Considering my intense aversion to gore, I have no idea how I came to love all things zombie. But I do. So of course I had to see World War Z when it came out this summer. And then after hearing how different (and how superior) the book was, I had to add it to my list for this year.
The stories you have heard are true- the movie bears absolutely no resemblance to the book. Okay maybe one resemblance- they both contain zombies.
World War Z, the novel, is narrated by an agent of the “United Nations Postwar Commission” ten years after the global war against the living dead known as World War Z. The narrator travels the globe interviewing survivors of various importance in many different countries, from China to Russia to Cuba and even to the International Space Station. Their stories combined create a global picture of the outbreak, the ensuing “Great Panic,” and then the war to take back the Earth.
I knew that this was the format, and I think it was an effective way to get a global sense of the story. My only complaint would be that the stories were perhaps too short. I had a hard time relating to/remembering any of the characters because as soon as I got into the story it was over.
While the book is in many ways like every other zombie story, it is obvious that Brooks put a lot of thought into creating a post-zombie world that was (and I use this term loosely) realistic. He really considered a lot of different angles of the apocalypse, such as the brash use of nuclear weapons, the ineffectiveness of modern weapons against this new kind of enemy, and the various ways different countries and different types of people would respond to their situations. A common “solution” in a zombie movie or book is often to get on a boat and flee to an island. Brooks addresses the complications of this solution in a way I’ve never seen done before.
I loved the unique global perspective of this book. One of my criticisms of The Walking Dead (which I am hesitant to criticize at all because it is excellent) is that I’m always dying to know what is going on in the rest of the world, to get the big picture of life-after-zombie. Where is the government, and why aren’t they fighting? What is going on in the rest of the world? Is anywhere still safe? Tiny groups of people like the main characters of the show can’t be the only survivors. World War Z addresses these questions very satisfactorily.
As for the movie, it was also very interesting in its own right. The images of the zombie attacks are chilling. I loved that the main character was a scientist and uses observation and smarts over muscle. I am not one to criticize a movie for straying from its book- a movie is a totally different medium and should be treated as its own work of art. However, I literally don’t know why this movie had the same name as the book. Here are some of the main differences:
1) The timing is different- the book takes place ten years after the outbreak while the movie is over within a week of the first infection. Which of course means that nothing that happens after this week (aka the main elements of the book) is even mentioned.
2) The zombies are different: the movie creates a very interesting kind of zombie that is super fast and strong and therefore even more terrifying. The book contains your typical slow moving, moaning undead.
3) The narrator in the movie is also the main character. The narrator in the book is present in the stories only as an interviewer and we don’t ever learn his back-story. I don’t think he has anything to do with Brad Pitt’s character in the movie.
4) I literally don’t think there is one character who appears in both the movie and the book. Correct me if I’m wrong.
5) The feel of the both are drastically different. The movie focuses more on the “Great Panic” time and how quickly things can get out of our control. The book focuses on how all the characters are haunted by what they saw and did during the war, but also how they managed to survive and keep hope alive.
Basically nothing but the titles are the same. However I thoroughly enjoyed both and would recommend both to any other zombie-lovers out there. I might recommend seeing the movie first so you can judge it more kindly.
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