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World War Z

World War Zed? World War Zee? I'm naturally inclined to go with the former but there's a fair reason to go with the latter, namely the book this film is based upon was written by an American, Max Brooks. Also Zee rhymes nicely with Three, suggesting this is the second sequel to 'The Great War' (aka WW1). Anyway, I digress. Onto the film itself.

In preparation for this screening, I read the aforementioned book and quite enjoyed it. I was also ready for the vast differences between the book and the film. These didn't really matter too much in the wash up. The changes from the book to the screen were mainly due to necessity, with one major exception - that being the decision to finger China as the source of the zombie plague being carefully switched to the less lucrative box-office zone of India. Cynical? Maybe, but no real damage to the film.

Other changes have created slightly more controversy. The major issue has been with the 'fast' zombies. This again is an obvious narrative tweak - slow (normal?) zombies would not have engendered as much panic in such a short time as required by the length of the film. The book itself was really just a collection of interviews - the action having taken place a few years earlier.

Another large, important change was the decision to have a lead character, played by Brad Pitt. There's no such character in the book (at the very least, he's off screen/page for the majority of the book) but a feature film of this magnitude needs a key player to hover around. Understandable.

Irrespective of these changes, I enjoyed World War Z. It's daft, bombastic and a lot of fun, in a serious, po-faced kind of way. I liked the pro-UN stance and the slight demonising of the CIA (David Morse's toothless nutter character is a little gem) and the film is littered with actors from various countries. Without giving too much away, the broad outline sees Pitt head off around the world in search of an answer to the cause of the plague (another narrative device that differs from the book) and some of the countries mentioned would make a strange football World Cup Z. In no particular order: Belarus, Israel, South and North Korea, Wales, India, the U.S. and South Africa. I fancy a zombie apocalypse before that particular combination of quarter-finalists.

Good night.....if you can.

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