World War Z (2013) - Trailer - Brad Pitt,Matthew Fox

[lpheat22]

Excited I love zombie stuff

 

[mronegative]

It's hard to judge a film before it even comes out but uh....

[h1] Mr. Beaks Checks The Vital Signs Of WORLD WAR Z![/h1]Published at: March 29, 2013, 10:12 a.m. CST

There is no blood in WORLD WAR Z.

This was my main takeaway from the footage Paramount screened of its $170 million summer tentpole last Friday. I’ve been watching zombie films most of my life, and I can’t remember the living dead ever going about their flesh-gnashing business in such a tidy manner. From the opening Philadelphia onslaught (where Brad Pitt and his family find themselves stuck in traffic, fleeing a CG horde of panicked humans and rabid once-were-humans) to the frantic Jerusalem siege (on display in the above-embedded trailer), I kept waiting for the carnage to match the gritty, hand-held aesthetic adopted by director Marc Forster. Curiously, even for a PG-13 movie, not a drip of the red stuff. If there is blood, they're definitely holding it back.

Given the highlight-reel nature of the footage (which played like a preview of scenes from next week’s WORLD WAR Z), I couldn’t get a genuine feel for whether the film works as a drama. If I’m to trust what we were shown, Forster is going to be shuttling UN employee Pitt all over the world in a two-day scramble for patient zero. Find the source of the disease that's rapidly turning people into zombies, and, at the very least, humanity will have a vaccine that will stop the spread of the virus. Seems like an awful lot to accomplish in two days, but it's the movies!

While the characterization and plotting seemed perilously thin, I’ll give the movie the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to a wrongheaded presentation, but I still can’t get over the sterile quality of the action. During the Jerusalem siege (which played like a run-through for a truly harrowing set piece), a young Israeli soldier gets bitten by a zombie. You see a brief close up of the allegedly mangled arm before Brad Pitt chops it off (the film’s rules state that humans have a twelve-second window from exposure to zombification). There’s no blood, no discernible abrasion, maybe raised skin, but you’re so confused by that point - why isn't there blood everywhere - that the shot has lost all intended value. Once the arm is severed, the stump is dressed, and you see a red stain underneath cloth. That’s it. At this point, you’re acutely aware that you’re watching a sanitized-for-the-ratings-board movie. Again, that’s fine as long as you’re invested in the characters and the drama, but, sadly, I’ve yet to see any indication that, beyond my natural inclination to root for Brad Pitt (who gamely introduced last week’s presentation), I’m going to care about any of this.

Marc Forster sat for a twenty-minute Q&A following the presentation, and he promised the assembled journalists that the film does have a lower gear. “It does take a break and become more reflective. It’s not what you guys saw here.” Forster answered all questions about the lengthy production process (production began in July of 2011, and there have been significant rewrites/reshoots), and why he departed from the “oral history” structure of Max Brooks’s novel. (FYI, this was a group Q&A. I only asked two of the below questions.)

I’m curious what the time frame is in the movie. Is it something that takes place in a few days or over a month or two?

It’s basically a couple of days. It’s pretty compressed.

Are they given some sort of superpowers? They seem to jump further, they run faster...

No, no, they don’t have any superpowers.

I meant more so than a regular human, the way they are able to jump and fall.

No, they just don’t know the difference of height and stuff. They just go because they don’t know the building is ending. They just keep moving, wherever they move, they just keep on moving. They just don’t know any boundaries.

So maybe not super, but more enhanced, like speed? I mean, those guys were running pretty fast and bouncing off things...

Yeah, when the feeding frenzy starts, they just run, but not faster than any human being.

One of the most common scenes that we see in the zombie genre is when somebody hides their bite, and they have that huge moment when you have to decide if you’re going to shoot your loved one. In this film, it looks like it takes about 8 seconds for that conversion to be made. What was the motivation behind that?

It’s twelve seconds. When you see the entire film, there are some people who turn faster than others, but it’s sort of this idea of how a virus also mutates. We all sort of based it in biology, in a sense that some viruses start to mutate very fast and sometimes it takes a bit longer - like when you saw the countdown in Philadelphia, it takes twelve seconds, and then he comes to another place where someone reports that it takes longer, So he’s trying to figure it out. That’s one of his quests.

