Prelude
Christmas is coming ... and what could be more beautiful than to share with you a story ... about Zombies. Yup, perfect for XMas, Zombies it is, and in true Hollywood fashion, I'll make it a trilogy.
But first, a few words before we start. Lately, I've been watching a very funny show called New Girl, it's freaking hilarious. There's this guy on the show with whom I have precisely 3 things in common:
1 - he's also a guy
2 - we more or less share the same family name
3 - we're both trying to write something about zombies for some time
And that's the end of it basically, we each go our own way from there on. And, the truth is he actually managed to write the thing, as horrible as it was in the end. So, if Nick I can't finish anything ever in my life Miller is able to write his novel, I'll be darned if I don't write my Zombie Chronicles by the end of the year! Thank you, Nick, you are an inspiration ... or not ...
Anyways, here goes:
Part 1 - World War Zombie
The Zombie hysteria started quite some time ago and it's starting to dwindle down. There's a bunch of people though who've decided to jump on the bandwagon before it's too late some with better results than others. We'll probably get a much better idea of how the hype is holding up next year when Arnold Terminator Conan Schwarzenegger will release his very own Zombie movie.
But back to Brad, and the War on Zombies. I wanted to dedicate Part 1 to him because it's always better to start on a low note and end on a high. And, unfortunately, WWZ is a low note. The movie is toned down so it can be watched by children, so it's nowhere near graphical enough and the zombies themselves are just a mass of CGI moving chaos, which is definitely not in line with what Zombie-loving people want. Zombies need to be slow-ish. They need to appear real, so it's always better to use real actors and make-up. Basically the impression I got was that whoever made this movie doesn't actually understand or like Zombie movies.
It's not all bad though. The one thing that I really liked is the idea stated in a very non-subtle way by Pitt's character in the beginning. There's only one way to stay alive and that is to keep moving, don't lock yourself in your house, don't barricade your doors hoping it will go away. It won't, and you need to get a moving asap. And moving he does, the guy travels around the world to different locations, and we get to see how different people handle the situation differently. The idea is very interesting, and I do wish it was implemented properly.
However, everything I've said until now pales in comparison with something that is completely missing from WWZ and what I think is the single biggest problem this movie has. Pitt is all by himself most of the time, and the characters he encounters don't get enough screen time to create any attachments either between themselves or with the viewers. The real drama in Zombie situations doesn't come from the Zombies themselves. It comes from the way they affect the life of the remaining humans, and mostly on how the world (as it becomes) affects relationships inside and between groups of people. Zombies are stupid, they just want your brain and have a very straight forward way of going about their business .... Humans on the other hand ... now, there you have a real danger... Humans are intelligent and when backed up in a corner there's no knowing of what many things they would do. This idea is perfectly captured by the TV masterpiece, The Walking Dead, which I will blabber about among other things in Part 2, stay tuned...
To be Continued...
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