World War Z (5 Viewers)

[PatsWillWin]

After really looking forward to this movie for a couple of years, I've been lowering my expectations over the past six months as it became abundantly clear that the movie would have nothing to do with the book. In that respect, I was not disappointed. Aside from being about zombies attacking the world, the movie had almost nothing to do with the book. There was 1-2 characters I think. The Israeli intelligence guy talked from straight out of the book a little, but that was it.

It was obvious when the first trailer came out. Not only was it fast zombies, but it was clear that the movie storyline took place during the zombie "attack." That right there means it can't be like the book at all, which was a documentary style approach from after the fact.

That all said, if you just view this as a standard zombie/end of the world movie, I thought it was pretty solid. It was suspenseful, the acting was good, and there was a nice feeling of just overhanging dread for the whole movie.

The ending/wrap up was a little awkward, but there's only a certain number of ways you can end a movie like this.

The CGI zombies were pretty cool, I was worried they were going to be cheesy like in I Am Legend. The important difference was that they did CGI for the hoards of zombies, but then had "real" zombies on an individual basis, so they didn't look like cartoons like the vampires/zombies in I Am Legend.

I'm also enjoying people in this thread saying they are trying not to nitpick right before nitpicking, lol. In the context of a zombie movie, I don't think there was a lot in the movie that I would call really far-fetched. At least, I didn't find anything distracting while watching it.

 

[bigbottom]

I'm also enjoying people in this thread saying they are trying not to nitpick right before nitpicking, lol.

Who is doing this? I think I may have been the only one who came out and said I wasn't trying to nitpick the movie. And my criticisms are anything but nits.

 

[PatsWillWin]

I'm also enjoying people in this thread saying they are trying not to nitpick right before nitpicking, lol.

Who is doing this? I think I may have been the only one who came out and said I wasn't trying to nitpick the movie. And my criticisms are anything but nits.

I don't think it was you. The talk about how it's silly that the blood in his mouth wouldn't turn Pitt, but a needle would, and the cutting off the hand would've worked, etc., etc.

 

[bigbottom]

I'm also enjoying people in this thread saying they are trying not to nitpick right before nitpicking, lol.

Who is doing this? I think I may have been the only one who came out and said I wasn't trying to nitpick the movie. And my criticisms are anything but nits.

I don't think it was you. The talk about how it's silly that the blood in his mouth wouldn't turn Pitt, but a needle would, and the cutting off the hand would've worked, etc., etc.

Fair enough, but I don't recall those people saying they weren't trying to nitpick right before making those points.

 

[PatsWillWin]

I'm also enjoying people in this thread saying they are trying not to nitpick right before nitpicking, lol.

Who is doing this? I think I may have been the only one who came out and said I wasn't trying to nitpick the movie. And my criticisms are anything but nits.

I don't think it was you. The talk about how it's silly that the blood in his mouth wouldn't turn Pitt, but a needle would, and the cutting off the hand would've worked, etc., etc.

Fair enough, but I don't recall those people saying they weren't trying to nitpick right before making those points.

Okay, well now I'm going to say that you're nitpicking about the application of the word nitpicking.

Spoiler

There were just way too many inconsistencies and things that didn't make sense for me. I mean, in one scene blood drips into a character's mouth and he doesn't turn. In another a scientist accidentally pricks himself with a needle and he does. Makes no sense. And the guy that pricks himself starts turning almost immediately but another character is saved by having their hand chopped off about 5 seconds after being bitten? I try not to overthink movies like this, but there were just way too many ridiculous things that stuck out.

And since I had to go back and find the post in my head, I can now say that I am singling out GroveDiesel. So, hi @ GroveDiesel.

 

[GroveDiesel]

I don't really think those things are nitpicks. They're major plot holes. The movie is full of them. At some point it just becomes ridiculous and impossible to ignore.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

I haven't seen this movie yet but sounds like the sequel will definitely be better?

 

[tommyboy]

watched the first 30 mins of it and it freaked me out. Had to get some work done so decided to go back and watch the entire thing another night

pretty intense

 

[badmojo1006]

watched the first 30 mins of it and it freaked me out. Had to get some work done so decided to go back and watch the entire thing another night

pretty intense

So you walked out?

