Is that a potential franchise I see?
World War Z has been one the most interesting projects
to follow in the film world over the course of the past year or so. Immediately based on just the title alone the film
garnered a lot of hype, both positive and negative, (but mostly negative) once it was revealed that the film would mirror the 2006 Max Brooks novel in name only. Combine that with an A list lead in Brad
Pitt and an eleventh hour reshoot to provide the film a coherent ending (courtesy
of Lost and Prometheus scribe Damon Lindelof) and you have one of the most
polarizing films of the Summer. So did
World War Z live up to its potential? Was Damon Lindelof able to save this
potential blockbuster? Or did the film fail as many Max Brooks fan boys hoped
it would? Find out after the break……
Apparently Paramount prefers their CGI Zombies, to be very athletic!
Courtesy of the AMC hit The Walking Dead the zombie genre has never been hotter, so it was
only a matter of time before Hollywood took a chance on a big budget zombie
film with tent pole potential; enter Paramount’s World War Z. Interestingly
enough, Director Marc Foster chose to give this zombie movie its own unique
feel in the form of super zombies who sprint just as much as they
stumble. Rather than focusing primarily
on the human dynamic, like so many modern Zombie stories do, World War Z follows a more traditional
narrative: the hope and hunt for a cure and former United Nations investigator Gerry Lane’s (Brad Pitt) hell bent
mission to find that cure in exchange for government protection of his
family. A hell bent mission that is as
large in scope as a zombie blockbuster should be, Lane navigates the entire globe
looking for a cure. World War Z's choice to go global was quite refreshing; how many
times have you been watching a zombie story and wondered how the rest of
humanity was handling that crisis? Sure, many films address various
locations, but World War Z shows it
in an action packed way.
As well as World
War Z’s first two acts are set up and executed, the film doesn't seem to
know what it wants to do in it’s final act, a final act courtesy of Mr. Damon
Lindelof. By the end the film goes to
insane lengths in order to provide itself with a coherent and reasonable
conclusion. While it ultimately does,
the ending only works if Paramount see’s World War Z as the start of a franchise. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that was
Drew Goddard, Matthew Michael Carnahan, and J Michael Stracynski’s intention
when they originally wrote this film, which makes for a bit of a half baked
ending to an otherwise great zombie thrill ride.
In the end, you have to give Damon Lindelof a ton of
credit for delivering World War Z
with some sense of resolution that many thought would never happen as the film
squandered through re-shoots and development hell. At the same time, however, it is really
disappointing that World War Z couldn't decide what it wanted to be, because overall the film has the action, scares, and even the heart of a standalone zombie classic or the start of the potentially next great Zombie
franchise. Sadly though, in the end the indecisiveness
of what World War Z truly wanted to be kept it from being either.
|
Comments
Post a Comment