Movies.com: Why Even Call it 'World War Z' at This Point? (this thread is about zombies)

[Jumbo]

Maybe rename it : "World War Y?"

Of all the fast zombies, I like the ones as done in "28 Days/Weeks Later." Weren't they the first "fast ones? Always hoped for a "28 Months" sequel. I want to buy into this movie bad, but they have to help more.

Of all the classic (and cheap crap) slow zombies, I actually think WD does a great job of making them appropriately uber-deadly and a formidable threat while still being so slow.

I even made a geek-out theory as to how there could be fast and slow zombies with varying degrees on a scale, depending on what strain (original) or mutation (rabid) of zombie virus is involved. The slower guys are operating on a viral contamination that is very long-term survival driven above all other functions (and communicates with itself in a more "sentient" fashion, perhaps even saving some of the "buried" intellect of the host--this would play well into some WD story lines, btw) and allows the host ro exist at a very low metabolic rate. It can endure much, including little nourishment for long periods of time.

The more rabid mutation amps up all the motor activity and elevates a berserker state (less communication/sentience), and spurs a more constant and fierce seeking of food (distinguished from the slow, deliberate, inexorable) and feeding behavior (frenetic more than methodical), but maybe will can burn out faster without constant replenishment of sustenance.

Then the diffs get nuanced.

[rictus58]

But in the 28days/weeks movie, they weren't really "zombies" They were infected with a virus. They weren't the undead right?

[Jumbo]

But in the 28days/weeks movie, they weren't really "zombies" They were infected with a virus. They weren't the undead right?

It took me a bit to even wrap my head around the question as worded. It's as though you've never seen any zombie movies.

Yes, viruses are usually featured as the cause of zombiehood and reanimating the dead, and yes, they were zombies in those movies. There have been a couple movies made, (like the first "Quarantine" movie) where there is a slight window to imply a more non-traditional un-zombie but zombie like manifestation via a biological agent, but...we get pretty flaky here...I was just trying to find something related to your thinking.

[rictus58]

To me, a true Zombie movie is the reanimation of the dead, caused by the unknown. In The 2000's version of "Dawn of the Dead", we see the pandemic starting in the hospital, but we have no idea what caused it. The zombies didn't seem to die of starvation either. At least not in the months that they kept themselves safe in the mall.
Not some ALF member getting bit by a lab experiment. In 28 days later, they are living infected people. They seemed to die of starvation pretty quickly. I liken 28 Days later to "The Crazies" They weren't un-dead in that movie either.

http://www.cracked.com/funny-2791-28-days-later/

It seems some scientists were experimenting on animals and invented something called the "Rage Virus", which essentially makes them go bat**** crazy on anyone who isn't them (see: Republicans).

sorry for taking this off topic. I will still end up seeing this. Most likely on DVD since I never made my way to the theater.

[TMK9973]

Well -That movie looked NOTHING like the book....
having said that....
HELL YEAH!
Actually - the movie does what I always wanted zombie movies to do.
All the zombie movies (and most books) focus on the 1 man (or group) either as the zombie outbreak happens, or months / years later when everything is gone sans some survivors. We are always missing is "WTF is going on in the rest of the world!". Where are the Armies, Governments, etc... Looks like this movie is all about "What is happening EVERYWHERE during the outbreak.

[Duckus]

I might be the only person in the world who thought World War Z wasn't even that great a book.

[Jumbo]

I might be the only person in the world who thought World War Z wasn't even that great a book.

I thought it was certainly over-rated. It was good, overall, for me. It had some very good passages and a fair amount of ho-hum. I like the idea and the potential more than actual final product.

[TMK9973]

I might be the only person in the world who thought World War Z wasn't even that great a book.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion...no matter how wrong it is.

[Jumbo]

To me, a true Zombie movie is the reanimation of the dead, caused by the unknown.

I think the operative words there are "to me" and an assumption about "unknown" implying that if you claim a "known" like a virus, then they aren't zombies. Keep in mind the "first ones" may not be the dead brought back to life, but the ones they kill do return, as well as ones that don't fully die and turn.