I remember taking my kids to their first movies. We had to leave "Inspector Gadget" because my son got scared

It's OK

 

[flapgreen]

watched the first 30 mins of it and it freaked me out. Had to get some work done so decided to go back and watch the entire thing another night

pretty intense

That's an odd thing to say.

 

[Courtjester]

watched the first 30 mins of it and it freaked me out. Had to get some work done so decided to go back and watch the entire thing another night

pretty intense

That's an odd thing to say.

Not to be captain obvious, but I am guessing it was a torrent.....

 

[PatsWillWin]

I don't really think those things are nitpicks. They're major plot holes. The movie is full of them. At some point it just becomes ridiculous and impossible to ignore.

How did you feel about people running around after they'd died?

 

[tommyboy]

watched the first 30 mins of it and it freaked me out. Had to get some work done so decided to go back and watch the entire thing another night

pretty intense

That's an odd thing to say.

I do a lot of work for many of theaters in this city and my office is right next to one of them. I can see any movie i want anytime. Ill watch the rest if it tomorrow or thurs

 

[bigbottom]

watched the first 30 mins of it and it freaked me out. Had to get some work done so decided to go back and watch the entire thing another night

pretty intense

That's an odd thing to say.

I do a lot of work for many of theaters in this city and my office is right next to one of them. I can see any movie i want anytime. Ill watch the rest if it tomorrow or thurs

That's a cool perq.

 

[Chaka]

I found it confusing that the zombies didn't seem to be eating people. A couple of times they just bit someone and moved on. Isn't that kind of weird in the annals of zombie lore?

 

[Hedgehog]

I found it confusing that the zombies didn't seem to be eating people. A couple of times they just bit someone and moved on. Isn't that kind of weird in the annals of zombie lore?

noticed that as well....I didn't really think they were "zombies" by the end of the movie but rather "infected"......they would bite and move on - main interest seemed to be to spread the infection not consume humans.

More I think about it the more I have to say the movie is a nice summer popcorn flick....I am just prejudiced because I love the book so much,,,,,any chance they can still do WWZ movies with Pitt but have the book the source of an HBO series? Or are we doomed to wait this series of movies out for 10 yrs before having a chance at a real WWZ movie?

 

[snogger]

Just returned seeing this with my daughter and we both enjoyed it a lot! Great action and some pretty good intensive parts..

Well worth the price of which with 2 pops costs me more then the 2 movie tickets.

 

[Dexter]

That all said, if you just view this as a standard zombie/end of the world movie, I thought it was pretty solid. It was suspenseful, the acting was good, and there was a nice feeling of just overhanging dread for the whole movie.

I loved the book. and went into the movie with that view. Agree with everything here

 

[MindCrime]

Just read the book and loved it. My first thoughts were "how can they make this a movie?" Just read this entire thread, and agree that I'll have to disassociate the book from the movie if I have any hope of enjoying it. Probably wait for the DVD, since I don't get out to the movies to often, but will give it a shot based on those who like it as a randomn Hollywood zombie flick.

On a side note, has anyone read the Zombie Survival Guide? Worth picking up? Any other good zombie titles out there? It's holding me over until The Walking Dead returns in a few months.

 

[Courtjester]

Just read the book and loved it. My first thoughts were "how can they make this a movie?" Just read this entire thread, and agree that I'll have to disassociate the book from the movie if I have any hope of enjoying it. Probably wait for the DVD, since I don't get out to the movies to often, but will give it a shot based on those who like it as a randomn Hollywood zombie flick.

On a side note, has anyone read the Zombie Survival Guide? Worth picking up? Any other good zombie titles out there? It's holding me over until The Walking Dead returns in a few months.

Zombie Survival Guide is a fun, quick read--well worth it.

If you have not been to the Zombie Squad board--you can kill a couple hours in their forums easily and they have a section dedicated to books and movies.

http://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/

 

[Dexter]

Just read the book and loved it. My first thoughts were "how can they make this a movie?" Just read this entire thread, and agree that I'll have to disassociate the book from the movie if I have any hope of enjoying it. Probably wait for the DVD, since I don't get out to the movies to often, but will give it a shot based on those who like it as a randomn Hollywood zombie flick.

On a side note, has anyone read the Zombie Survival Guide? Worth picking up? Any other good zombie titles out there? It's holding me over until The Walking Dead returns in a few months.

