Can Max Brooks resell the film rights given the book went unused

Rating: 6/10 (18 November 2014)

Imagine Max Brooks, who wrote the book by the same name and which was the supposed source material for this big budget popcorn film, sitting down at the premiere and wondering if he wandered into the wrong screening. Some film adaptations stray from the book, this one used nothing more than the title. However, out of sheer financial power, the resulting film comes across as a fast-paced, slickly produced action-adventure movie. The badly-coiffed (was he growing out his hair for a future role while filming) plays generic good-guy: smart, paternal, intrepid and, as always, good-looking. His globe-trotting would have exhausted James Bond as he searches for a way to quell a zombie (and is there a more stupid concept?) outbreak. Violating George Romero's prime directive, director Marc Forster's zombies in this particular outbreak run and are pretty scary when provoked. However, when not in attack mode the actors forced to play them look distractedly unsure what they are supposed to be doing - some stand still while others bang their heads against parts of the set and others nash their teeth in what is supposed to be intimidating but is mostly just dopey. Maybe give them some clearer direction Marc? Speaking of zombie rules, apparently helicopters don't count as noise as we see in Fort Israel but singing (and everything else) does (if a zombie crashes into something does that send all the others running?) Of course, you can complain ad nauseam about the plot and logic but you have to give it up for the expensive looking and engaging set pieces most of them involving plans or helicopters. Although the movie decidedly decelerates and loses its big bucks sheen in the final act, the non-stop, edge-to-edge excitement entertains up to that point. In short, the cliché' is to impress people by saying the book was better, if anyone tells you that here you know they didn't read it given the film bears not even a passing resemblance.