World War Z (the movie) just isn't very good

[BoogieManFL]

I saw it today and while it's a decent movie, it's not great. It does have a lot of faults, but something I really liked about it was it made it believable that the zombies were LETHAL and effective killers. Most of the time, zombies seem kind of weak. Sure a common parallel is their strength in numbers, but these ones had some crazy human-ant like cooperation.

And it goes to show that one of the main sources of lethality for them is their lack of self preservation or fear of injury coupled with speed. The human body is capable of very much more than what we are generally able to do with our fear of pain and injury. The way they run full out berserk and slam into corners without slowing as they are chasing someone into a doorway or hallway, or hurl themselves off of great heights to pursue did very well at showing that one crucial aspect. That relentless and careless way of attacking made it believable they could overwhelm soldiers and armed people.

That and the very fast zombification rate meant you could go from one infected to dozens or more in minutes. I think they are definitely the most lethal and scary zombies I've ever seen portrayed.

But I'll agree with many others here, it would work much better as a series and not as a movie. It was just too aimless with the plot. And with how they find a weakness in the zombies, while cool in how it was discovered, I just can't imagine how any future dealings with them afterward the discovery would be all that fun to watch.

 

[optimusjamie]

I saw it today and while it's a decent movie, it's not great. It does have a lot of faults, but something I really liked about it was it made it believable that the zombies were LETHAL and effective killers. Most of the time, zombies seem kind of weak. Sure a common parallel is their strength in numbers, but these ones had some crazy human-ant like cooperation.

And it goes to show that one of the main sources of lethality for them is their lack of self preservation or fear of injury coupled with speed. The human body is capable of very much more than what we are generally able to do with our fear of pain and injury. The way they run full out berserk and slam into corners without slowing as they are chasing someone into a doorway or hallway, or hurl themselves off of great heights to pursue did very well at showing that one crucial aspect. That relentless and careless way of attacking made it believable they could overwhelm soldiers and armed people.

That and the very fast zombification rate meant you could go from one infected to dozens or more in minutes. I think they are definitely the most lethal and scary zombies I've ever seen portrayed.

But I'll agree with many others here, it would work much better as a series and not as a movie. It was just too aimless with the plot. And with how they find a weakness in the zombies, while cool in how it was discovered, I just can't imagine how any future dealings with them afterward the discovery would be all that fun to watch.

This.

I noticed at the end it said that the battle for Moscow was still raging. Honestly, 'Russians VS Zombies' would have been a far better movie.

 

[80sboy]

Also here are some special notes about the movie itself:

-The kids pissed me off how annoying they were...zombie apocalypse happening and we need two shots of that one girl crying for her blankie...ugh! -_-
-Shaky cam was garbage.
-Editing is garbage, there's that one scene where a scientist shoots himself accidentally, and I didn't know what happened until way later when it's explained to me.
-Brad Pitts chemistry with the Israeli commando chick is more believable than his own wife.
-Oh and...I hated his family, Brad Pitt kept trying to sell how much he cares about them - but I didn't, so those scenes with him and them is soooo boring, and there's a lot of it too. When his wife called, and Brad's phone started ringing when he was trying to avoid making noise...well, I was happy to see the Captain kick the woman off the boat after that...happy!
lol
-(SPOILER)...................How do the zombies know you're sick?? Can the smell the Bird Flu on you - or something??
-Roland Emmerich type movie where there's too many supporting characters thrown in and dropped later.
-Not enough zombie waves...seriously, that was the only selling point of the movie...and there's only one scene with it really.
-What war? I mean seriously? Once again the scenes in Israel were the only ones that looked to be that way...everything else is shit we've seen before a billion types in better zombie movies.

And...I'll end on a positive note because all this negativity is starting to get to me...-_-

-Scene in airplane was sorta cool
-Bald Israeli commando was awesome...and sorta hot too...I'd definitely do her.


There!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Also here are some special notes about the movie itself:

-The kids pissed me off how annoying they were...zombie apocalypse happening and we need two shots of that one girl crying for her blankie...ugh! -_-
-Shaky cam was garbage.
-Editing is garbage, there's that one scene where a scientist shoots himself accidentally, and I didn't know what happened until way later when it's explained to me.
-Brad Pitts chemistry with the Israeli commando chick is more believable than his own wife.
-Oh and...I hated his family, Brad Pitt kept trying to sell how much he cares about them - but I didn't, so those scenes with him and them is soooo boring, and there's a lot of it too. When his wife called, and Brad's phone started ringing when he was trying to avoid making noise...well, I was happy to see the Captain kick the woman off the boat after that...happy!
lol
-(SPOILER)...................How do the zombies know you're sick?? Can the smell the Bird Flu on you - or something??
-Roland Emmerich type movie where there's too many supporting characters thrown in and dropped later.
-Not enough zombie waves...seriously, that was the only selling point of the movie...and there's only one scene with it really.
-What war? I mean seriously? Once again the scenes in Israel were the only ones that looked to be that way...everything else is shit we've seen before a billion types in better zombie movies.