One of the most popular TV shows right now is THE WALKING DEAD, which is extremely violent. Are you concerned that going for a PG-13 is going to make it a little tame compared to what people expect from weekly TV viewing of zombies?

No, because we approach [our zombies] in a different way. I consciously designed the film in that way, and so I think we will overcome that.

Back to the other question, this is going to be PG-13, so you have to avoid blood and gore.

But most of the gore and blood, when you see the whole movie, I avoid it on purpose, intentionally.

Are you worried that zombie fans won’t embrace this film, especially as it has more reflective periods in addition to the action?

You know, there are some more reflective moments from the film, but you can’t, some zombie fans you will not be able to make happy and some zombie fans will embrace it and will love the movie. I think there will always be discussion and a little bit of controversy on every zombie movie, because there are definitely different camps of what people prefer. I hope that most of the zombie fans will appreciate all the new things we added to the movie that they haven’t seen before in this particular genre.

Are you hoping to bring a new audience because the movie is less gory and not everyone is a zombie fan?

For me, this is not just a zombie film. It’s more than that. It’s a global film. It’s a film about a global crisis and I think it’s sort of, in that sense… it’s a zombie film, but it also speaks about some global issues. I think in that sense, I feel it might bring in a different audience, hopefully, as well.

I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the tone. Obviously it’s very dramatic and there’s a lot of action, but are there lighter moments as well?

Yeah, here and there, sprinkled throughout. But most of it is a pretty intense ride, like on the edge of your seat, pretty much from beginning to end. Even the more reflective moments, when it gets quiet, it’s like the tension comes from somewhere else.

One of the things we saw in the footage, which we don’t usually see in Hollywood blockbusters, was the male hero in the corner while the female had a machine gun blowing people away. So, in addition to this sort of global scale, is gender equity part of the whole aesthetic in the film?

Yeah, the great thing is that Brad’s character, Gerry Lane, is sort of the everyman hero, sort of the anti-hero in that sense. Ultimately, he’s not going to kill unless he’s forced to, and when he’s suddenly in that situation with a zombie where he has no choice. But he’s not your typical hero in that sense.

Could you talk a little about the 3D conversion process?
...
WORLD WAR Z scampers into theaters on June 21, 2013.

Faithfully submitted,

Mr. Beaks

Link

World War Z is a gory, bleak, intelligent, realistic docujournal-style novel about the (slow walking) zombie outbreak. It covers every aspect of what that would be like. Think Contagion. My guess is that since Brad Pitt was the one who bought the rights and produced it, and he and Angelina are so hard up on trying to be political leaders, he made this movie, because it had a UN character who sorta got to be the hero in one of the many stories they told. So he wanted to make this huge global disaster action movie where he saves his family and maybe the world.

But he didn't want to make World War Z. He wanted to make Armageddon.

Disregard that this should've been a documentary style breakdown of flashbacks like District 9 was. Pretend like that movie and Starship Troopers don't exist and this was the only way to make the movie. Running, jumping, bloodless cgi "zombies"? The big knocks on I Am Legend are that the cgi should've been better and they should've went with the alternate ending. It feels like this is gonna make that look like Apocalypse Now.

And when do you ever hear a director of a good movie sound that defensive before it even comes out? Dude sounds like the Lost guy a week after the finale. He reminds me of M. Night doing press for The Happening. , when you could tell dude knew they were gonna roast him soon and he brought his own hypeman. This looks like nothing. It looks like the most generic way they could've made this possible.

Why did they even bother to call it World War Z?

You're telling me that TV soap opera, The Walking Dead is gonna have more gore than this movie?

The Following is bloodier than this is gonna be?

 

[k town trash]

If anyone's interested, my cousin sent me this story that relates to this movie. Apparently, this story is floating around and was read by Brad Pitt to help him get into character for this film (get into character as in experiencing fear). There's also instructions to read the story. What I've been told, you had to read alone in a room. I don't think I have the guts to do it.

 

[guzzy]

 

[finnns2003]

at there being no gore or blood. This will lose respect so fast it's not even funny. With the "PG" esque violence and blood, no one will take this movie seriously. He even admits the zombies are "normal", when they look like Vince Carter jumping on helicopters and #%@!

