World War Z ratings/spoilers

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by DarthTom, Jun 19, 2013.

  1. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Home Video release today. Blue-Ray copy comes with the Unrated cut of the movie on BD, the theatrical release on DVD and a Digital Copy. When I saw the movie in theaters it had a very "edited for TV feel." Like a lot of the action scenes and bloodier scenes weren't cut for time or for a softer rating but it actually felt like they were "there" but it was a TV-edit so they were removed. A sloppy edit, in other words.

    Largely the BD cut bares this out as the UR version is more intense with more violent scenes of Zombie-Ridding.

    A good movie I very much enjoyed.
     
  2. Evil Twin

    Evil Twin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^And yet it's still nowhere near as gory as The Walking Dead. I just got done watching it for the first time. Truly is teh sux compared to the book. Fast zombies that sound like f'ing alien creatures = not scary. The more traditional zombie scenario in the W.H.O. building was arguably the best part of the movie. All that being said however, I wouldn't mind a sequel. ;)
     
  3. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I liked the movie well enough but I agree TWD does the zombie thing (and gore) better. The stuff in the WHO building also was the best part of the movie.
     
  4. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    There is a television station where I am right now that only plays bootlegged movies...Seriously! I have tried to watch this movie twice now and fallen asleep shortly after the arrival at the W.H.O. station. Now I will have to find a way to stay awake.

    My problem with the movie is that it is really the same thing played out over and over again. Each major set piece feels like nothing more than a different level on a video game.

    The coolest part was the Zombies climbing all over each other just to get over the wall, but when they do it just becomes New York all over again.
     
  5. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

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    Just saw on DVD, fairly disappointed. Have read (and loved) the book, and am mid-way through a reread, and the movie doesn't even touch what the book had going on. Generic Zombie Movie X, and trades on the WWZ name to get attention.

    Disappointment.

    Just none of the epic scope we could have had, completely different tone, just blah.

    Only bits that were even recognizable were that a portion of Israel (vice the whole thing) was walled off (which i believe worked in the book, failed in the movie), and the "10th Man" plan for how Israel discovers the virus. And it both, North Korea does something odd (completely vanishes in the book, everyone pulls all their teeth in movie).

    Was hoping for more, I guess.

    There wasn't a WAR. Couple isolated (and repeated) action scenes, but no sense of long struggle. And they bailed out in what would have been about the 1/4 mark in the book, so they didn't even really get into how bad things would get, fighting back, turning it around, eventual conquest over the problem. Just mindless action a couple times, magic handwaving for why you won't get bitten, and 'we fought back' montage at the end. Of course, now everyone's infected with a fatal disease instead, but hey, no bites? How often do they need to try and cure the disease (not sure which one they picked), and then reinfect? See if that leaves people damaged or too weak to fight back, and of course does nothing against the billions of zombies already out there, just prevents most new cases...
     
  6. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    It wasn't clear that it had to be a "fatal" disease. At least that's not the impression I got. Just that it had to be "something." The guy in S. Korea apparently just had a gimped leg and apparently it was enough to protect him.
     
  7. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    I haven't read the book (Nor have I watched the movie yet), but, I was looking forward to this movie, way back when JMS wrote the script. Then, they decided to toss that script, because it was "Too close to the book, and not commercial enough". I kept thinking, with all the delays, the apparent watering down of the script, Production Budget over-runs, that this movie was going to be a complete disaster and bomb miserably. Apparently though, it made enough, that there is talk of a sequel. I wonder if it would've done as well if they had gone with JMS' script that was more true to the book, or if they made the right decision watering it down? Zombie movies, I don't believe, generally get anywhere near the budget this one had, because they don't get the kind of attendance needed to make a profit with a huge Budget like this.

    So, although Book fans were disappointed, I do wonder if the movie would've done even worse, if they had stuck closer to the book and used JMS' script? Anyone know much about JMS' script that would care to comment on that?
     
  8. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

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    I'd have to rewatch the mid-part of the WHO area, but pretty sure that's what was called out in the dialog, and then they identified a couple specific bugs by name, although didn't say which one he ended up using.

    Only ones i immediately remember were TB and H1N1. Best case, anything not immediately fatal is going to incapacitate you pretty quickly. Which was why they were locked away in the vaults to begin with...

    The gimpy leg part I don't get. Unless he had some sort of bad infection he wasn't admitting to? Physical damage isn't going to turn the zombies away, it would smell the same. They aren't taking pity on the guy because he's got a limp, he's got something wrong so the food smells tainted...
     
  9. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    In the ending "news dialog" there's something in there about a mutated meningitis strain, I'm guessing it'd be viral meningitis. But it all hearkens back to what I was saying this summer after the movie came out. What is "lethal enough"? The flu is potentially lethal, hell, a cold is under the right (although narrow) circumstances. And, yeah, not sure what the guy with the gimped leg was doing to turn away the zombies since Segen's amputated hand wasn't helping her any.
     