And...I'll end on a positive note because all this negativity is starting to get to me...-_-

-Scene in airplane was sorta cool
-Bald Israeli commando was awesome...and sorta hot too...I'd definitely do her.


There!

Thank god those kids were ushered out of the movie by the end of the first act. The minute that girl started having an asthma attack I went #$%&/ and feared we would be stuck with her for the rest of the movie. Thankfully she's lead away and it never comes up again.

Shaky-cam sucks, but the lightning sucked even more. Those scenes with Pitt & co. clambering towards the terrace were murky as hell. I could never tell what was going on. Same with "South Korea" - no spacial clarity whatsoever. All the cool, clear-cut scenes show up in the trailer. Everything else looks like crap.

Did Angelina specifically order Brad to get a movie wife with whom he would share no chemistry of any kind? And what a color-less, boring character. I wonder if anybody gave a fuck about her while the movie lasted. But then I wonder if anybody gave a fuck about anybody in this movie. Even the Israeli soldier, who everybody's raving about, does little more than suck up some damage and shoot a few bullets.

 

[80sboy]

Even the Israeli soldier, who everybody's raving about, does little more than suck up some damage and shoot a few bullets.

I think the only reason the Israeli soldier gets so much attention is she's the only single character that humanizes the movie. Even with Brad Pitt with all his "charisma" comes across as a man flying by on autopilot. The whole movie, there's millions of people dieing, but they're mostly dieing off scene - or you can't tell what's going on thanks to the shaky cam and lighting. Hell, this movie has the same problem as Superman does, but in a different way. Millions of people dieing, and you get no sense of it. Of course in Man of Steel, they're literally hiding it because they know they're going too far with the destruction of Metropolis, and I'm sitting there thinking, "this is too violent for a Superman movie."

With this movie, it was too tame for a zombie apocalypse. The zombies were generic unless when they weren't trying to fly in like locust, and seeing people turn...we've seen it a billion times! The one scene in 28 days when that father turned is the only few times I've cared and the only one that still stands out in my memory...that! and George Romero's original NotLD from the 60s, when that daughter turns and murders her own mother...ewww! Now I didn't want to see the Israeli soldier turn, and she's the only one I felt the same for. Plus, she has barely any lines but I immediately liked her. It's the only time I felt bad for any character in the movie - the only time! And in the rest of the movie I was like, "no no no don't kill her off, don't leave her behind!" Because that' what I was expecting from the idiot director that doesn't know a likable supporting role when he see's one. Every other suprole was offed, that or disappeared.

Her character has a funny effect on people, where they know how bad the movie is, and the audience is worried the director might just off the only little gem they liked.

lol

 

[porous_shield]

I'm glad I've read this thread before I sought out the movie on the big screen. I've been disappointed by other movie remakes (I am Legend, Golden Compass just to name a couple) and I think I'll skip this one.

I can easily see how this movie had few characters you could relate to since the book jumped all over the place and had dozens of characters and none of which I could relate to; I also felt all the characters were written with the same voice but that's neither here no there when talking about the movie.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hopefully, Guillermo del Toro and Neill Blomkamp get us out of this current blockbuster slump.

I have high hopes for Elysium. I was a little weary of another Matt Damon vehicle but Blomkamp as sole writer/director is comforting enough. Same goes with Guille del Toro's Pacific Rim - part of me whinces "Transformers knock-off", while the other part shushes "He made Pan's Labyrinth, he made Pan's Labyrinth"...

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm glad I've read this thread before I sought out the movie on the big screen. I've been disappointed by other movie remakes (I am Legend, Golden Compass just to name a couple) and I think I'll skip this one.

I can easily see how this movie had few characters you could relate to since the book jumped all over the place and had dozens of characters and none of which I could relate to; I also felt all the characters were written with the same voice but that's neither here no there when talking about the movie.

It's not really a remake, just a direct "adaptation" of Max Brook's eponymous book (AKA they paid for the right to use the same title).

 

[porous_shield]

I'm glad I've read this thread before I sought out the movie on the big screen. I've been disappointed by other movie remakes (I am Legend, Golden Compass just to name a couple) and I think I'll skip this one.

I can easily see how this movie had few characters you could relate to since the book jumped all over the place and had dozens of characters and none of which I could relate to; I also felt all the characters were written with the same voice but that's neither here no there when talking about the movie.

It's not really a remake, just a direct "adaptation" of Max Brook's eponymous book (AKA they paid for the right to use the same title).

