Don't judge a book by its film adaptation.

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2013)

Marc Forster's World War Z is an entertaining, if not flawed, adaptation of Max Brooks' brilliant novel of the same name.
I suppose that much of what I didn't like in the film was due to my own pre-conceptions of what to expect from the film; I expected political intrigue, a set of logical character choices and actions and the time to get to know the characters, but I got none of that. Instead the scenes jumped from one to another with little to no explanation or pacing, the politics were briefly touched on but then ignored and the characters were two dimensional at best. Hardly the WWZ I read about.
The most frustrating part of the film however was the lack of Max Brooks logic and storytelling. In Forster's WWZ the zombies turned after 10 seconds, or was it a few hours?... The zombies run fast, or do they go into stasis and then plod around?...
Another bugbear of mine was that Forster's story deviated so dramatically from Brooks' storyline that there was barely any point in keeping the same title... Those who haven't read the book should refrain from doing so before seeing the film, it will save you a lot of heartache and frustration.
Don't get me wrong, all of those frustrating little discrepancies aside WWZ is still an exciting action movie with excellent makeup, SFX and acting, and it certainly is worth a watch if you are at all interested in the genre. I am still hoping that someone decides to turn Brooks' WWZ into a miniseries, but until that day comes, Forster's WWZ will provide enough entertainment, blood and zombie gore to satisfy my post- apocalyptic fantasies.