Zombie movies have been all the rage ever since George Romero brought us "Night of the Living Dead." Even if they weren't called zombies then, the basic concept of a ragged band of survivors dealing with a virulent plague that raises the dead and causes them to feast on the living has stuck in popular consciousness. Actual zombie-outbreak survival plans are widespread, to the point of the CDC endorsing them as disaster-preparedness initiatives. The most-recent zombie film, "World War Z," was based on the book of the same name by Max Brooks, author of "The Zombie Survival Guide." The film had a troubled production and received varying levels of appreciation.
Whereas the novel focuses on an oral history of the zombie war via interviews with various survivors, the film takes more of an action-movie angle, with Brad Pitt as the star. The film is set during the Great Panic, the event in the novel when the zombies are starting to multiply and their presence is becoming widespread knowledge. Few, if any, of the events in the novel make an appearance in the film, so it can be considered a side-story to the original book. Audiences did enjoy the added suspense of the more present-tense form of storytelling in the film. After all, if the film were to focus on survivors and show a rebuilding world, the fact that humanity succeeded would be a foregone conclusion.
Audience reception to the film largely varied based on familiarity with the source material and ability to accept adaptation changes. The novel was by no means an action movie script, whereas the film had that feeling. One of the main differences in the two forms was the biology of the zombies: the originals were the slow, shambling type that audiences have known about since the Romero films. The "World War Z" film, however, made the zombies fast and able to run. In fact, the trailer shows a wave of running zombies tumbling over one another. The wave of zombies did an excellent job in many viewers' eyes at negating the idea that people can protect themselves by getting to a high place. If zombies can simply create a human wall of sorts, no structure or location would be safe, and that added even more to the fear that the zombies instilled. One slightly mitigating factor was that the zombies discriminated in their prey; the ill, injured, or otherwise infirm were not bitten because the virus controlling the zombies felt they would be unsuitable hosts.
The film of "World War Z" focused primarily on Brad Pitt's character, Gerry Lane, a former UN inspector who was attempting to find a cure for the zombie virus. Many audiences did not like the depiction of Brad Pitt's character as a family man, feeling that it detracted from the larger story of saving the world from zombies and disrupted the pacing of the story. At certain points, Gerry's life was endangered due to his family distracting him or drawing attention.
The scope of the film is wider than most zombie movies, taking place at various infested areas over the whole planet rather than in a single secluded area like a mall or a few buildings. Originally, the final act of the film was going to be a massive zombie-killing spree, but it was scrapped in favor of a chase through a lab to deal with finding a cure for the zombie virus. It is obvious that a sequel is planned, even if not officially stated, because the film ends with Lane finding a cure, but it's still a matter of developing a delivery method.
"World War Z" on the whole was well-received by audiences. Once they were able to get past the changes to the source material and deal with the erratic pacing of the film, it stood up as a respectable zombie film with a never-before-seen scope and the potential for sequels. It remains to be seen whether Brad Pitt and his co-stars would reprise their roles; the troubled production got to the point where Pitt and the director wouldn't even speak to one another. If a sequel were made, it would likely be under another director or would have to focus on new characters, perhaps with the previous characters being killed in a heroic sacrifice or some similar occurrence.
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