I loved the book, but haven't seen the movie yet. The thing about the book is, it's an oral history of the zombie war. There are no characters that run through the entire story, instead it is like a Ken Burns documentary collecting interviews with different people all around the world. When taken together it paints a vivid and sometimes-contradictory picture of the war, with lots of vignettes. The movie, on the other hand, appears to be a standard Hero's Journey kind of thing, with Brad Pitt jetting around saving the world. That's not necessarily bad, it's just not what the book was about.

Done both and got the tee shirt -no really, I have.

Both share only one thing alone and that is the title. As Ron ha already said the book would have made a fantastic two hour documentary with no lead role filled with small vignettes that told the story from start to finish. The good, the bad and all between could have been seen.

Sadly what we got was a bog standard Hollywood romp with a few big names to draw in the face fans and a vastly watered down story that took us here there and everywhere with very little zombie action. whole sections of the film would not have been amiss in 28 days later! I found a number of things both to like and dislike in it, sadly the latter outdid the former.

Had the film been called something totally removed from the much better ( in my opinion ) book it still would have grabbed an audience. I still would have liked and hated the same bits mind.

Overall I would give the book 8/10 and the film 6/10 ( only 3/10 if taken as a visualisation of the book )

Jim

I've not read the book, seen the film yesterday. Was entertaining but nothing original. Are the "Zombies/Infected" like that in the book?

Nope. Standard shuffle for Mr Brooks zed heads.

They where like smackheids to the chemists in the film then.

H but F. From what I've seen they look almost insect/rodentish in their movement. No swarming like that in book. The books one of my favourites, well worth a read. Whilst I've re-read quite a few books over the years WWZ was I think the first I finished and started again in the same day. If I don't spend me giro on smack i'll mibby go see it at w/end.

ha ha. Just rob some old biddy o her pension.

now now chaps, you are making us Brits look like trailer trash !!!

Jim

Well we are Scottish!

After seeing the movie, I thought it was pretty good. I tried the book a couple of times, but could not get into it, due to its strange, albeit different, way of telling a story.

 

I am not into journals. I want a hero to follow.

 

Like in the movie. But the movie needed more blazing action. It was one of the better zombie films, but could have been done way over the top in action to sell more tickets. It is doing well, but I don't think it will reach the ticket sales it needs to make a serious profit. It was very expensive to to reshoots and such.

 

I'd give it a 3 star out of 5.

 

Now, Pacific Rim looks like the blockbuster it will be.

Pacific Rim and Elysium are the only two movies I am actually looking forward to this summer.

Elysium looks good. Not too sure about Pacific Rim, got too much of a 70's Japanese vibe about it and not in a good way. After Earth was below average for a "Big Willy" film. Gallowwalkers on the other hand looks amazing.

Max is right there could have been a bit more oomph to WWZ. And Brad kept smiling at the weirdest times.

I've had an unread first edition of the novel sitting on my bookshelf, taunting me for the last few years. I just went to see the movie last night. It was okay, I guess, but there wasn't a whole lot in the way of character development, or really explaining where the zombies came from. I mean, they really seemed more intent on setting up a sequel or seven than actually telling a coherent story.

Yeah, Pacific Rim has 3D Imax all over it. Can't wait.

 

And Elysium is rumored to be the huge summer sleeper hit. Looks very interesting and cool. Liked the directors 1st movie. Solid and different sci-fi movie. 

Whilst I knew beforehand that the film bore no resemblance to the book, i'm still a little surprised by just how monumentally crap that was. Couple of nice panoramic shots of cities but that was about it for me. Certainly not worth the kidney I was charged to get in.

Yeah, I didn't walk out of WWZ with a WOW.

 

I did for Man of Steel, however.