I would have liked to see a different director take a different chapter of the book and have HBO run it like a series. Each episode opens with the main character interviewing a person just like in the book than fade to the story in that chapter

 

[Don't Noonan]

I read the book and finally saw the movie tonight, as others have said the movie is way different than the book. However, I hated the book and thought the movie was okay. The book was way too hard to follow as it jumped around everywhere. It was not well written IMO.

I think you're in the minority in your opinion about the book.

It looks that way. I guess I just had high expectations for the book due to people recommending it and it fell way short of them. For me, it was too hard to get into the book with it jumping from person to person.

 

[flapgreen]

Watching tonight.

 

[Dexter]

Watching tonight.

Just remember if you're going to see WWZ the book you're going to have a bad time. If you're going to see a zombie action flick you won't leave disappointed.

 

[badmojo1006]

Just read the book and loved it. My first thoughts were "how can they make this a movie?" Just read this entire thread, and agree that I'll have to disassociate the book from the movie if I have any hope of enjoying it. Probably wait for the DVD, since I don't get out to the movies to often, but will give it a shot based on those who like it as a randomn Hollywood zombie flick.

On a side note, has anyone read the Zombie Survival Guide? Worth picking up? Any other good zombie titles out there? It's holding me over until The Walking Dead returns in a few months.

It is pretty boring with the exception of the appendix which has the history of Zombies on the planet

 

[Chaka]

Just read the book and loved it. My first thoughts were "how can they make this a movie?" Just read this entire thread, and agree that I'll have to disassociate the book from the movie if I have any hope of enjoying it. Probably wait for the DVD, since I don't get out to the movies to often, but will give it a shot based on those who like it as a randomn Hollywood zombie flick.

On a side note, has anyone read the Zombie Survival Guide? Worth picking up? Any other good zombie titles out there? It's holding me over until The Walking Dead returns in a few months.

I would have liked to see a different director take a different chapter of the book and have HBO run it like a series. Each episode opens with the main character interviewing a person just like in the book than fade to the story in that chapter

I love that idea and think it is the most likely scenario but I honestly think many of the chapters could be turned into feature films. I would love to see premier French, Russian, Japanese etc. directors take the chapters that occurred in their respective countries and turn them into films. There is so much potential within this one book it is kind of amazing.

 

[flapgreen]

Watching tonight.

Just remember if you're going to see WWZ the book you're going to have a bad time. If you're going to see a zombie action flick you won't leave disappointed.

It's good that I didn't read the book. Pretty good flic. Nothing groundbreaking but I enjoyed it. It does sound like something that would be much better as a series that a movie, but that's not always how it works. They're not going to run 2 zombie shows at the same time.

 

[Courtjester]

Saw it today with the wife and kids. As a huge fan of the book, I just checked that at the door and enjoyed the movie. I don't think anything I post below is a spoiler--especially if you have seen the trailer.

It was good, but I really would have liked more transition scenes between Pitt and family getting on the helicopter and going to the ship. I wanted to see the battle for the cities and I am guessing that is some of the material that was cut. But it would have been great to see street to street-city to city battles. The Battle of Yonkers could have easily been written in and included.

I hope they make a part 2 and we see the humans try and retake the cities and the battles from there. The large scale battle where the soldiers are killing zombies with headshots and they have to kill one per second or they are given a break, was really well written in the book. The soldiers going town by town with lobos would be awesome to see. The mass packs of zombies that still prowl the ocean floor would be incredible. There is enough material there and they could even use flash backs with Yonkers included to make a good movie.

Overall, I liked it a lot. I was worried about my 9 year old daughter seeing it, but she is a horror movie buff and absolutely loved this movie. There Is about zero gore in this movie and just a few jump scenes just FYI for other parents out there.

Can't wait for the Blu-ray and hope it includes the Russian battle scene that was cut.

 

[flapgreen]

The Russian battle sounds intriguing enough to make me want to read the book.

 

[BustedKnuckles]

Saw it today with the wife and kids. As a huge fan of the book, I just checked that at the door and enjoyed the movie. I don't think anything I post below is a spoiler--especially if you have seen the trailer.

