Sunday, June 23, 2013

Movie Review: World War Z

I read the book years ago at the suggestion of an author I respect when he was at Politics and Prose. I loved the book. I put it somewhere in my top 25 most recommended books. So you can imagine my glee when I heard they were making a movie and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) was writing it.

In short, the book is a collection of stories told by survivors of the global zombie war.

Then came the rumors and leaks. Soon I lost faith. The movie wasn't going to look much like the book at all. I realized that the book can't be directly adapted. Not unless you have Ken Burns directing. But the departure appeared to be significant. A whole different movie.

So while I sat in the theater before the movie Saturday I was mentally writing this blog post and it wasn't nice. And even as I did it I realized I was being unfair.

I'm telling you all this so that I can tell you that I was wrong. I loved this movie. It tells a few of the stories from the book in a new way. Some of the stories get changed. Some get added. But they keep you on edge for almost the whole movie. And they tell a zombie film that's more than people hiding in a cabin or a mall. But I did need to approach the movie with the book largely shoved from my mind.

The movie ends in such a way that you could call it a decent ending. It's not a cliffhanger requiring you to come to the next movie. There's lots left hanging, but families are reunited and a major weapon is discovered. They wrap it up in such a way that you could fill in the end of the war yourself.

If Superman left you disappointed because it was so slow you'll love World War Z.

Will be getting on DVD.

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