Thursday
Nov082012
Yes, No, Maybe So: "World War Z"
Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 11:30PM Remember that classic Robert Frost poem?
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Sadly, it's incredibly dated; everyone knows that the world will end in a zombie apocalypse!
World War Z, which opens next June, is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of zombie apocalypses from Hollywood. The first trailer has arrived. Let's break it down...
YES
- Unreservedly I think Brad Pitt one of the best movie stars of all time so I'm always up for it when I see his name goes BOOM in any trailer.
- Plus, cinematically speaking, he suffers and worries and fathers REALLY well and he appears to be doing all three here.
- Brad, Mireille Enos and the two young actresses Abigail Hargrove and Sterling Jerins pass as a real family to me and that's usually a good sign
- The way the zombie apocalypse starts in a traffic jam, with the freaky cop death totally made me jump
- The way the zombies just run right off buildings, with no hesitation is a freaky visual
- The visual of the population count dropping off is s-c-a-r-y. Contagion II
NO
- Another zombie apocalypse?!? There has to be other ways for the world to end.
- New York City destroyed again. Can't movie characters live in any other city?
MAYBE SO
- I tried to read this book back when it was a best-seller but couldn't get into it at all even though, if I remember correctly, it was an original mosaic several characters in different locales take on zombie apocalypse storytelling. (The movie appears to be radically different and therefore less original)
- I know people weren't hot on Marc Forster's work in Quantum of Solace but I thought he handled the action sequences really well.
- I'm not sure what to make of the zombies moving in waves of flesh, toppling all over each other. Do our limbs suddenly work differently once we're zombified. Do most zombies die from being trampled by other zombies instead of blows to the head? Or is this just a case of CGI being rushed into trailer form before it's really finessed for the film's release?
Can you handle another zombie apocalypse? If so, declare your yes no and maybe so in the comments.
Reader Comments (11)
i'm definitely a yes! brad pitt in an action-type role and he looks like he's still delivering a great performance in the midst of it!
...and the LES MISERABLE international trailer finally out! hope to see your take on it soon even though the general reaction is YES!!!
Not entirely sure how I'm feeling yet about the trailer: I was wondering whether they were going to take this into "serious apocalyptic drama" territory, or whether it might straddle the tongue-in-cheek line of Max Brooks's books (like World War Z or The Zombie Survival Guide), and hoping it avoids the same pitfalls as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter of taking itself way too seriously. I'm between a Maybe So/Yes for me, but hesitantly until more trailers come out =)
No.
I would be so much more open to this movie if it wasn't called World War Z. I am hardly the kind of person to demand absolute, unyielding fidelity to source material, but come on. This is not World War Z. It's basically a big-budget version of any number of zombie movies that have come out over the last five years. The book is so compelling and smart (it has a better grasp of geopolitics and economics than many more self-important books that claim to be political allegories), and it's unfortunate that it appears to have been turned into a run-of-the-mill tentpole. How unfortunate.
But I need to address the most surprising part of this article: Nathaniel, you actually liked the action sequences in Quantum of Solace? That absolutely floors me. I think they're pretty much the epitome of the kind of hyper-edited nonsense that has become so commonplace in action movies. I dread to think about repeating that experience in World War Z.
yes no maybe for the new Les Miz trailer? It's YES all the way but would be fun to talk about it....
N
O
Seems like it could be fun, so, maybe-so.
I'm afraid it might take itself too seriously.
It's not really my thing, and I never had any desire to read the book despite the good reviews and word-of-mouth. But if the movie also gets good reviews and word-of-mouth, I'll see it, because, Brad Pitt. I've never not liked him in anything.
Liz N.: Yeah, this is not World War Z. This hasn't been World War Z since it entered production. I'm guessing either Marc Forster or the studio didn't want to do 1978 Superman levels of globe-hopping, even though the book demands that the film adaptation do that.
Looks like they basically threw out everything but the name. Hopefully they'll keep some of the bigger set pieces (the Battle of Yonkers) and just dump the structure. That would be fine with me, honestly - the oral history gimmick wore thin for me pretty quickly when reading the book.
This looks fun - I didn't mind Forster's handling of the action in Quantum and its fun to see a zombie movie on a really grand scale. I'll definitely see this, hoping that its postproduction woes have been overblown and the final product isn't the disaster folks have been licking their chops over all year.
yes because i am a zombie girl
big NO because i read the book and this trailer isn't faithfull to the book