And I can see interest to we geeks in separating the types of processes even in the same movie/cause scenario. I had to search the following to "support" what I thought I "knew" here

I do take the idea of zombie all the way back (voo-doo wise) to it being a supernatural reanimation of the dead. But the movie zombies and their TV counterparts pretty much begin with Romero. The following info all has to do with "Romero zombies" (the prototypes if you will).


http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Romero_zombies

Process of infection and reanimation

Being bitten by a zombie is not a prerequisite for returning to life, as any deceased human, regardless of exposure to a zombie, will return. No Romero film has definitively revealed the cause of reanimation, but several have featured characters speculating on possible causes, including radiation from a NASA probe, divine intervention, and viral infection.

Simply because in some movies the cause is unknown, doesn't mean that in a movie where the cause IS known, they are suddenly "not zombies." But the reanimation thing IS a key qualifier and more on that later.

(see first paragraph at link for rules that define zombiehood).

There's a lot more info at the link (site), but first I want to note I was both being dense and also mis-remembering (badly) about 28 Days Later in my reply to you. No excuse, either, since I've seen that flick twice. I actually thought "The Crazies" as a non-zombie movie. They really weren't zombies (no reanimation). But in 28 days I remembered it as they also included reanimation, and they didn't. My bad (big time) on that one. I now will cease thinking of it as a "fast zombie" movie.

It looks like there is a lot more stuff to read, if you're a zombie-geek, at that site (1st time I've been there and didn't really explore).

sorry for taking this off topic. I will still end up seeing this. Most likely on DVD since I never made my way to the theater.

No sweat as far as i'm concerned. Great distraction on a Monday full of "typical stuff" at my work

[Spartacus87]

You could've googled it and found it just as easily about the trilogy truth, not rumor.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/01/...d-be-a-trilogy

This isn't the only article mentioning this. They knew they couldn't fit it into one movie, that's not what this is. Three sections like you said, this is most likely the first part explaining the outbreak as it happened. Hopefully they do make the other two films, the gore thing has really been played to death. At least try something new...

That article is also from last January.

In other words, that article (and the "trilogy" idea as a whole) was invented prior to the 7 weeks (!) of re-shoots they had to do this past summer, prior to the re-writing and re-re-writing of the third act, prior to this movie being pushed back half a year to settle development and budget issues, and prior to Brad Pitt deciding not to speak directly to Marc Forster anymore while they finished the film.

When Paramount originally signed on as the distributor, they probably envisioned a possible tent pole franchise with corporate tie-ins, Brad Pitt action figures, and carefully scheduled annual box office record releases. However, when you consider that the past 6 months of work on this movie has turned into a dumpster fire, it would be surprising if they were still leaning on a trilogy plan of any kind.

Especially now that Transformers 4 (and the ensuing new trilogy there) is locked in to be released in 2014. There's Paramount's summer action blockbuster franchise. And coincidentally (or maybe not), over the past six months, Transformers 4 production was basically fast tracked by Paramount while World War Z went back to Budapest for two months of re-shoots.

So yeah...while it's certainly possible that this was actually a planned two or three part story, it's now fairly unlikely that's the strategy going forward. But we'll see.

Well -That movie looked NOTHING like the book....
having said that....
HELL YEAH!
Actually - the movie does what I always wanted zombie movies to do.
All the zombie movies (and most books) focus on the 1 man (or group) either as the zombie outbreak happens, or months / years later when everything is gone sans some survivors. We are always missing is "WTF is going on in the rest of the world!". Where are the Armies, Governments, etc... Looks like this movie is all about "What is happening EVERYWHERE during the outbreak.

The book told exactly "WTF (was) going on in the rest of the world" during the outbreak, to the point that it dragged on with redundancy at times, just to make sure the reader understood that the Chinese government, the US government, the South African government, the Haitian government, and the president of Timbuktu all equally struggled to effectively repel the undead.

The premise of this movie is that the entire UN needs one dashing American to courageously leave his family behind, in the middle of the zombie war, so he can find a way to stop the zombie plague.

[Jumbo]

The premise of this movie is that the entire UN needs one dashing American to courageously leave his family behind, in the middle of the zombie war, so he can find a way to stop the zombie plague.

Isn't is just awesome? And to hear it's such a cluster ****.

