Zombie Cliche Lookout: Calling Out
Zombies hunt – we assume – by more or less the same basic means as we do: sight, sound, and smell. So it stands to reason that, in order to avoid zombies as much as possible, we stay out of sight, keep quiet, and… well, I don’t know what we could do about the smell thing. I guess we could try to mask it.
At any rate, we know there are some very simple things we can do to be safer, but there always seems to be something that compels us to ignore those things. Case in point, trying to find a missing member of your party. We know we shouldn’t be calling out to them, but on the other hand, we don’t want to be bumbling around too long and give the zombies a chance to see us. So which is worse, potentially being heard, or potentially being seen?
About this Episode:
I’m a really big fan of the combination of orange and brown. I don’t know why, I just think it looks super cool. I also really like orange and dark gray, but we already used quite a bit of dark gray in the last room, so I opted for brown instead. The blue carpet works okay, although it might be a little too bright considering the rest of the color scheme.
It’s a pretty retro look, so I thought it fitting for Ted’s home. I figure he’s a guy who’s hip minus a decade or three.
Discussion Question: World War Z
So the buzz in the zombie world right now is the release of World War Z to the multiplexes. Reviews are mixed, but there are two big common themes that I’ve noticed:
- It’s nothing like the book
- It’s PG13, which sucks
In light of that, are you still interesting in seeing it?
I’m not. Not remotely. I’ll watch it when it hits DVD, but that’s about it.
kinda little less than i expected as far as the story goes
Do you mean the comic, or World War Z?
If you mean the comic, well, this is a setup for the shenanigans to come.
i was really expecting slower zombies
Yeah, when I saw the trailer for it I thought to myself, “Great, velociraptors are back from dinosaur age.”
Hah!
Yeah, slow zombies was just such a big part of the book (and The Zombie Survival Guide) that it’s completely bizarre they were changed for the movie.
To be honest, the book is always better than the movie and both are rarely the same thing. Second, a PG-13 zombie flick is like a T rated game for zombies instead of M. Last, I’m not interested in the movie, maybe if I watch it with a friend on DVD, but he’s gotta buy it or rent it since I’m not exactly willing to see it.
I think there are films that are better than the book they are based on. The Godfather is always my go-to example here. The original book is pulpy trash with a lot of absolutely bizarre subplots that go nowhere. The film is one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of cinema.
The Godfather was a zombie movie?
(read your post again. 😉 )
Oh good lord. I’ll fix that.
Not fair, being the only one that can do that…
I saw WWZ, just last night in fact, because the Zombros see ALL the zombie movies, no matter how awful.
I’d be a liar if i said i didn’t enjoy it. But it wasn’t what i wanted. The production team made a conscious decision to change the nature of zombies (in ways i can’t explain without spoilers). While i respect the idea, it bothered me with this film. Being WORLD WAR Z, from a man who literally wrote the book on zombie behavior/characteristics, I was shocked how radically different they chose to go.
As far as movie/book adaptations, obviously WWZ’s mockumentry style is not easy to transfer to a ‘blockbuster’. I can understand why they made it a narrative. Those changes i can forgive. But the Zombie changes i couldn’t.
That said, if you can accept going in that this is Brook’s WWZ in name only, and get past that, you will have a fairly enjoyable movie experience. Just try really super hard not to think about ants when you see zombies. Oh, wait…poop. My bad.
My main hangup with the movie is the changes to the zombies (and that’s why I’m also waiting for it to come to Redbox/Netflix/Amazon Streaming/etc.) Max Brooks was very specific in the books about the behavior of his zeds; by changing that, they changed the entire world he built up. It’s like the live action Resident Evil movies – they changed so much that they could call it literally anything else and it wouldn’t be any more or less relevant to the source material.
If the makers of WWZ had just kept to the intricately detailed rules of his world and just told a different story, that’d be okay. But calling it WWZ and then changing everything that made the book (and by extension The Zombie Survival Guide) popular is not only lying about what kind of movie you have but also betraying the fans of the books. It’d be like if Peter Jackson used the steampunk Dwarves and green-skinned Orcs from World of Warcraft in The Hobbit movies; it would have completely changed the nature of the story, and not necessarily for the better.
I don’t mind them changing zombie behavior in movies, but the behavior was pretty fundamental to the story of the novel here, that the whole thing just looks ridiculous to me.
It’s puzzling to me that they would even attempt to make this into a movie. The way the book is written, it’s obviously best suited to be a miniseries.
Imagine if they did World War Z in the style of Band of Brothers. That’d be incredible.
You’ve got my vote on that one Dave!
An episode focusing on each story would work really well.
