OT: World War Z

Uncle Ruckus

All-American
Apr 1, 2011
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Cant remember if Germanic, but me and the girlfriend went and watched it today. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed. I absolutely love the book, one of my favorites, and I knew not to expect a representation of it going in but ****, there's wasnt a nearly anything resembling the book except for the title and the world being overtaken by zombies. Anyone else watched it and read the book?
 

CEO2044

Senior
May 11, 2009
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I went in expecting it to be semi-******, so I liked it. Maybe that's why.
 

dawgman42

All-American
Jul 24, 2007
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I enjoyed it. The book was better, but I view this as an "inspired by" movie. I liked it a lot.

Also, I Am Legend is the ****** version of I Am Legend.
 

FreeDawg

Senior
Oct 6, 2010
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Thought it was ok. Honestly, it made me miss Walking Dead more than anything.
 

Dawgma.sixpack

Redshirt
Aug 23, 2012
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I was disappointed too, as I had read the book.....the only things saving the movie are Brad Pitt and the "cure"....that was an interesting idea...
 

PBRME

All-Conference
Feb 12, 2004
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Read the book last year. Went into the movie not expecting it to be anything like the book. Actually liked it and looking forward to the next 2 in the trilogy.
 

Optimus Prime 4

Redshirt
May 1, 2006
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Most blatant false advertising since my lawsuit against The Neverending Story

View attachment 360

I thought it was OK, because I went in expecting it to not be like the book. But hell, it could not have been any different. The only similarity is that Israel is in the book and the movie. Not what happened, just that both are in it. The way they won is different, how it spreads, everything about it. Hell, the zombies don't even eat people. They just bite and run. Not to mention the whole slow vs. fast zombie thing. The best thing about the book is it made the whole zombie thing slightly plausible. They didn't touch any of that. Nor the underwater zombies, frozen zombies, etc. It was closer to 28 Days Later than the book. Far. Plus, I wanted samurai guy from the book.

I highly recommend the book, and I'm not into zombie stuff really. As someone said on NAFOOM, the only thing you could really do with the book would be a good HBO miniseries Have an episode for each scene in the book, since there really aren't characters that are in every part. I don't expect a movie to be 100% faithful to the book, but I don't think 5% is too much to ask.
 

MSUDawg25

Redshirt
Jan 21, 2010
2,088
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Haven't seen the movie, but I read the book and I've been very intrigued as to how they would make a movie out of it. Disappointing to hear they basically just didn't follow it at all. For those that haven't read the book, its basically a collection of first-hand accounts from totally unrelated survivors from all over the world.
 

Wicked Pissah

Redshirt
Aug 22, 2012
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If you liked this movie, you probably think outback steakhouse, olive garden and j. Alexander is a good meal.

#bless
 

Optimus Prime 4

Redshirt
May 1, 2006
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You can get a perfectly cromulent meal at Outback

Unless the boycott is still ongoing. Don't hate, Outback has a solid pork chop. And bacon cheese fries. It's certainly not on par with the OG.
 

Hanmudog

Redshirt
Apr 30, 2006
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As a "zombie" movie it sucks. As a summer action flick it is Ok. I knew going in that there would be little similarity to the book.

You just can't have a zombie movie where people don't get eaten. Without seeing what they are capable of, here just was not a sense of dread about the zombies.
 

Dawgology

Redshirt
Sep 15, 2011
828
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As a "zombie" movie it sucks. As a summer action flick it is Ok. I knew going in that there would be little similarity to the book.

I agree with this. I've not read the book but as a brainless, action movie it was decent. I also liked "the cure" idea which an idea like it is being used to treat leukemia right now.
 
Nov 19, 2012
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It was watchable. As for the zombie genre in general, I've never understood the military strategy against them. If you had superior firepower, why the hell would you sit back and wait for them to come to you? What would a wave of zombies do to a rolling column of tanks? Die...again. Instead of circling the wagons, establish a front. How many men do you think are bayoneted in open terrain in today's military? Zero. A big ole wall o zombies wouldn't get within 300 yards of an entrenched assault force. Don't even get me started on air superiority. Now if the disease was spread by airborne transmission and had a suitable latency period, that changes everything.
 