I recently posted on the devastating-to-me news of who would play a favorite fictional character in a long-awaited movie. Now, in this case, and others similar in the future, I can embrace one consolation: at least it isn't starring Tom Cruise.

[Renegade7]

That article is also from last January.

In other words, that article (and the "trilogy" idea as a whole) was invented prior to the 7 weeks (!) of re-shoots they had to do this past summer, prior to the re-writing and re-re-writing of the third act, prior to this movie being pushed back half a year to settle development and budget issues, and prior to Brad Pitt deciding not to speak directly to Marc Forster anymore while they finished the film.

When Paramount originally signed on as the distributor, they probably envisioned a possible tent pole franchise with corporate tie-ins, Brad Pitt action figures, and carefully scheduled annual box office record releases. However, when you consider that the past 6 months of work on this movie has turned into a dumpster fire, it would be surprising if they were still leaning on a trilogy plan of any kind.

Especially now that Transformers 4 (and the ensuing new trilogy there) is locked in to be released in 2014. There's Paramount's summer action blockbuster franchise. And coincidentally (or maybe not), over the past six months, Transformers 4 production was basically fast tracked by Paramount while World War Z went back to Budapest for two months of re-shoots.

So yeah...while it's certainly possible that this was actually a planned two or three part story, it's now fairly unlikely that's the strategy going forward. But we'll see.

This is from 3 days ago, oh ye of little faith.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni40350395/

Look, I get that trying to make this film didn't go exactly according to plan. But I feel from what people involved with the film are saying is that this was always planned to be a trilogy. So I'm going to go into this movie expecting us to not have won the zombie war by the time this movie is over.

I'm trying to be optimistic here, especially since to me it's something new for a change...

[rictus58]

Jumbo,
I will concede to the master of Zombie lore Romero. Another point about the 28days/weeks movies is that I don't think they needed a brain strike to kill them. I could be wrong though as it's been years since I've seen them. I'm not quite sure I like the turn he (Romero) took them on in "Land of the Dead". Zombies with a learning process? However, like most of his movies, there was good social commentary throughout. One last though, we Romero and Stan Lee seperated at birth or long lost brothers?

[Jumbo]

Jumbo,
I will concede to the master of Zombie lore Romero. Another point about the 28days/weeks movies is that I don't think they needed a brain strike to kill them. I could be wrong though as it's been years since I've seen them. I'm not quite sure I like the turn he (Romero) took them on in "Land of the Dead". Zombies with a learning process? However, like most of his movies, there was good social commentary throughout. One last though, we Romero and Stan Lee seperated at birth or long lost brothers?

Yeah, I just need to revamp by positioning of the "28" franchise (still hope for a 3rd), lump it in with The Crazies and that sub-genre, and also re-watch Quarantine to see if there's any reanimation (I thought there was but no longer trust that memory lol).

Romero is the grandfather, but I don't think he gets to stake all the claims--too creative a field. As that wiki and our pop culture indicates, such matters will be decided by the masses and the geeks like us battling it out.

Per cognition level of Zeds, that's another topic I can (as expected) geek on, projecting varying levels and explanations----it's an area that I haven't seen tapped much (hints in some flicks) but I have a hunch WD (the series) may explore it.

One last thing on our virus and zombies and reanimation themes (per qualifiers for "true zombie" status), I had also thought of the most populous creatures of the Resident Evil franchise as "zombies" of a type, but now am wondering.

As I said, I had not really perused that zombie wiki, but I did just now (at the end of this typing this post and don't plan to edit at this point) search a bit more and found this page, fwiw, defining and categorizing zeds.

http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Types_of_Zombies

[GhostofSparta]

re-watch Quarantine to see if there's any reanimation (I thought there was but no longer trust that memory lol).

No. In that movie it was basically super-rabies (they even allude to it starting with the little girl's dog, and when the dad took it to the vet that's when the quarantine was enforced). There was no death and reanimation, just somebody randomly snapping. The little girl, for example, was running a high fever and then just tore out her mom's throat. (Oh, SPOILER ALERT!)

Same with the "28" franchise. I don't remember there being any re-animation, just a very quick working infection.