Book/Movie Comparison: The Z Word

            For my second book to movie comparison I decided to go with World War Z which was suggested to me by my friend John. The book was written by Max Brooks and the movie was directed by Marc Foster. I am still unsure of the format I want to use for these but for now I am going to follow what I did last time.

            This book is not what I expected it to be about. Based on the title I was expecting to read a book about a war against zombies in one form or another. While there is a battle against the undead it isn’t played out in the book. The book features a number of interviews with different people from around the world and what they saw and experienced during the war. All of the stories told come years after the war has ended. I really enjoyed the different interviews conducted in the book because it told the story from multiple perspectives and showed how different people were affected. I think the book would make for a really good TV Mini-Series adaptation because Mr. Brooks does a great job of using his words to help the reader visualize the different environments.

            Marc Foster’s World War Z is the definition of summer popcorn flick in my book. Right from the get-go the battle against the undead begins. The zombies featured in this movie were not like ones previously seen. These zombies were much faster especially compared to me and that speed made them more dangerous. Brad Pitt does a good job as the hero of our movie trying to figure out what started the war and also a way to stop it. I read that the movie had to be rewritten and scenes reshot because people were not happy with the original cut of the movie. I would like to see the original cut though because I am sure it would help explain why Matthew Fox was in the helicopter transport. I also have a feeling that the original cut was a lot darker than the movie we ended up getting.

            The most important thing that the book and movie have in common is their title. That is also the only thing they have in common. These two versions of World War Z are completely different, but in my opinion very good. Both versions of the story work for me and while the movie was action packed I’d much rather see a true adaptation from Brooks’ work. I think that people come down so hard on movies adapted from books because of movies like this. Hollywood took an interesting story and instead of turning it in to a movie they took the initial concept and made their own thing. That is fine and all but don’t give it the same title as the book.