who lost his entire family to Zombiedom never warranted a SINGLE reaction shot. I guess he was going to be adopted into the Brad Pitt family, though my headcase was there were going to dump him into a UN homeless shelter along the way. Link to comment
MrsRafaelBarba September 20, 2015 Share September 20, 2015 The poor Hispanic kid who lost his entire family to Zombiedom never warranted a SINGLE reaction shot. I guess he was going to be adopted into the Brad Pitt family, though my headcase was there were going to dump him into a UN homeless shelter along the way. Wish they would've shown Tony'reaction to his parents being attacked and turned. And how he got the gun and escaped. Not surprised Gerry kept him with them, the character was shown to be a good person from the start. Plus ill shortly saved his life, shooting the zombie that attacked him in the stairwell. Link to comment
Cobalt Stargazer September 20, 2015 Share September 20, 2015 DiCaprio's become quite a fatass, has he not? Nah, he's just morphing into Jack Nicholson. Link to comment
Bruinsfan September 21, 2015 Share September 21, 2015 Christian Slater may take issue with that. Link to comment
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