World War Z; Hell Yes, A POSITIVE Review

If you didn't enjoy World War Z, you should probably leave now. Really. Just go and be alone with your very angry, unsatisfied opinions. Because I just came out of it, and I fucking loved that movie.

Now from what I've been reading the general upset is about disloyalty to the book and lack of blood and gore, and the latter is the exact reason why I don't watch previews. The usual result from an advert is one of two things; a total reveal of the key events of the film, or a completely misleading three minute thrill-fest. Since I didn't see the preview, I wasn't expecting a uselessly action packed blood bomb. I also knew that Plan B was behind this, and they're not your average gore-boosting production company (excuse Kick Ass for a moment). In case you don't know, Brad Pitt is the sole owner of Plan B, and they put out such dramatic epics as The Assassination of Jesse James and Tree of Life.

UPDATE: I have now taken a minute to watch the preview and honestly there weren't any blood splatters in there, so that was just your own personal wish for violence. I do admit that it's been a sort of guarantee for zombie movies, but I don't think that WWZ needed it as we have had plenty of that for years.

To address the upset fans who wanted to see a loyal rendition of the novel, I sincerely apologize. If I had read the book, I'm sure I would be on your side. Getting mad about the faults of book-to-film adaptations is one of my guilty pleasures, but this time around I'm on the naïve side. For you people, maybe taking this review as an examination of the film as a stand alone product is the only way to see my side. If you don't want to do that I completely understand and fully support your anger. BRAD PITT YOU SUCK. That's for you guys.

For the rest of you who haven't read the book, read on.

Why I enjoyed WWZ so damn much;

There were a lot of scenes that were left out, and unexplained. And that was awesome.

How did the zombies suddenly overwhelm New York? Why was the guy holding up Brad in the pharmacy? Why did we need to see them in the grocery store at all? Why did the RV not start on the highway? What happened to the little boy's parents? Why did they let the people sing so god damn loud in Jerusalem? Why why why?!

Because it was fucking realistic, that's why.

The guy to the right has his priorities straight.

As viewers we were very closely tied to the pov's of Brad Pitt and his family. For the first half of the movie we saw everything this family would see. Maybe the city of New York would have been on alert before everyone went to work that morning, but maybe not. Maybe it had escalated in just a few hours and the family had been in their own nice little family world not paying attention to the radio because they were busy being so cute and lovely.

The guy in the pharmacy and the RV not starting are simply examples that little shit still goes wrong in an apocalypse. To see how fast the frail structure of society unravels when true disaster hits. This is very clearly demonstrated by the two guys trying to rape Brad's wife like ten minutes after shit goes down. Everyone wants to watch the world burn.

What happened to the little boy's parents?

They got eaten by zombies, stupid. Probably sacrificed themselves to get the kid out because they were good people. Or they pushed him out the door to get eaten first and he survived because they were dicks, you pick.

Ok, I agree that people singing at the top of their lungs in Jerusalem was dumb, but apparently they hadn't learned that zombies are attracted to sound. A bit of a reach, and I hate to say that something had to happen to get them out of the city, but that's probably what it came down to.

"Staaaaaahhhhp.... siiiingiiiiiing"

I also loved how from thousands of miles away the love interest still managed to fuck up the day. As in when Brad's wife called him on the satellite phone to tell him to grab some eggs on his way home AND ATTRACTED ALL THE FUCKING ZOMBIES IN THE KOREAN CAMP RIGHT TO HIM AND KILLED LIKE SIX MEN. Women, am I right?

"Little busy, Honey."

But overall the small gaps in timeline were easily filled in by a bit of imagination, and I don't think as intelligent viewers that we need every plot point to be spoon fed to us.

The original twists on the classic zombies. Great. Superb. Probably should be credited to Max Brooks though I'm not positive. You may be pissed off about the "weakness" of the zombies, but I thought it was brilliant. Not too farfetched or gimmicky, but just weird enough to be believable. In fact the whole reason why it was believable was that the zombie's ambition was not for brains, but to spread the infection. Sort of like that parasite Toxoplasma Gondii that infects rats and makes them run around like crazy so that cats will see them and the parasite can move to reproduce inside the cat when the rat gets eaten. It's like the zombie virus is a monster on its own that wants to conquer the world by controlling and infecting humans. Way cooler than dead guys who just want to eat brains in my opinion.

"EAT ME"

BONUS; They actually acknowledge that they are zombies. Stop the presses, the word is really said, multiple times. At last.

I liked seeing the more dramatic side of an apocalypse, (which is why I prefer 28 Days Later to Dawn of the Dead) and Brad Pitt is just a bonus. I say that because he didn't do anything very Pittish, actually none of the roles seemed extremely demanding, but more seemed to take a backseat to the large-scale events that happened. And I was very much okay with that. Basically World War Z took everything that you want to happen in a zombie movie (screaming bitches get their guts eaten, headshots and cheesy one-liners) and did the exact opposite.

OH DEAR GOD, THANK YOU. Finally someone changes the genre enough that it pisses some people off. The big-budget zombie brand has been way too one sided and consistently predictable, and I welcome the change. No, it's not perfect, yes it is still a Hollywood film, but if you can stop over-analyzing for a couple of hours and remember to give yourself to the benefit of belief, you might actually enjoy something for once. And really, you should just be happy that Warm Bodies wasn't the only zombie movie that came out this year.