"World War Z - Not the Max Brooks version" Topic

Saw the movie this weekend. Knew what to expect, but went to see it anyway. I thought it to be a decent flick, but think as zed movies go, they should've used a different name for it instead of riding Max's coattails to drum up more of an audience. What do you guys think?

The first draft of the script by J. Michael Stracynski (of Babylon 5 fame) actually was faithful (somewhat) to the source material, but the studio big wigs later decided that the narrative structure and multiple POV's wouldn't translate to commercial success and hired Matthew Michael Carnahan to rewrite the script in a more linear structure with Brad Pitt as the hero. Damon Lindelof later rewrote the final third act (the part where Brad and Segen went to the WHO facility in Wales).

I suppose Paramount could have sold back the rights when they decided to go in a different direction, but studios don't operate that way. Besides, it's probably too late since they've already did a lot of press on the movie (including San Diego Comicon).

Here's an article on the major deviations between the movie and book: link

And WWZ isn't the first, nor will it probably be the last, movie to deviate greatly from the book it's based on: link

Yeah. Kinda odd, why the studio would spend all that money for the rights and only use the title. Zombie fans would have still gone to this flick regardless of the title. BTW. I did enjoy it.

Yeah. Kinda odd, why the studio would spend all that money for the rights and only use the title.

Not really. The title is all they ever intended to use.
This is Hollywood. They make star vehicles for the movie styar who bought the rights.
Hollywood is not in the business of faithfully recreating the source material, and never has been. Occasionally, they do! Ant that is why we remember the exceptions.

"World War Z" is not exactly "A Bridge too Far".

For anyone who might be surprised Hollywood took a popular book and made it into a movie while ignoring all the aspects that made it popular in the first place, I have 2 words…

'Starship Troopers'

Should have been an HBO mini series.
Still worth $10. USD

It was fair.
2/5 for me.

I heard an interesting analysis of the movie business on the radio the other night. In the 90s and 00s, the movie industry could count on DVD sales to make up for any shortfall a movie might endure at the box office. But with the death of DVD sales, they now rely on foreign (e.g., China, India, etc.) box office receipts to ensure a profit. So they have to make movies that are simple and universally appealling, e.g., lots of colors, motion and action instead of plot and character development. To make Brooks' WWZ, one would have to concentrate on the latter, so they re-wrote it to maximize the former.

It's all about the Benjamins, as they say.

A mini-series on an HBO or such would be a very good way to make a flick faithful to the narrative structure, I agree.

Mserafin, you have no idea of the extent of it. Blockbusters are made with an eye on the international market (like China) more than ever before. The article I linked to in my earlier post pointed out that Ground Zero of the zombie outbreak was changed from China (which was where it originated in the book) because the studio did not want to anger the Chinese government, which could have prevented the movie from entering the lucrative Chinese market because they have a quota on the number of foreign movies they allow each year.

Iron Man 3 had scenes shot specifically for the Chinese, and 'Transformers 4 Chinese Actors Talent Search Reality Show' will air this summer in China, a reality TV competition to cast four speaking roles in the upcoming film starring Mark Wahlberg. Transformers is huge in China and Chinese actress Li Bingbing has already been cast in the movie.

Read "World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. It explains how our regions and nations have become one planet and there is fierce competition for and from Chinese and Indian markets. Once considered part of the third world, these nations are the new world powers of the present and future. Ouch!

When I first saw the title of your post, I thought it was: "World War Z – Not the Mel Brooks version"

That would be different…

Saw it last weekend and liked it a lot,($5.00) for the drama and action. The pc stuff and who etc stunk but did not detract from an other wise tension filled flick.

Jeff

Saw it today thought it was pretty good. wasn't the book but still a good zombie movie. Outbreak scenes where great. remember no singing on P.A.s during the war.

Meh….

Brad Pitt….

Meh….