It was good, but I really would have liked more transition scenes between Pitt and family getting on the helicopter and going to the ship. I wanted to see the battle for the cities and I am guessing that is some of the material that was cut. But it would have been great to see street to street-city to city battles. The Battle of Yonkers could have easily been written in and included.

I hope they make a part 2 and we see the humans try and retake the cities and the battles from there. The large scale battle where the soldiers are killing zombies with headshots and they have to kill one per second or they are given a break, was really well written in the book. The soldiers going town by town with lobos would be awesome to see. The mass packs of zombies that still prowl the ocean floor would be incredible. There is enough material there and they could even use flash backs with Yonkers included to make a good movie.

Overall, I liked it a lot. I was worried about my 9 year old daughter seeing it, but she is a horror movie buff and absolutely loved this movie. There Is about zero gore in this movie and just a few jump scenes just FYI for other parents out there.

Can't wait for the Blu-ray and hope it includes the Russian battle scene that was cut.

I said that to my GF when we exited the theater....the walking dead is WAY more gory than this movie

 

[badmojo1006]

The Russian battle sounds intriguing enough to make me want to read the book.

Russian battle was not in the book

 

[flapgreen]

The Russian battle sounds intriguing enough to make me want to read the book.

Russian battle was not in the book

Cut scenes? I didn't realize The Battle of Yonkers was in the US until reading up on it a little.

 

[stbugs]

Saw it on Friday and I enjoyed it and my non-zombie fan wife liked it as well. It wasn't the best movie ever, but was a good action flick. I liked the story line and I didn't see much to complain about. I thought the ending was actually decent, but I don't see them making a sequel. While I think the movie may break even overall with the international numbers (not sure because of all the splits with movie theaters/int'l distribs), I don't think it will make enough money to do it again.

I think I read the Russian/Matthew Fox story and I am glad they changed it as I think trying to do some sort of Walking Dead/humans are the real enemy story wouldn't have worked well in a 2 hour movie. Even though the Lost guy (Lindlehof?) was not talked about well early in this thread, I think I liked the result much better than what I heard they cut.

 

[stbugs]

I found it confusing that the zombies didn't seem to be eating people. A couple of times they just bit someone and moved on. Isn't that kind of weird in the annals of zombie lore?

noticed that as well....I didn't really think they were "zombies" by the end of the movie but rather "infected"......they would bite and move on - main interest seemed to be to spread the infection not consume humans.

More I think about it the more I have to say the movie is a nice summer popcorn flick....I am just prejudiced because I love the book so much,,,,,any chance they can still do WWZ movies with Pitt but have the book the source of an HBO series? Or are we doomed to wait this series of movies out for 10 yrs before having a chance at a real WWZ movie?

Right, this isn't The Walking Dead where the term zombie wasn't in their universe (the show folks said that) so no one knew immediately to shoot in the head. In this movie, the term zombie was used because that folklore existed, but they did explain in the movie that the virus' objective was infecting as manny as possible, i.e. not to feast on someone already infected. Whether or not it exactly matches up to existing lore doesn't matter because they explained how it worked.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Saw it today with the wife and kids. As a huge fan of the book, I just checked that at the door and enjoyed the movie. I don't think anything I post below is a spoiler--especially if you have seen the trailer.

It was good, but I really would have liked more transition scenes between Pitt and family getting on the helicopter and going to the ship. I wanted to see the battle for the cities and I am guessing that is some of the material that was cut. But it would have been great to see street to street-city to city battles. The Battle of Yonkers could have easily been written in and included.

I hope they make a part 2 and we see the humans try and retake the cities and the battles from there. The large scale battle where the soldiers are killing zombies with headshots and they have to kill one per second or they are given a break, was really well written in the book. The soldiers going town by town with lobos would be awesome to see. The mass packs of zombies that still prowl the ocean floor would be incredible. There is enough material there and they could even use flash backs with Yonkers included to make a good movie.

Overall, I liked it a lot. I was worried about my 9 year old daughter seeing it, but she is a horror movie buff and absolutely loved this movie. There Is about zero gore in this movie and just a few jump scenes just FYI for other parents out there.

Can't wait for the Blu-ray and hope it includes the Russian battle scene that was cut.

