Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've read the book "World War Z" and it's a superb book. When I heard they would be turning it into a movie, I figured it would be a narrative film like Pitt's "Interview with the Vampire" in order to keep with the structure of the book or a different film altogether that only shares a name. It is indeed the latter but that's completely acceptable for a variety of reasons. It would be tough to copy it word for word from the book, turn it into a movie, and keep the film under 4 hours. Zombie films have become sort of repetitive. Either the zombies are these slow moving undead (like The Walking Dead, which is a 5 star show IMHO) or they are fairly fast moving (like 28 Days/Weeks Later). Instead, these zeds move and act almost superhuman. At points, they work almost like fire ants; they cluster together and flood themselves into whatever it is they are going after. Sure, some fall a distance that would cause every bone and organ to explode out of their skin. But if your read the book, those are the type of zeds the soldiers were fighting: superhuman strength, speed, agility, anger, and the ability for their bodies to take all the abuse you could throw at it. The film recognizes that and makes these undead the most dangerous zombies ever. If you were to encounter a herd of these, there isn't a kukri, machete, sword, or anything short of a few thousand M1 Abram tanks that would slow them down (even then, I don't think it would help). As far as the lack of violence, or rather zombie slaying, the film itself is a different take on zombie films. There is plenty of zed killing but it keeps it to a PG-13 rating in regard to the amount of violence, blood, and gore. Instead of slaying herds and waves of undead, it focuses on finding out what and who caused it so a cure could be found. In a true zombie situation, this is exactly what the WHO and the CDC would do. To me, that is an excellent idea in order to create a fresh and new approach to zombies. While the rest of us would be fighting and killing the zeds, there would be someone trying to create a cure or find out how to keep us safe. Consider it the more technical side of the zombie apocalypse. The film does implement some "jump" scenes very well while other times, you see it coming. It also puts our dear hero in bad situations in certain places that if a zombie outbreak were to occur in those places, most of us would simply **** our pants and cry like a little child. It also pulls some stuff from Brook's other book and from popular zombie websites. Unfortunately, they use some dialog that is cringe worthy and unoriginal: most notably bug out bag, preppers, and other terms that make you think who ever wrote the film simply searched internet forums to find cliche terms regarding the whole zombie culture (at least nobody says "Get my IFAK!"). They are few and far between but they are still there. And don't worry; Pitt never screams "YOLO!" before putting himself in harms way. As far as the characters (and their actors), nobody jumps out at you. Sure you might cheer Pitt on or have sympathy for some people. But for the most part, they aren't truly memorable......with the exception of David Morse's character (who should of had a much longer part in the film) and a few other people later on in the film. You never become attached to any of them. So if a character gets bitten, you really have no sympathy or much care due to the lack of depth for each person. But then again, our hero isn't there but for one reason and it isn't to save their lives. But Pitt still nails it and does a bang up job delivering the film. If you are into slash and run zombie films, then you are probably not going to find this as entertaining as Dawn of the Dead or The Walking Dead or 99% of other zombie films. If you are expecting this to be a dead on version of the book, then understand it isn't even close. But it is indeed a great zombie action flick that has plenty of moments of action, suspense, thrills, humor, and terror. It's a "summertime" movie. Big budget, big name actors, lots of suspense, plenty of action, and most importantly, 2 hours to escape reality and be entertained.