Marcus, that whole scene reminded me of a joke:

A small bird sat on a frozen plain. Freezing to death, a large cow happened by and crapped on the bird. The warm poo invigorated the bird who began to sing. His singing attracted a hungry cat who dug the bird up and ate him. Morals: 1)Not everyone who craps on you is your enemy. 2)Not everyone who digs you out is your friend. And 3)When you're up to your neck in crap, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!!

Grey Matter 13, brilliant little joke/story, ha ha (I did actually chuckle at that one…)

I'm guessing that's a reaction to a moment in the film where someone does something REALLY stupid, the staple material of many zed films (DON'T tell me the details, I am going to see it in a week or so's time for my birthday)

You know, the scene where Pitt and a guy are bicycling in the dark out to the C-130 to gas up in the dark, before the Zeke's discover them…and his PHONE RINGs??
Right at that time I had leaned into the armrest which started up the phone in my pocket. My phone started going off in the theater at the same time at Pitt's phone on the screen. dang.

1. So how did the Zeke's know the call was for them?
2. How and why did the Zeke's break into the Cardiff WHO's Pepsi machine?
3. How do the Zeke's know that broken glass on the floor noise was Pitt and not another Zack??
4. Howcum the Israeli's knew to build a wall, but didn't know to keep quiet behind the wall?
5. What happened to the secret about KO'ing Zeds, the Head Shot?
6. How did the Zeke in the airplane toilet join the Mile High Club?
7. So the Zacks run past the kid with the bald head…why didn't Pitt just shave his head?
8. What was that business about N. Korea? Didn't catch it.
9. Promo's showed a zombie counter in the billions. Missed it in the movie?
10. What if the Zeke's rode bicycles too, eh?

1. Hmm, that one is hard but maybe they were expecting a call before they got biten.

2. Crowbar

3. Humans make a different sound when walking on glass

4. The real question is why didn't they build the wall so that they could post soldiers on top. Plus how did those buses make it through Zeke Land?

5. Different type of Zeke's

6. I don't think that was the loo but a lift down to belly of the plane.

7. Wasn't the bald head.

8. They pulled everyone's teeth out so no teeth; no biting. Yup didn't make any sense either but either did the nuke.

9. They showed it when he got onto the ship and into the control room.

10. Sorry Zeke's aren't to bright. They can move fast and bite though.

Now here are some real winning questions.

1. How did that airplane take off from the east coast and fly to Korea?

2. Why did they give that doctor a gun in the first place?

3. Why did Brad drive from Philly a large population city and head to one that has even a larger population?

There were quite a few things that could have been done better.

Right guys, you should have written SPOILERS!! at the start of your posts, a quick cursory look at them tells me you are giving things away, I haven't seen it yet!! (next week Wednesday)

I'll have to read your posts after that, laters

Ark

Ark, read the book. Better than the flick, more savage, more ironic, and much more intense than having to watch Brad Pitt on the phone for two hours. Hey, how can Pitt pick up a rifle and not check the magazine for rounds? Book is a good read.

Ha ha Matsuru, I have read the book and also the survival guide too! I'm actually going to forget the book altogether and just watch it as a popcorn spectacular, with both being similar in name but little else apparently, cheers for the recommendation though old chap, I loved the book by the way, very good!

D

Okay more spoilers.

"Hey, how can Pitt pick up a rifle and not check the magazine for rounds? Book is a good read."

4. Plus why didn't he pick up the pistol after shooting that guy in the supermarket?

5. Also what were those two crazy idiots thinking trying to rape Brad's character's wife in the supermarket?

I saw the movie a few weeks ago. It sucked. Truly, it would have somewhat worked as a video game plot, but not as a movie.

1/5.

I saw the ad for the movie. I heard it was after a book. I rapidly got the book and read it so i could watch the movie and go: "yes, it's crap".