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

at there being no gore or blood. This will lose respect so fast it's not even funny. With the "PG" esque violence and blood, no one will take this movie seriously. He even admits the zombies are "normal", when they look like Vince Carter jumping on helicopters and #%@!

Man, i don't know. From the early reports about this film, all you hear is great things. Hell, i even read that this could be nominated an oscar for best film.

 

[fantastic4our]

I think this will be alright if we just go in thinking that it's not "World War Z." Just give it another title in our heads because it has NOTHING to do with the novels that I loved.

 

[Fozz]

Just started reading the book and I'm hooked. Hopefully this movie is decent. But if there isn't any blood, the movie has already failed.

 

[al audi]

wont even lie...........im semi interested so far.......ill wait for reviews though.

 

[humpasaurus rex]

Will watch tomorrow @ 72% on RT

 

[Meangene45]

Been getting good reviews. Going to see it this weekend.

 

[2oh6ridah]

I never read the book so I didn't know what to expect.  I wasn't feeling it.

28 Weeks Later >>> WWZ

 

[law3001]

Saw it last night, the first hour is great lot of action, then it starts to drag on alittle bit. I could have waited until DVD.

Of course some **** was kinda

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

The whole theater was like WTF when the doctor shot himself in the head.

The camera pissed the **** outta me in the beginning the editing was too crazy it was hard to see ****, but you get used to it.

I would have cussed my wife out for calling me back

The lack of blood was ok, but the zombies just didn't do it for me. It was annoying that they purposely went out their way not to show blood, you see scenes were you expect something gory like him chopping the chicks hand off. You really didn't see how crazy the zombies looked until the end. Also this dude just injects a random does of some disease and then its all good later?

Yo the Israel soldier with the long hair could get it. Also his pilot was a BAN for leaving him.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Got the book for Christmas...just finished it two days ago.

Worst reader ever.

Looking forward to this, but a PG13 zombppcalypse? Lol ok.

 

[ruxxx]

Up in here for the matinee (3D).

For about 15 minutes it was just me in here.

I shall return...

*puts 3D frames on*

 

[stork]

WWZ - solid story, but it did drag on. it should have been 20-30 minutes shorter. the story arch felt legit though, and the ending was not gimmicky which I liked.

I give it 8/10, wish it had a little more action

 

[ruxxx]

^ I'm with you on the 8/10 rating.

Solid flick.

 

[nawghtyhare]

Saw it last night, the first hour is great lot of action, then it starts to drag on alittle bit. I could have waited until DVD.

Of course some **** was kinda

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

The whole theater was like WTF when the doctor shot himself in the head.

The camera pissed the **** outta me in the beginning the editing was too crazy it was hard to see ****, but you get used to it.

I would have cussed my wife out for calling me back

The lack of blood was ok, but the zombies just didn't do it for me. It was annoying that they purposely went out their way not to show blood, you see scenes were you expect something gory like him chopping the chicks hand off. You really didn't see how crazy the zombies looked until the end. Also this dude just injects a random does of some disease and then its all good later?

Yo the Israel soldier with the long hair could get it. Also his pilot was a BAN for leaving him.

i said the same thing to my girl about the phone thing. i woulda been heated. caught an 11;15 showing last night. it was a good movie wouldnt buy but watch if it came on tv had some crazy moments though. i enjoyed it. Now time to see monsters university with the kids later

 

[freeze]

was gonna see until i saw the pg-13 rating. i can wait. i hate soft zombie flicks.

 

[stick]

Probably gonna go see this tonight. Looks good, it's getting good reviews, and it was filmed in Philly .

 

[WASPS ANDD ASPS]

Havent seen the movie, but loved the book.

Will be awhile before i go see it cuz i spent all the money i saved on man of steel

 

[stick]

Movie was GREAT, must see imo. Not sure why you guys said it got slow in the middle. Sure it wasn't jam packed with action like the beginning, but I thought there was still alot of action throughout.

Side note: $16 for a 3D movie ticket here in Philly. :x :x :x :x

 

[ricerocket1]

gonna see it in a few hours. love the book, couldn't put it down. i know for a fact its a whole different story they are going to use in the movie but hey better than nothing

 

[adobecs4]

Went and saw it in 3D. I want my $16 back doggie. Felt like an extended version of I Am legend To me. The ending after the first 45 minutes or so I got bored.