ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Just to get the conversation going on this movie, there's a whole lot about it not to like. It presents a story that's too simple and which provides too few answers to the questions the audience is asking. For example:

* Where did the virus come from? Is it natural, is it engineered, did it come from space — or what?

* How does a simple virus cause the infected to move around purposefully (walking, running, climbing, etc.) to spread the virus to new hosts? How can a simple viral organism impart complex instinctive behavior to the infected hosts which causes the victims to use their senses (sight and hearing) to move around and chase victims?

* How did the infected people somehow sense that uninfected people they encountered were not suitable hosts (thereby ignoring them) because they weren't in good health? The movie shows running mobs of zombies racing past certain people as if the zombies could detect the person's illness from fifty feet away. But how?

* Why were the zombies so picky? They passed up undernourished children and alcoholic homeless people because they needed "healthy hosts to spread the disease". Hell, the virus killed the victims anyway, so why did the host bodies have to be healthy to start with?

All in all, I didn't care for the movie because it didn't give me anything new to think about. The zombies just bit people, who then turned into zombies, who then bit people — round and round. It was just another zombie horror movie about people who were basically "possessed by evil", pretending to be a science fiction movie about people infected with a disease.

Anybody agree?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bongopete]

Watched it and found it a pleasant passage of time.

Is it a good movie? Wellll . . . events happen too fast for there to be any time in the movie to do any logical thinking.

Some huge holes in logic . . . like when the things start happening and people are being bitten and turning in . . . what city was the opening in? Boston!

Anyway . . . where did all THAT start? And HOW?

[MetroPolly]

Ok, it's obvious you guys didn't read the book this is supposed to be based on. The book is a great documentary style story with no main hero and it doesn't have a defined end, it just ends with people trying to survive, which is how zombie stories should end.

I wrote a review of this on the CHFB, but I can sum it up here in 2 words: It sucks.

[Bud Brewster]

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Well heck, there's no need to sugar coat it, PollyPam! What did you REALLY think of the movie?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

It was mainly a vehicle for introducing swarming zombies.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[alltare]

I watched WWZ for the 1st time last night.

At the beginning of the movie, it was very vaguely implied that zombification was somehow the result of overpopulation, polution, CO2 production, and other earthbound causes. Other than that, I don't recall any discussion of the virus's origin other than attempting to identify "patient zero".

I enjoyed WWZ's different take on the zombie subject and its relative lack of pointless hysteria. Many of the SFX were good, too.

[Custer]

[Bogmeister]

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____________ World War Z - Official Trailer


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This was an upgrade to all the zombie films that had been seen up to that point, presenting a worldwide epidemic which sweeps the globe at speeds so far not seen before, as well as giving the infected people the ability to move at speeds superior to that of normal humans.

This last aspect is what really raises the threat level here up a notch from previous such films; in older zombie thrillers — and TV series such as The Walking Dead — the one advantage that humanity had was that zombies moved at a slower pace.

This is not the case here. The closest to this demon-like speed shown before was in 28 Days Later and its sequel, and the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake. There have been some cheap Syfy movies which jumped on this bandwagon, showing quick-moving zombies. But, these still do not match the superhuman effectiveness of the predators we see here, which also move in herds or swarms that suggest a different, aberrant instinct or intelligence.



This was based on a 2006 novel by Max Brooks, and Brad Pitt purchased the rights (besides also starring in it), resulting in the first really big budget zombie film.

Things go bad quickly in the first act, when Pitt and his family, on a routine commute in Philly, encounter instant havoc in the streets. Zombies run rampant and people who are bitten turn in about ten seconds.

The family makes its way to Newark, but the 'disease' has already spread everywhere. Pitt's character happens to be an ex-U.N. investigator and is soon assigned to travel to different points on the globe in search of a cure, while his family is tucked away on board a Navy carrier. He didn't want the job, but it was the only way to assure his family's safety.

His first stop is South Korea, where most of his team are killed, and then on to Jerusalem. As he learns, Israel somehow prepared for the threat, building a giant wall a week before the outbreak became critical. But even here, the measures prove to be inadequate — some of the refugees inside the walls begin to sing on loudspeakers and the sound is enough to galvanize the zombie hordes to build a flesh ladder up the 50-foot wall.



The film is adrenaline-charged and the zombie hordes are truly frightening, but the film is still saddled with moments of stupidity and implausibility. Pitt's wife buzzing him on the cell phone while he's tip-toeing past sleeping zombies comes to mind (either she or Pitt really screwed up). There's also the singing which attracts all the zombies.

Pitt's survival skills are impressive at first — he's adept and quick on his feet — but when he walks away from an airplane crash (after fleeing Jerusalem), it moves the notion of his skill set beyond just good luck; I mean, nothing can kill this guy by this point.

Also, the military takes the trouble to kick his family off the carrier seconds after he might be considered a casualty. Wow, no time wasted on that move!

This was to set up more tension for Pitt and the audience, but I sort of expected Pitt to just quit when he learned of this. The way Pitt picks up little clues about the infected in his travels was supposed to be clever, but comes across as too pat. By the end, it seemed as if some supernatural force assured his survival at every turn to save the world.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus