The screen junkies gang just released one of their hilarious "Honest Trailers", this one targeting the movie "World War Z". It's a really funny video, and like most of the ones they do, it pretty much nails the film's greatest weaknesses: It's nothing like the book, it's full of unlikely coincidences, Brad Pitt's Jerry is the ultimate "competent man", and most of the movie is a mad dash between set locations predicated on the flimsiest evidence. All of these are good points. Still, the movie wasn't that bad, was it? The "Honest Trailer" describes it as successful only because people expected it to be a total disaster based on its troubled production, but I really liked it and I know a lot of other people who did, too. I mean, the film grossed almost $540 million worldwide. That's got to count for something. They can't all be people giving it a pass because it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. I'd wager the majority of them are people who went in with an open mind and liked what they saw. It's true that the movie had little if nothing to do with the book, and that's a bit of a shame. Personally, I'm hoping someone will go back and film a new adaptation that's true to the source material. However, I've said it before and I'll say it again: You've got t0 be willing to consider a movie and the book that inspired it as being two separate takes on the same idea. I think that Stephen King was the first person I ever heard say that, and I agree with him completely. If you can put the source material out of our head for a minute, then you can look at "World War Z" and see it for what it is: An ambitious, big budget, action-horror film full of incredible action, awesome special effects, plenty of scares, and some very competent acting from Brad Pitt. Yeah, I know he's a "pretty boy" but that doesn't take away from the fact that he's good at what he does. I know it's hard to do, and to be honest, as a huge fan of the book, I have to say that I'm with you: This is not the "World War Z" film that I would have wanted. However, it could have been much worse, and I think we got an entertaining movie out of it. Sometimes you don't even get that. Yeah, it's not perfect, but really, are any of the film's faults any worse than what you'll find in any big Hollywood action flick? In the meantime, we've still got the book to re-read, and with any luck, someone will come along and make a more faithful adaptation in the coming years. It's not like Hollywood is afraid of remakes, right?
