Why World War Z is the most insulting movie of the year

[aaron]

you raised pretty much every point of contention that i had with the movie, too. i thought it totally sucked as a film, not even factoring in the source material.

also, if a WHO scientist can become infected while dealing with a sample, why the hell didn't Gerry get infected when he got some zombie juice in his mouth back in newark and almost killed himself?

[fastbilly1]

Since Ive not seen the film, I do not want to read all of the comments and writeups, but I have some comments from the beginning.

I just need a place to vent, as World War Z has angered me in a way that no other film ever has. And since this is about the only forum I'm on, I'm going to vent here. I hope that y'all don't mind.

I do mind

A couple of disclaimers before we being. The most obvious is that there are going to be a ton of spoilers in this article, so if you haven't seen the movie you have been warned.

How dare you

The other is that I will concede right here that the fact the makers of this movie took one of the most beloved zombie book ever written and proceeded to burn it, salt it, and desecrate its remains is indeed insulting to those of us (like myself) who hold the book in high regard.

Actually the writers were chosen by Max Brooks. Word is the bid was down to DeCaprios Appian Way Productions and Pitts Plan B Entertainment. DeCaprio wanted to convert stories from the book into films, Pitt wanted to do an original story in the universe, Brooks chose Pitt. It was apparently originally written like the book where the main character was getting peoples stories and was kinda like a gritty political thriller. However the exec stepped in and 86ed that and made it do a hard 90 into what it is now.

Oh, and before you ask, yes I'm a screenwriter that has never been able to get anything of mine even looked at, which is why I get all riled up and begin to rant when such stupid material gets $200 million dollar budgets.

Getting it looked at is just another step in the fight. There are many top dollar writers who have scripts out with companies that are gold but wont be made (John Carpenter has said that he has about two dozen more scripts fully written and edited waiting to be picked up that have been shelved, all have been done since the mid 80s - and he has like 30 writing credits). This goes back to the conversation we had a couple years ago where I firmly believe the future of movies is in Indies and small productions online. If you havent read it I highly suggest reading Save the Cat.

[indecks]

Brooks also stated that the final script was fantastic, or amazing. I cant remember what word they used.

I liked it. If the writer/creator was happy with it, then I don't really see a problem.

The book was too disjointed for me. The information and commentary throughout were great, but I'd rather have a protagonist going through the story rather than just reading newspaper articles.

Robopocalypse was the same way. It was a good book/story, but it was newspaper article format. I doubt the film will be the same.

[Jmustang1968]

A book doesn't have to be literature to be smart. Just like a movie doesn't have to be a period piece to be considered smart. Aliens isn't going to be compared with Citizen Kane, but it is nonetheless done in a convincing and satisfying way. And no World War Z (the book) is not Shakespeare, but it tells the story of the zombie apocalypse in a very intelligent way. From the origins though the chaos through the eventual ending, it's very well thought out and done in a way that isn't face palm level stupid (like the movie version is).

No arguments from me on any of this. Of course there is smart/not-as-smart writing within genres.

And yes, that book is lightyears beyond reality TV shows in terms of intelligence.

But here's where you lose me. World War Z might be considered a "smart" book in its genre and not so "smart" against the great wealth of published literature as a whole. Certainly many reality shows are "smart" within their genre, if not against the wealth of all TV shows produced. Honey Boo Boo is smart reality TV, because it plays to the audience for that kind of entertainment in a very calculating way that defies certain expectations while meeting others. Just like World War Z. That doesn't make the World War Z book "more intelligent" than Honey Boo Boo because they aren't the same kind of writing, the same kind of media, the same kind of audience, genre, etc. It is a stupid comparison.

I think you are going a bit high brow with this. Automatically lumping an apocalypse book or movie as inherently more dumb is wrong. Apocalypse/scifi/fantasy can be a great platform for very 'intelligent' writing, though I am sure you know this... Not to say it is an excellent movie, it is supposed to be a fun action summer film as you pointed out earlier.

While this movie takes a few illogical turns at times, why this of all movies does the OP go off about? I can think of dozens of worse recent examples and I don't think the movie is terrible. It is what it is and what it tried to be.

[dsheinem]

lumping an apocalypse book or movie as inherently more dumb is wrong. Apocalypse/scifi/fantasy can be a great platform for very 'intelligent' writing, though I am sure ypu know this.

I never lumped, and don't disagree with this.

[Luke]

... what it tried to be.

One of the few times I'll disagree with you.

[Jmustang1968]

... what it tried to be.

One of the few times I'll disagree with you.

I didn't think it was trying to be all that intellectual. More of a fun action movie with little undertones.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I thought it was a dreadfully boring action movie. Haven't read the book, either.

Really, i wasn't expecting anything brilliant. It's just that I enjoyed my Milk Duds more than the movie, and they didn't last the whole runtime.

[Phades]

I don't think it was brilliant, but I didn't expect it to be. I read the book and already could tell they had little in common so that wasn't a surprise. To me, it looked like a slightly different take on the zombie genre than usual zombie movies. It looked to me like an entertaining but pretty throw away summer flick. It was about what I expected and I liked it for what it was. I saw it, enjoyed it, moved on.

[Menegrothx]

I am damn sick of zombies by now. Enough is enough.

I remember hoping that there was more Zombie media after I had seen 28 Days Later. Left4Dead2 is pretty much the only zombie related thing I've watched/played ever since that and despite that I still feel the same way. Zombies have been everywhere for the past 3 or 4 years and I couldn't give a crap about any of it.