It's always good to have friends with similar obsessions as your own. I am a bit of a movie junkie and cult film fan. Early this morning I had the privilege of seeing an advance screening of World War Z in 3D. (A big thank you to Katina Lewis and Criterion Cinema in New Haven!) I am not a zombie fanatic. But recently they have taken over my life. My boyfriend is a psycho for zombies and is constantly theorizing what would happen during the Zombie Apocalypse. The catalyst for his going further down the undead spiral was his reading World War Z over and over again about 5 years ago. He read it so much the book fell apart. I believe he is now purchasing it via Kindle to read again.


Now I am always a big believer in book-to-film movies. I love that, especially if it's a book I enjoy. BUT the trick to actually being able to like book-to-film is to separate the two entities entirely. The film is very rarely a perfect interpretation. In fact the closest I have ever come was the comic to film of Scott Pilgrim, and even that took some liberties and departures. World War Z takes ideas from the book, but is in no way the same. In fact they were very smart in filming this. They left a lot of room open for a sequel that could take the tales of what the characters went through and make them into their own films. Brad Pitt's character Gerry is the narrator in the book. His place in print is as the writer reporting what happened to the other survivors.. In the movie, this is solely his tale and what happens to him and his own. This is never even discussed in the book. So it's already, in essence, created it's own prequel.

Now let me discuss what you really want to know. The ZOMBIES! This was in 3D and it worked because zombies coming at me is terrifying. However, they did not cash in on this enough. For the scare, the film relies mainly on the old loud sounds and the element of surprise. I jumped around a lot. But I am kind of a puss like that. Many of you more seasoned horror fans may not care.
The thing that really hooked me was this shrieking sound the zombies made, how fast they would go from human to zombie (as the epidemic spreads it goes from 10 or 15 minutes to a matter of seconds.) And the zombies constant need to bite things. They would see humans and start clicking their teeth. Just walking around going click click click was freaking my shit out!


Brad Pitt's involvement in this flick was what drew me into it. It was surprising. Really Brad Pitt is on board for a zombie flick? Oh wow, it's going to be World War Z? What's up with this? Naturally my Matthew had to go ask the Google what the deal was. And the great and powerful Google said Brad Pitt was a big fan of the book and signed on to do it but insisted on having script approval. He rejected the first script. Said it wasn't good enough, if you want me involved it needs to be better. So a few scripts later, we have what you will soon see before you.

Now I have to admit, it seemed like he phoned it in for the first ten minutes or so of the film. Luckily zombies madness start almost immediately. Which rocked considering the family BS was just awful in the opening of the film. As the movie progresses so does Pitt's acting.

This movie is not for everyone. If you're looking for gore you won't find it. But if you are looking for a different zombie experience you may be pleased with the outcome. A politically motivated zombie flick was pretty fascinating.