A few years back, the hottest book out there for zombie enthusiasts was a little ditty called WORLD WAR Z by author Max Brooks (son of Mel). Seriously, this book was everywhere! It was the number one gift to give and receive over the holidays, and everyone seemed to be in absolute love of this “Oral History of the Zombie War”. I was one of many who received it for Christmas that year and after reading it, I quickly realized I was in the minority: I could not get behind the book, and after plowing through maybe half of it, I shelved it completely. I tried again about a year later, but still no dice—just plain didn’t like that. But when the movie was announced I was curious as to how they would pull it off, and now that the trailer is here, I gotta admit… WORLD WAR Z looks pretty effin’ awesome!
The film features megastar Brad Pitt and his family (wife is the chick from THE KILLING), and in the trailer we get all sorts of crazy awesomeness: hordes of running, fuming, killing zombies! Pitt f*cking shit up and saving the day! explosions! a scale that becomes more epic by the moment! And after 2 minutes of sheer ballsiness, we come to find out we’re a full 7 months away from its release. Holy shitballs. What else will this movie has instore for us?
Some people are complaining that it looks like TRANSFORMERS meets I AM LEGEND meet every other big budget blockbuster extravaganza. And to that, I say, you’re right… but with zombies. And it’s that zombie factor that makes this so incredibly awesome. I’m digging the route they seem to be going after here, as it appears as though we’ll be hanging with and following Pitt’s character during the whole thing. I like that! Because one of the main reasons why I didn’t like the book all that much was there were too many different characters telling their stories about the war. And just when you feel like you’ve gotten to know them… BAM! that story is over, and you’re onto the next with new people to get to know. This may work for other stories, but for me, I didn’t like it. I was worried the movie was going to go that way as well, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. So I’m in!
It’s not all boobies and beer though; there were some parts of the trailer that weren’t awesome at all. Like, they never mention once that the horde of crazy f*ckers are zombies. For those who know the book, it’s obvious… but for those who don’t know the book, I can only imagine the confusion going on. All they had to include was some military doctor saying “they’re not human anymore, no… they’re zombies!” and then the whole trailer would have made a whole helluva lot more sense. Which is also my next big issue: the zombies themselves. Way too CGIy for me. In that regard, they look as fake as the vamp creatures in I AM LEGEND did. I like the swarm effect and the flow of faceless people by the thousands, but it just looks too damn fake. But then I remember there is still 7 months between now and the film’s release, so there should be plenty of time for them to fix it up and make it look 100% stunning.
Speaking of trailers, I’m gonna sidetrack just for a second to talk about two recently released horror trailers that had me fifin’ all over the place. First up, the red band trailer for THE EVIL DEAD remake. I was as skeptical as the next guy about this project, but if the trailer did anything, it was to prove me wrong. Holy f*ck, this movie looks amazingly awesome. Epic gore galore, spooky atmosphere, similar scenes as the first but not entirely, and pretty dope special effects—coupled with an awesome soundtrack and you have yourself one of the only trailers I’ve seen this year that actually gave me goosebumps—and made me have to watch it like 5 times in a row afterwards. The other trailer, the remake of CARRIE. Again, not really onboard with this one, but the teaser trailer appeared to show us a scene that was in King’s book but not in De Palma’s film version, which has me excited for this one as well. I love King’s book, and while most was touched in the original film, there was still a bit left out. Let’s hope they produce the definitive adaptation with this one.
Maybe it’s the booze talkin’, but the trailer for WORLD WAR Z (and THE EVIL DEAD and CARRIE) have me super excited for the 2013 movie season. I can’t wait to see Brad Pitt battle unstoppable hordes of zombies all over the world on an epic scale of a summer blockbuster—that just spells entertainment to me. And while there were a few parts of the trailer I didn’t care for (mostly the zombies themselves), I know in my heart that they have over 6 months to work on making them look as best as they possibly can. And maybe this will be one of the few movie adaptations where the film version is actually BETTER than the source material. Bring on June 21, 2013… I can’t wait!