Book and Movie Review:
World War Z
Over vacation I read a few books and when I got back I went
to see the movie adaption of one. I
thought for my Monday (which is being published on Tuesday courtesy of my dear
friend Mr. Migraine) blog I would share my thoughts on both.
As is so often the case the book was way better than the movie. There are two times I can think of where this
has not true. Case #1 The Count of Monte Cristo. I found the book so depressing. Intriguing,
yes. Interesting, no doubt. And obviously it is incredibly well written, classic literature
blah blah blah, but utterly without any hope for humanity. The movie twisted the plot a little and made
the characters that much more redeemable and so I liked that. My second exception (and I know there are
those in my life who will vehemently disagree with me here but I don’t think
they read my blog so I probably won’t get chastised)Anne of Green Gables. I
actually love the Anne character from the movies (stopping before the horrible
2000 movie) better than the Anne of the books.
Hate me if you will. I think
those are the only instances, for me, where the movie actually surpasses the
book.
Usually, the movie is at a severe disadvantage. It can’t give you the same feel as a book,
communicate the way a book can a character’s thoughts, ideas and justifications. So allowances must be made. Also, inevitably good books are kind of long
and apparently I am one of the only people who think a four hour movie is okay
and so movies have to cut things out and book fans will always criticize what
got cut, how much got cut etc . That
being said . . .
World War Z by Max Brooks
The book is told
from the perspective of a UN worker after World War Z. He is interviewing people who played different
roles in the war. This includes everyday
citizens, military personnel, government officials, medical workers and others
from all over the world. Each interview
is only a couple of pages although they do go back to some of the same people
so you get a little more from them. The
format is jarring. It is also told in
reverse chronological order. We obviously
know the war is over at the beginning of the book and that’s what we start
with, the end and where humanity is and work backwards from there. As a writer I appreciated the unique
storytelling method. Apocalyptic dystopian
tales are a dime a dozen at this point but the way in which this one was
presented was certainly fresh. It also
wasn’t really a character driven book.
We do meet a lot of people but we don’t really follow them through. Who we are really concerned about is humanity
at large not any one person in particular and that too is a unique aspect of
this book among those in the genre.
At times I found it difficult to follow the events as we
were going backwards and there were so many people coming and going, dying and
surviving. However this didn’t really curtail
my enjoyment of the book. I didn’t really
feel like I had to remember the details about each character so much to follow
the war itself and I suppose the war was the main character in the end. All in all I recommend the book.
The movie was
something of a disappointment. Given the
set up of the book I didn’t know quite how they would do the movie. They sort of needed to create a protagonist. I think I went in to it with an open, if somewhat
nervous mind. Those ads with the Zombie
hordes climbing all over each other were crazy freaky. In the end it was just a sort of blah big
budget movie with more money spent on effects than plot kind of film. They start out with Brad Pitt making pancakes
which fine he’s Brad Pitt and watching him watch paint dry can be fun for a bit
so we’re okay for a while. After not too
long the city they are in (come to find out its Philadelphia which is nice because
you know Philly doesn’t get much play in the blockbusters) gets overrun by
zombies and they get airlifted out by the UN as the international body is in
need of Brad’s services (we never actually learn why he is so desirable). The family is taken aboard an aircraft carrier
before Brad has to go off and help figure out how to fight the zombies again
because of his aforementioned but never fully explained skills. Before he leaves he and his wife have an
inane conversation where she complains about his going because she remembers “what
this job has done to him.” Seriously
lady? The world is overrun by zombies
and this is your issue? Anyway minor
point but kind of illustrates how they tried to sell us too much on the relationship
between Brad and what’s her name when really we were there for an end of the world
zombie movie not an angsty marriage flick.
Anyway, they made up a plot whereby they come up with a way to begin to
combat the zombies. Maybe they did this intending to use more of the actual war
substance from the book in the inevitable sequel.
Parts dragged in the middle and I was tempted to check
Facebook and/or Twitter as the people in front of me kept doing. However as the bright lights of their phones
made it hard for me to focus on the movie I didn’t want to pass along that annoyance
to the people behind me so I refrained.
I think at one point the moviemakers felt they had not gotten us up
close and personal enough with the zombies and so we watched one click his
teeth at Brad Pitt’s character for a full minute. Honestly before this the zombies seemed
menacing, deadly or at least creepy at various points. After the clickety clacking I just wanted to
call a dentist and be done. As I indicated
the end was more a beginning, setting up the next movie which may be good if it
actually contains you know a War. In the
interest of honesty this one should have been called The Vaguely Unexciting Period
Immediately Prior to World War Z.
Although its possible this might not have sold too many tickets.
Well there’s my 2-5 cents . . . do with it what you will.
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