The book is phenomenal. What makes it so juicy for me is the fact that the world governments reaction to the infection is plausible. This world is separated so much by hate/envy/suspicion that we would fail to unite against a common foe. Hell, that's what i hated about Independence Day also. Ko-pow, 24 hours pass and "everyone is in this together". Right! And noone said anything about the IRONY of having China, Russia and Japan on the same Ark in Earth 2012 (or was it intended by the writers?). I'm going to stop now before i blow a vein. :)

Yup, saw the film, I'd give it a reasonable 3/5.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah overall I thought it did well not to try to over-play itself, and actually thought it should have tried to be a bit grander in the scenes shown. Omitting the battle of Yonkers was a shame in hindsight as there wasn't a definitive main battle scene really. Even the fleeing through the city streets in Israel wasn't really 'that' epic in some ways. The ending should have been better, or more, or something, but I don't think they could/should make a sequel. This is probably the nearest we'll ever get to 28 Months (sequel to weeks days and weeks) later.

Overall the CGI, well I didn't mind it as it did make it seem like the zeds were pushing themselves further, faster, harder than a person would ever do. Where it fell down a bit was at the WHO building where it just looked like someone's dad running at them at times, and without the SUPER-speedy fluid look they had earlier on. It's this sort of lack of consistency that effects the experience (like the later episodes of S3 TWD where they did the supply run for guns, and their car got jumped by 'ninja stealth' zombies, whereas they are meant to be walkers are they not?!? Brad Pitt wasn't too over stated or over played so that was acceptable enough.

@ Matsuru
1. Q: So how did the Zeke's know the call was for them? – A: I'm with Mithmee
2. Q: How and why did the Zeke's break into the Cardiff WHO's Pepsi machine? – A: I'm with Mithmee
3. How do the Zeke's know that broken glass on the floor noise was Pitt and not another Zack?? – They don't, that was purely for cinematic effect I'm sure…
4. Q: How cum the Israeli's knew to build a wall, but didn't know to keep quiet behind the wall? – A: They didn't expect that zeds could climb like that.
5. Q: What happened to the secret about KO'ing Zeds, the Head Shot? – A: The soldiers in Korea said about doing the head shot thing, although I think if you caused enough damage on them they would go down too (even if they got no headshot)
6. Q: How did the Zeke in the airplane toilet join the Mile High Club? – A: Like in the film Passenger 57 that was the staff service lift from the below deck kitchen etc. I presume an infected got aboard prior to them taxiing the runway.
7. Q: So the Zacks run past the kid with the bald head…why didn't Pitt just shave his head? – A: that was the point of the whole film in the end, people with a potentially terminal disease were not healthy enough to be selected by the zeds, therefore they ignored sick people and went for healthy ones. The boy probably was receiving chmo therapy hence why he was bald I suspect.
8. Q: What was that business about N. Korea? Didn't catch it. – A: Brad's (Gerry Lane's) whole reason for going abroad was to find patient zero. The first case. In the book that was in China, but they changed it to S Korea, he was tracking back to the first recorded cases of the disease. The teeth thing was about the communist government making biting impossible if you remove the teeth, therefore no bites and subsequent transmission of the disease.
9. Q: Promo's showed a zombie counter in the billions. Missed it in the movie? – A: That was shown on the boat they were extracted to, and shown the first time they are in the control centre.
10. Q: What if the Zeke's rode bicycles too, eh? – A: They would moved DAMN fast, not just fast!

Seeing the trailer DID actually kill the film a little bit for me, I should have just waited.

And some more;
1. Q: How did that airplane take off from the east coast and fly to Korea? – A:No fri gg in idea… In addition, when they went to re-fuel, where had all the bodies gone immediately around the plane? Also they refuelled the plane in about 2 minutes, surely it would take quite a bit longer, especially as they had to fly to europe? I also don't understand the whole 'get on the cycle bikes thing' to get to the plane in the first place too…

2. Q: Why did they give that doctor a gun in the first place? – A: The Doc in the WHO centre? Maybe it was his own, although how he got it into the UK I don't know.

3. Q: Why did Brad drive from Philly a large population city and head to one that has even a larger population? – A: It was nearer/a better place for his extraction.

Oh, and I agree, Israeli women do appear to be hard as nails…

Agreed the book was/is very good, and I would advise reading it.

Aside from all the above, I enjoyed it, but they could have done better and more. I would still recommend though!

Cheers,

A