Reports are already coming out reporting screenplays for the sequel. Really? Budget + Star power = Money Pitt (see what I did there…huh?)
I’m not surprised in the least here.
I’m curious, without spoiling anything, does the film end on a big cliffhanger?
No
They could end it right where they left it
Not so much a cliff as a natural harbour 😀
It’s not secret that I hated Max Brooks’s zombie “survival guide”. I found nothing remotely useful or even entertaining about it. To me it read like it was written by someone that got his survival information from bad movies, talk about circular reasoning. It was so bad that it turned me off from even touching the book.
Without reading the book, there is no impetus to watch another bad Hollyweird interpretation of a bad novel.
Pass. I’d rather spend that money on something useful, like putting it toward a new set of sights for one of mt pistols, or something similar.
It’s definitely not for everyone, although I should say the World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide are two very different books. I don’t love ZSG, but I think WWZ is the cat’s ass.
As far as the Guide appearing to take survival advise right from bad movies, I couldn’t agree more. I’m still puzzled if that was the intent or not. The book is usually filed under “humor” after all.
I don’t know if my “favorite” (read: least favorite) part of the book is where he recommends a .22 rifle for killing zombies, or the part where he recommends demolishing your own stairs to trap yourself on the second floor of a building to keep the zombies out.
“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”
-George S. Patton
I’d have to go with demolishing the stairs. That’s just idiotic on a number of levels. A .22 could conceivably kill zombies if you were close/accurate enough, although there are countless better options out there.
A .22 is a great tool. They are relatively quiet, fair to good for harvesting small game (but hunting in a survival situation is an incredible waste of time and resources- another discussion for another time, perhaps), and really shine for training. They are not good, or even mediocre, in a defensive situation.
Better than a handful or rocks in a standoff situation, although in a melee the rock might cause more damage.
Re: hunting in a survival situation goes
Is it a waste of time because the level of expenditure outstrips the food you get out of it considering the probability of getting skunked?
Yeah, you only have so many hours in a day. Think about how civilization really progressed after mankind abandoned the hunter/gatherer lifestyle. Going back to it is a serious regression. In my estimation, the best way to gather game is by trapping it. That way you have other time to mend fences, tend the garden, keep watch for MZB’s, catch up on sleep, barter with the neighbors, whatever.
Also consider that about 90% of the tyros’ emergency “preps” include “goin’ up to the hills and huntin'”.
Yeah, you and everybody else, pal. All the deer will be so spooked on the first day that few will be shooting anything but each other.
That makes a lot of sense.
Oddly enough, I’ve been on a bit of a “dawn of civilization” kick lately, so this dovetails interests quite well for me.
Haha, skunked…hunting…no one else found that punny?
It’s actually an old expression for coming back from hunting or fishing empty-handed.
I’ve not seen it yet, I will, but I’m not hoping for big things.
Lets be honest, it was never going to have anything to do with the book, it was just a way to get an extra paying audience.
Well said Mark. Got to love Hollywood, right?
hhhhhhmmm I guess so! I had the same annoyance with the ‘new’ dawn of the dead (Which is my favourite z movie of all time). Just because its zombie movie in a mall does not mean its a Dawn of the Dead remake.
I guess we should be happy there is another big budget zombie movie around.
Yeah, too bad, because I loves me some good zombie movies, or even mediocre zombie movies, as long as it gets me thinking about preparedness.
Sadly (or fortunately?) I’ve not read the book , so I am unble to compare I disliked the movie. It’s reminiscent of “2012,” you have relentless action for the sake of action, and constant shifting from brief blurry scene to blurry scene. Character wise, you really don’t care for most of the cast. You essentially hang on for the roller coaster ride and transiently wonder what kind of resolution the movie comes up with, which trully is no surprise. The Zeds themselves reminded me of the computerized extras from “The mummy” films. Pop corn for the brain, best scene as a matinee on a slow afternoon.
I agree and thats why I refuse to read books and see the movies. You can probably only name a couple of book that transferred over to film correctly (But) Books are read and understood completely different in each persons mind. Only character in the movie worth caring about is the soldier/kid.
I think Ted is so getting it on. Gotta get some even if the dead are walking. lol
Oh please no. I get enough of that crap browsing the Brikwars forums.
Don’t worry. I’m just joking. =)
But you never know.
o.O
Bow-chikka-wow-wow!
Hey Dave…..love your comic , but i have one question. Where could i get a mp5 like that? i live in Europe…..soo not through Brickarms 😛
Thanks!
Try http://www.minifigforlife.com/theprostore/main.php?P=cat&C=2&T=Brickarms
They’re a BrickArms reseller in the UK.