Here comes the zombie apocalypse. I didn’t really think of myself as a real fan of zombie…stuff before this movie. I haven’t watched The Walking Dead,
seen Warm Bodies,
or any movies with zombies in them actually. Not that these haven’t been on my radar, I just haven’t gotten to them…yet. (I’m easily distracted.) Then I started thinking about books, because, well, World War Z is based on the novel by Max Brooks. The book has been on my “grocery” list of books for a while, but I’ve been waiting until I saw the movie first. (My theory is that if I see the movie and then read the book I’m not disappointed the movie isn’t more like the book. The book has always been better, so far.)
I read a lot of books with zombies, I just didn’t think of them as “zombie books” necessarily. Of course, I’ve already mentioned Laurell K. Hamilton (I promise, she’s getting her own post too!) Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter can also raise the dead. As a matter of fact, that is her…well, not her day job, per say, it is done at night, but….you get my point, right? So if you count all of the Anita Blake novels there are 22 of them now (The 22nd was just released. You’ll get your Hamilton post as soon as I read Affliction)….then I got curious so I looked up List of Zombie Novels on Wikipedia. Hamilton’s aren’t even on this list…probably because Anita is a vampire hunter, huh? There are a lot of zombie books out there…my “grocery list” may have just gotten a bit longer.
Sorry, I got distracted. From everything I’ve heard/read/discovered this is a very loose adaptation of the Max Brooks novel. The film follows Brad Pitt’s character, Gerry, and his family during the initial attacks and the aftermath of these attacks as Gerry tries to find out how this “virus” started and how they can stop it.
World War Z in 3D was a good action movie. It was fast paced, and never boring. There are some fantastic scenes of zombies taking over the city too.
Is there a lot of character development? Well, not really. The action sequences and zombie attacks are what kept movie going, and when I read complaints about character development in reviews I had a thought. There is a raging zombie virus taking over the world, how much character development do you really need? On the one hand, I didn’t really miss it in the movie. On the other, when a character died it didn’t have the emotional impact of other character deaths…Joss Whedon, you know what you’ve done…Don’t even get me started on the emotional trauma inflicted by a certain writer for the BBC…yes, Steven Moffat, I mean you. I’m not even touching Supernatural. (I got distracted AGAIN!)
I really liked that the zombies were not these shambling undead creatures that manage to still kill a large portion of the world’s population. These things are wicked fast. Seriously, fast, mindless, killing machines…what happens when their food supply (a.k.a. HUMANS) runs out? They don’t die, they just…do what? Rot away? Eat animals? Go into a weird hibernation thing? (Okay, apparently this is a really distracting post for me. I apologize…just not enough to stop.)
I mentioned lots of action right? Lots of action in a zombie movie in 3D means that it felt like a zombie was going to eat my face. (It’s 3D! As long as it isn’t overused, isn’t that the point?) I screamed. (I’m not going to say like a girl, because well a) duh, I am a girl b) I’m pretty sure a guy behind me screamed too.) I may have jumped a lot too…or so I’ve been told. See, the problem is, I know that somethings going to happen somewhere in a particular scene. It isn’t like it takes me by surprise. The anticipation gets me. The whole time I’m thinking (dangerous, I know) it’s coming, any second something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen any momeOHMYGODTHEREITIS! Every. Single. Time. It’s exhausting and exhilarating…when’s the next one?
What’s your favorite zombie….thing?
Which character’s death has hit you the hardest? (I know other people have been traumatized by writers….I’m not alone in this. Am I?)
‘Til Next Time,
Jessica
I Love Geekology 101 