**Contains spoilers**
I have long been a fan of Max Brooks’ Zombie books – having been gifted the Zombie survival guide around 15 years ago, and shortly after reading the book World War Z. The book is written in a form of Epistolary – traditionally letters; Brooks’ version brings the epistolary up to date by making use of letters, emails, personal accounts and transcripts of interviews, among the wide range of formats for the narrative.
This made it a very interesting and different read for fans of the genre and the book was widely acclaimed. The film, when it was first rumoured was anticipated with some positive thoughts of what was to come.
Unfortunately for some, the adaptation to a movie was not as well-received by die-hard fans. The general public enjoyed the movie it seems, but a large number of Brooks fans, were quite disappointed in the movie: finding it bland – adapting a zombie film for a PG-13 (US) audience / (15 in the UK) involved removing some of the gorier battle scenes and content. There is also the fact that the epistolary style of the source material would have involved a much more disjointed adaptation, and having the central character of Brad Pitt tying the threads together did not go down well with that kernel of fans.
For the most part, I found that World War Z provided most of what I am looking for in a zombie film – the reveal at the beginning was managed well, and I enjoyed the way Gerry (Pitt’s character) worked out the time it took for the virus to take over a host; despite his lack of credentials, and a suspect employment in the role he took in the film, Gerry displayed initiative and intelligence from the outset that didn’t make his success unbelievable. The pace was quite good, though the film waited a while to include the ‘sneak around the zombies’ scene that we’ve come to expect from most films in the genre.
As a British person, born in North Wales I did find it frustrating that the plane flew over Snowdon (recognisable by its distinctive outline through the gaping hole in the side of the plane), then crashed within walking distance of Cardiff, conveniently outside the lab they were looking for. I know planes fly fast but Snowdon and Cardiff are at opposite ends of the country, and given we are led to believe this part of the film is in real time, the few seconds that pass are definitely insufficient time for that journey to have been made.
I was disappointed not to see some of the more memorable battles from the book – only one city is truly seen as ‘overrun’ in the film, contrasting with the almost total world domination by the zombies in the book. But again, the book describes a much longer journey back to ‘normality’ – it takes over a decade for the major world powers to regain control of the situation – but that would not be manageable in a film of this length without a significant time jump that would probably leave viewers far less satisfied that the convenient solution Brad’s Gerry discovers through a few minutes observation and no medical training whatsoever.
As an adaptation, I think it is fair to say that It doesn’t truly do the source material justice. Perhaps now that such quality adaptations as The Walking Dead and Last of Us have been developed, someone will take a fresh look at World War Z – a series would suit the epistolary novel far better in my opinion.
As a stand-alone film, taking a step back from the book; it is an enjoyable and fun reflection of the genre – if a little tame due to its lower age-rating than others. After all, even Max Brooks said he enjoyed it in the end, after his concerns following the release of the cinematic trailer.