  10. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    As already mentioned, limping could be due to a bad infection. An infection that bad, could smell like "turned meat".

    Also, a limp could be early signs of Polio or MS or Muscular Dystrophy.
     
  11. Brolan

    Brolan Commodore Commodore

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    Saw it last night and was pretty disappointed. The super zombies were cartoonish in their actions, and the idea they have the medical diagnostic capabilities of the Mayo clinic is flat out laughable.

    I guess clinics just need a caged zombie at the door, if it wants to bite you there is nothing really wrong with you and you can go home.
     
  12. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

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    Think the WHO doctors specifically mentioned it should be a bacterial strain vice viral.

    Kinda leads towards the cure being worse than the disease, though. Bacterial Menengitis very quickly causes high fever, severe headaches, dizziness, confusion, and shortly leads to seizures, brain damage, and coma/death.

    In theory, it KINDA works for Gerry, as he took it quickly, walked out, and cured himself in minutes. In the sort of nonsense where you're airdropping it into remote areas, you're killing people faster than the zombies. And if you have to cure/reinfect yourself every day or two, you're going to run out immediately, and you'd never have enough to even start with.

    Viral version isn't quite as lethal, but it also burns itself out within a week, so you'd need constant boosters. And you're pretty out of it while infected, so you'd just have a bunch of sick people laying around, not an improvement. Same issues with supply.

    really needed a less short-term disease if you wanted to do this for real. Kind of a problem that we can't CURE it, but you need something more like AIDS, where you can live and function with it just fine, and it's not going to outright kill you. Would buy years to get the outbreak under control...
     
  13. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Yeah, but as you noted bacterial meningitis is not something you want to have, spreads quickly and is quickly lethal. That's why I went with viral meningitis (again there was mention of a "meningitis strain" over the ending montage) as it's more manageable but does fly in the face of the WHO doctors not thinking a viral strain would be sufficient. Though I'd argue they were speculating as much as Gerry was since we don't know what everyone else had that made them camouflaged.

    The guy in S. Korea we can only speculate on. He either simply had a tweaked leg, arthritis, MS or literally anything. All we know on him is that his leg was a symptom of whatever disease he had that made him undesirable to the zombies.

    The old man in Israel is pure speculation even more so he could have anything that made him undesirable.

    The kid in Israel, due to him being skinny and bald, likely had some form of cancer.

    I do think viruses are unlikely since we all have viruses in us, every virus we've ever gotten sick with in fact. Just that our bodies have learned to cope with them to keep them in check. Though maybe an active virus would be enough? One you're currently, actively, sick with? But, again, the problem with that is how much is "lethal enough"? The "common" seasonal flu kills 10s of 1000s of people a year, a cold can be deadly to a person with a weak immune system.

    We know that physical liability isn't enough since Segen's amputated hand didn't help her any. (This means the officer in Korea and the old man had something beyond physical injury.)

    Bacteria strikes me as unlikely as well since a walking corpse would be a bacteria farm.

    We know whatever Gerry infected himself with had a cure as we see him getting it at the end. (A vaccine for a virus wouldn't work after infection.)

    The whole idea just doesn't hold up very well after much though. I like the idea of it as it was "different enough" to be interesting it just doesn't hold up as it's not well explained. Perhaps in the sequel?

    Two things of note on it though, Gerry's suggestion seemed to be for it to be used for those fighting back but in the ending montage we see children and civilians given it. This may further suggest that whatever they settled on wasn't "that bad." Hell maybe just having it and built the immunity to it was enough? Also during the ending montage were told by a newscaster that the camouflage had been "largely" successful. The word use there suggests it's not 100% effective.

    Anyway, nitpicking aside I did like the movie as, well, I like Brad Pitt in almost anything. I do, however, strain to think of where Pitt's "oral fettish" came into play in this movie other than him drinking the [Pepsi] at the end.
     
  14. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I finally had some time to watch WWZ on blu-ray last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. I never saw it in theaters so I mossed the toned down version. The unrated cut I'm sure had more gore which a zombie movie needs imo so I'm glad I watched the unrated version. Who really wants a toned down zombie flick?

    Looking forward to the sequel
     
  15. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    The unrated version was a bit more gory than the theater version but not quite as much as you'd think. The biggest thing I can think of you can see more of what happens when Gerry kills the zombie with a crowbar in the CDC hallway and has trouble removing it.

    As noted above the TV series "The Walking Dead" still has more gore in it in the average episode than WWZ has in the unrated cut.
     
  16. Immolatus

    Immolatus Captain Captain

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    I noticed no one mentions the homeless drunk in the Newark scene. Zombies ran right past him as he was enjoying his thunderbird :)