I said that to my GF when we exited the theater....the walking dead is WAY more gory than this movie

PG-13 has a way of ruining things

 

[Courtjester]

Saw it on Friday and I enjoyed it and my non-zombie fan wife liked it as well. It wasn't the best movie ever, but was a good action flick. I liked the story line and I didn't see much to complain about. I thought the ending was actually decent, but I don't see them making a sequel. While I think the movie may break even overall with the international numbers (not sure because of all the splits with movie theaters/int'l distribs), I don't think it will make enough money to do it again.

I think this movie is doing pretty well number wise and it looks like Part 2 may be in the works already--I believe, before all the re-writes, this was a planned trilogy.

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/world-war-z-2/140643/paramount-sets-world-war-z-2-moving

 

[BustedKnuckles]

Saw it today with the wife and kids. As a huge fan of the book, I just checked that at the door and enjoyed the movie. I don't think anything I post below is a spoiler--especially if you have seen the trailer.

It was good, but I really would have liked more transition scenes between Pitt and family getting on the helicopter and going to the ship. I wanted to see the battle for the cities and I am guessing that is some of the material that was cut. But it would have been great to see street to street-city to city battles. The Battle of Yonkers could have easily been written in and included.

I hope they make a part 2 and we see the humans try and retake the cities and the battles from there. The large scale battle where the soldiers are killing zombies with headshots and they have to kill one per second or they are given a break, was really well written in the book. The soldiers going town by town with lobos would be awesome to see. The mass packs of zombies that still prowl the ocean floor would be incredible. There is enough material there and they could even use flash backs with Yonkers included to make a good movie.

Overall, I liked it a lot. I was worried about my 9 year old daughter seeing it, but she is a horror movie buff and absolutely loved this movie. There Is about zero gore in this movie and just a few jump scenes just FYI for other parents out there.

Can't wait for the Blu-ray and hope it includes the Russian battle scene that was cut.

I said that to my GF when we exited the theater....the walking dead is WAY more gory than this movie

PG-13 has a way of ruining things

ya but the walking dead is a tv show lol (as you know)just struck me odd that they didnt have any gore factor being a zombie flick and all.

 

[flapgreen]

Zero gore or blood.

 

[stbugs]

Saw it on Friday and I enjoyed it and my non-zombie fan wife liked it as well. It wasn't the best movie ever, but was a good action flick. I liked the story line and I didn't see much to complain about. I thought the ending was actually decent, but I don't see them making a sequel. While I think the movie may break even overall with the international numbers (not sure because of all the splits with movie theaters/int'l distribs), I don't think it will make enough money to do it again.

I think this movie is doing pretty well number wise and it looks like Part 2 may be in the works already--I believe, before all the re-writes, this was a planned trilogy.

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/world-war-z-2/140643/paramount-sets-world-war-z-2-moving

I am cool with that, I just thought maybe with the $190M budget they might not make enough money to keep it going. I guess that was due to all the rewrites, so if they don't spend quite that much next time (maybe some of the Russian footage will work for after finding the vaccine as well) they should be OK.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Saw it last night. It was okay.

Like has been said, it's more of an action film with zombies in it than a zombie movie.

And it has the same problem that almost all zombie movies have - how to end it. The ending is pretty anti-climactic, IMO.

But, you can do a LOT worse for a popcorn flick. It's not a must see in the theater, but is certainly worth a rental.

 

[cstu]

Saw it last night. It was okay.

Like has been said, it's more of an action film with zombies in it than a zombie movie.

And it has the same problem that almost all zombie movies have - how to end it. The ending is pretty anti-climactic, IMO.

But, you can do a LOT worse for a popcorn flick. It's not a must see in the theater, but is certainly worth a rental.

They called it a zombie movie but it could just as easily been random hordes of enemies. This was a paint by numbers action movie that tried to cash in on the popularity of zombies at the moment.

 

[msommer]

Saw it last night. It was okay.

Like has been said, it's more of an action film with zombies in it than a zombie movie.

And it has the same problem that almost all zombie movies have - how to end it. The ending is pretty anti-climactic, IMO.

But, you can do a LOT worse for a popcorn flick. It's not a must see in the theater, but is certainly worth a rental.

Liked it too. Better than the book in fact. I thought that was too disjointed and just didn't feel like more than a series of short stories on a theme. If you want to say that was the point then you also say that it is unfilmable, and thus probably hate the film since it has flow

 

[bigbottom]

Saw it last night. It was okay.