Yeah, that's what I meant. "Remake" slipped out I guess when I meant adaptation. I'll be avoiding it nonetheless.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The main problem i saw from the trailer is the mutant hive mind zombies that look like the cgi monsters from I am Legend.

It a shame thought the book is pretty cool especially how the Russians and The USA beat the zombies and the contrast between styles.

I've never seen I Am Legend. I thought those things were meant to be vampires?

 

[OneCatch]

I still don't think adaptations are inherently beholden to their source material (I mean, sometimes the source material kind of sucks, like The Godfather), but in this case, it really seems like they went with 'World War Z,' because 'Zombie Movie Starring Brad Pitt' wasn't very catchy.

As for the movie itself, the only really positive thing I can say about it is that Brad Pitt was quite good. As for everything else, the movie doesn't really do anything to make itself stand out, apart from seemingly rip off the style of 28 Days Later a bunch. You're right OP, it does try to do several things at once (ripping of '28 Days' at the top), and it never really succeeds at any of them. At the end of day, it's just another 'eh, whatever' summer movie. Hopefully, Guillermo del Toro and Neill Blomkamp get us out of this current blockbuster slump.

See, I really liked it, and 28 Days Later is actually my favourite film full stop.

No, it wasn't as good as 28 Days (which IMO was thematically brilliant in multiple ways), but it's a blockbuster, and in terms of spectacle it was great. The plot was kind of derivative but passable (there's only so many variations on the zombie apocalypse story), and it was pretty well acted.

I loved the way that they had the infected as a kind of seething mass - it managed to combine the classic fears of zombies, swarming insects, and tsunamis into one package.
And it actually managed to build tension pretty well - I kind of thought "Well played you smug bastards" when they managed to make the scene in the lab tense (down the road from me btw - the cinema actually got a cheer when Cardiff was mentioned), then lit it up brightly, then made it more tense.

And in terms of it not being like the WWZ book, I'd say that perhaps it would have been more apt to describe it as 'inspired by' rather than 'based on', but it's probably the best that they could do in film format. A TV series could certainly get closer to the book.

Slow zombies have been done to death though, and just aren't that scary. One of the main flaws of the book WWZ was that major battle in New York could have been won, not with guns, but by mostly evacuating the infantry (or better still, heli-drop them onto rooftops) and driving tanks, bulldozers, combat engineering vehicles, and even APCs up and down the streets and bridges (conveniently grid like), and squash about 90% of the horde. Medium (Walking Dead kind, fast when in horde and wound up) or Fast zombies are the only ones that really make sense in a modern, global context.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I loved the way that they had the infected as a kind of seething mass - it managed to combine the classic fears of zombies, swarming insects, and tsunamis into one package. And it actually managed to build tension pretty well - I kind of thought "Well played you smug bastards" when they managed to make the scene in the lab tense (down the road from me btw - the cinema actually got a cheer when Cardiff was mentioned), then lit it up brightly, then made it more tense.

The third act is the best bit of WWZ. For once they managed to concentrate that long in a single idea, building up the suspense around the lab sequence. Everything else preceding that part was OK. The big set pieces were awesome, obviously, but I'm sick of the shaky-cam and shoddy lighting that's become a standard measure for action.

 

[Klagermeister]

Quite frankly I enjoyed the movie and thought it was my favorite zombie movie so far.

For once, the main characters actually do smart things instead of faffing about acting like idiots (covering arms with magazines, offing themselves when infected, riding bicycles, etc.), and as for why things happened, the movie wasn't in-your-face about everything (the way they showed how long it takes them to turn is a good example).

I've read the book and I can safely say it would not have translated well into a movie at all. Too many stories, not enough time to become emotionally invested in anything, etc.

I would say they did a great job with this movie. At least for once the story tries to focus on the human struggle with the outbreak, rather than "booyah, zombie killing".

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

For once, the main characters actually do smart things instead of faffing about acting like idiots (covering arms with magazines, offing themselves when infected, riding bicycles, etc.), and as for why things happened, the movie wasn't in-your-face about everything (the way they showed how long it takes them to turn is a good example).

I've read the book and I can safely say it would not have translated well into a movie at all. Too many stories, not enough time to become emotionally invested in anything, etc.

The little "realistic" details were a nice touch, I appreaciated that early in the movie (also the mutilation part played out nicely, for once). But the whole Korea episode felt so random and dettached and poorly made it put me off. And then I got the same impression from the Israel part. If you stop and think about it for a sec you realize none of that added to anything, it was "stuff that just happened" like Homer would say. Suddenly the whole point of the movie is making up a cure rather than finding the origin of the infection, and all that travelling turns out to be more or less pointless - a bunch of red herrings for filler.

Regarding the adaptation thing, it could've worked well as a series or mini series, but I suppose nobody wants to be competing with Walking Dead for "dramatic zombie show".