First they discarded the cerebral and engaging, if still permeated by hatred, narrative structure of ‘World War Z’ in favor of a cut-down Hollywood blockbuster approach.

Because thinking is not something you should do while watching a mainstream film?

Now news comes that they have discarded pretty much all that was left of Brooks’ unique take on Zombie bashing for the movie as well:

Someone managed to capture this insane zombie attack while WWZ was filming in Glasglow. What have we learned from this footage? One, the zombies are fast. Two, they’re angry. Three, the victim’s zombie change-over rate from bite to full member of the undead appears to be very fast, and quite violent. So, Brooks loyalists. Are you not entertained? Or is this movie still zombie blasphemy?

For those who haven’t read ‘World War Z’, literally the ENTIRE STORY is dependent on precisely this not happening. The ‘infection’ spreads in the novel in a slow and methodical fashion, and the book’s cynical indictment of human inaction and apathy rather depends on it not being a supernaturally fast, unforeseeable, unstoppable juggernaut of doom. There’s no moral dilemma if you cannot realistically prevail, and no indictment if you’re not to blame for any of your own misfortune!

Many of the remarkably complex plot elements in the book take as a prerequisite a slow-moving, slowly progressing ‘disease’. In the novel large sections are dedicated to describing checkpoints to weed out the infected from the Living, which is obviously unnecessary if the disease incubates in five seconds; organ donations can spread the illness, which is absurd since by the time you’d removed the kidney the guy on the table would be eating your face (apparently); the military and governmental response to the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ underreacts in no small part because the enemy seems, at first glance, so unimpressive (from a military perspective).

Instead of that very Romero-esque take from Max Brooks, we are presented here with a very obviously Boyle-esque idea. Only, we already HAVE ’28 Days Later’, thank you very much, and one very poorly-advised sequel to boot.

Why, exactly, did Pitt et al bother with licensing ‘World War Z’? What precisely about the book have they decided to *keep*?

I can’t wait for the revelation where it turns out they’re not actually Zombies, but Vampires or Wendigos or something. Good grief.

Tags: Brad Pitt is a Jerk, Max Brooks is a Jerk, Movies

This entry was posted by John Sears on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.