Trailer of the Day: World War Z

Yikes! What a mess!

When I see this trailer it brings up some conflicting feelings. The book World War Z is one of the finest horror novels ever written and probably the best book about zombies ever written (Pariah by Bob Fingerman comes close), and whenever I see that name I get a little chill. Knowing this trailer exists makes me excited, however the content of the trailer...

In the book the narrator is sent on a fact finding mission by the U.N. in which he is to go around the world and interview survivors of the now finished world zombie apocalypse. With this setup the book is then comprised of firsthand accounts from survivors and how they (and the world) survived "world war z".

The strength of the book really lies in the personal side of a zombie scenario. Much like The Walking Dead, the story is so moving and frighting because it bring a big, worldwide event down to a very relateable level..  So with that said I'm going to have to talk about it as an adaptation first and then a stand alone movie.

So watching this trailer the first thing I thought is that, even though it already looks like it diverges from the book, it could still be a halfway decent adaptation. Maybe Brad Pitt's character meets some of the characters from the book or experiences some of the things described in the book.

Then the fast zombies show up.

Look, I don't have any problem with fast zombies. I thought the new Dawn of the Dead was very good but scary in a different way then the original. 28 Days Later is one of the few movies that gave me nightmares. This, however, is based on a story where fast zombies don't transfer over very well. With out giving any spoilers away, most of the scenarios in the novel can't really happen with zombies this fast.

I realize that it might be too much to ask for an exact, word-for-word Hollywood transfer, but come on. Why even buy the rights if the final project looks nothing like it's source? Did they pay all that royalty money for a cool name?

Anyway, taken out of context of the book the movie doesn't even look that good! Bad CG and explosions does not make a great movie. Who directed this, Micheal Bay?

Zombies are scary because they're personal. Zombies aren't just another monster, they're you, they're your friends, people you loved, and they're trying to kill you in the most horrible of ways. And if you get bit it's a slow death leading something even worse. Somehow a wave of bodies does not convey the creeping fear that makes zombies so scary.They could have replaced zombies with a wave of angry hobbits or Twilight style vampires and it would have been the same thing. It looks like they've taken everything that makes zombies unique and scary out of this movie.

So that's my take on this, if anyone cares. Who knows? Maybe this was just a bad choice of footage for the trailer. Maybe when the movie comes out they'll have cleaned up the special effects some. However, if this does end up being just another bad, generic horror movie, the saddest part will be that we will never get another chance at seeing Max Brook's haunting masterpiece in movie form again.