Like has been said, it's more of an action film with zombies in it than a zombie movie.

And it has the same problem that almost all zombie movies have - how to end it. The ending is pretty anti-climactic, IMO.

But, you can do a LOT worse for a popcorn flick. It's not a must see in the theater, but is certainly worth a rental.

Liked it too. Better than the book in fact. I thought that was too disjointed and just didn't feel like more than a series of short stories on a theme. If you want to say that was the point then you also say that it is unfilmable, and thus probably hate the film since it has flow

I liked the book because it was interesting and original, and was disappointed in the movie because it was formulaic and unoriginal.

 

[msommer]

Saw it last night. It was okay.

Like has been said, it's more of an action film with zombies in it than a zombie movie.

And it has the same problem that almost all zombie movies have - how to end it. The ending is pretty anti-climactic, IMO.

But, you can do a LOT worse for a popcorn flick. It's not a must see in the theater, but is certainly worth a rental.

Liked it too. Better than the book in fact. I thought that was too disjointed and just didn't feel like more than a series of short stories on a theme. If you want to say that was the point then you also say that it is unfilmable, and thus probably hate the film since it has flow

I liked the book because it was interesting and original, and was disappointed in the movie because it was formulaic and unoriginal

I must admit I liked the zombies in the book better than the movie version. The only magical power zombies should have is being undead. But I understand that this makes for boring movies. Not saying the movie was brilliant - it was merely a good popcorn movie. But the serial short story style of the book, which you probably like turned me off and doesn't translate to film very well.

 

[Riversco]

I didn't like this movie much either.

 

[Chaka]

Saw it last night. It was okay.

Like has been said, it's more of an action film with zombies in it than a zombie movie.

And it has the same problem that almost all zombie movies have - how to end it. The ending is pretty anti-climactic, IMO.

But, you can do a LOT worse for a popcorn flick. It's not a must see in the theater, but is certainly worth a rental.

Liked it too. Better than the book in fact. I thought that was too disjointed and just didn't feel like more than a series of short stories on a theme. If you want to say that was the point then you also say that it is unfilmable, and thus probably hate the film since it has flow

I liked the book because it was interesting and original, and was disappointed in the movie because it was formulaic and unoriginal

I must admit I liked the zombies in the book better than the movie version. The only magical power zombies should have is being undead. But I understand that this makes for boring movies. Not saying the movie was brilliant - it was merely a good popcorn movie. But the serial short story style of the book, which you probably like turned me off and doesn't translate to film very well.

Not to a single film it doesn't.

I have a vision where many of the short stories are turned into feature films (the French tunnels, the blind Japanese man, the Battles of Yonkers and Hope, the Chinese submarine, the ejected pilot etc) each filmed in the country and native language of the story and released worldwide over the course of a few years. Never happen but I would love to see such a concerted effort.

I could see a cable serial type of show, as many in here have suggested, but I don't know if 50 minutes would be able to capture the depth of many of the stories. There is so much potential from the book that a movie that uses the name could only be disappointing. Everything they used from the story they pretty much changed (the fall of Israel was particularly vexing as were fast zombies) and added a bunch of stuff that never appeared in the book to make a big budget formulaic Hollywood boom-fest. Sure those films can be fun but don't call it World War Z, it sets the wrong expectations for audiences.

 

[Abraham]

I read the other day that this was the highest grossing non-sequel/non-franchise movie of the summer.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

I read the other day that this was the highest grossing non-sequel/non-franchise movie of the summer.

Considering that it was one of the few non-sequel/non-franchise movie of the summer (especially at the blockbuster level), that's not saying a lot.

 

[Abraham]

I read the other day that this was the highest grossing non-sequel/non-franchise movie of the summer.

Considering that it was one of the few non-sequel/non-franchise movie of the summer (especially at the blockbuster level), that's not saying a lot.

Not sure what Box Office Mojo was talkign about....Man Of Steel was higher by a big amount.

 

[joffer]

I read the other day that this was the highest grossing non-sequel/non-franchise movie of the summer.

Considering that it was one of the few non-sequel/non-franchise movie of the summer (especially at the blockbuster level), that's not saying a lot.

Just wait until the sequel. World War AA: The Next Column