Optimus Prime 4

Redshirt
May 1, 2006
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You should read the book. It covers all of that thoroughly

And really well. I've never been into the genre either, but the book makes it believable.

Its not a conventional opponent, and you aren't fighting on one front, but every side.
 
Nov 19, 2012
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I'll do that, thanks. Actually, when I saw the movie was about to be released, I read "Apocalypse Z" thinking that was the book that inspired the movie. Wrong. But it was a good read anyway, though only part 1 of 3.
 

QuadrupleOption

All-Conference
Aug 21, 2012
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It was watchable. As for the zombie genre in general, I've never understood the military strategy against them. If you had superior firepower, why the hell would you sit back and wait for them to come to you? What would a wave of zombies do to a rolling column of tanks? Die...again. Instead of circling the wagons, establish a front. How many men do you think are bayoneted in open terrain in today's military? Zero. A big ole wall o zombies wouldn't get within 300 yards of an entrenched assault force. Don't even get me started on air superiority. Now if the disease was spread by airborne transmission and had a suitable latency period, that changes everything.

The book had a pretty good explanation as to why conventional warfare methods didn't work well against zombies. To sum it up:
1) Most high powered explosives kill people via over-pressurising the surrounding area. Humans can't survive this because it liquifies the insides and/or overloads the nervous system and shuts it down. This doesn't affect zombies.
2) The only way to kill a zombie is to destroy the brain. Blowing it in half or blowing off limbs will slow it down, but won't stop it. Armor piercing rounds are useless (unless you hit a head).
3) Armies are only as effective as their supply lines. They run out of big ordinance pretty quickly, and the tanks and aircraft that are the backbone of a modern military force require a lot of specialized maintenance and parts to run. Every service tech you lose to zombification is one less you have to maintain the nice stuff.
4) Assuming advanced spread of the zombie plaque, there would be over 150 million zombies in the continental U.S. alone. So - imagine that you are facing a Greater Jackson Area sized horde with a division of artillery. Sure, you'll probably kill quite a few. Then you run out of ammunition, and they keep coming. Troops need to sleep - zombies don't. Equipment breaks down - zombies don't. At best, you are fighting a withdrawal action and leading a crapton of those things to wherever it is you think is safe.

tl;dr

There are ****-tons of 'em and you'll run out of ammo eventually. Also bombs aren't nearly as effective as you think. Plus they don't sleep.

I'm gonna crawl back into my mom's basement and strategize some more on the upcoming zombie apocalypse.
 

dawgman42

All-American
Jul 24, 2007
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I'll do that, thanks. Actually, when I saw the movie was about to be released, I read "Apocalypse Z" thinking that was the book that inspired the movie. Wrong. But it was a good read anyway, though only part 1 of 3.

Agreed. Apocalypse Z was a pretty good read. If you want another really good read, better in my opinion that Apocalypse Z, read Omega Days by John Campbell.
 
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Nov 19, 2012
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4 1/2 stars on Goodread. Impressive. I'll check it out. Thanks. To be honest, I'm kind of a survivalist as a hobby, so reading this books is an entertaining way to learn a little about that.
 

PBRME

All-Conference
Feb 12, 2004
10,865
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ZA Recht's Morningstar Strain was a decent read. The only big complaint I have is the guy that took over after ZA died really changed the feel of the book.

Day by Day Armageddon is another good series. I haven't read the 3rd one yet.

Valley of Death is free for Kindle and Nook. It's decent for a free read. The sequel not so much.
 

GloryDawg

Heisman
Mar 3, 2005
19,358
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They reshot almost the entire movie. The original version had the plane crash closer to the beginining and Brad Pitt is drafted into the Russian Army fighting Zombies in the subways. It was a total different movie.

I suspect the next movie will follow more of the book.

I did enjoy the movie and glad to see Holly Wood use other elite forces like the Rangers in Korea. They over play the SEALS way too much.

Also I liked the N. Korean solution the best. They pulled the teeth out of 23 million N. Koreans. Pretty cool if you ask me.