There is so much more destruction involved in this film than appears merely on screen. Amidst the drama in budgeting, rewrites of the script, and complete reshoot of the ending it was shocking to actually see this film finally make it to theaters. One would think with a multi-million hit selling book series and a producing/starring combination of Brad Pitt that this film would have ample backing to be an instant hit. Well friends, think again.
To say that this film was not entertaining would be lying. Visually it was a great looking zombie flick, as it should be with a $200 million dollar budget. The real issues lay with the story line that was allegedly taken from Max Brooks best selling book from 2006. I say allegedly because the script was not taken from the book even though it bears it’s title. I will never understand why companies do this. I get using the name to grab a market, however, with a budget like this film they could have easy created an original title. Instead of taking multiple first person accounts of the infection of the earth that takes place a decade after the incident it puts viewers in the here and now of the occurrence which completely shuns the idea of the book. The film follows Pitt as an ex secret agent investigator for the UN. When the zombie apocalypse hits Pitt is with his family and has no other option than to take his job back with the UN to save them. Through all of the rigamortis inflicting the earth of course theres room for a bit of geo-political thrilling as well. A huge chunk of this films positive affliction lay in the traveling to different countries. There is a scene that takes place in Jerusalem in which a wall is constructed around the city to keep the dead out. Even though this scene was filmed in Malta it was recreated exactly as the city would look. This scene was authentic looking all the way down that the costumes of extras which were flown in from Jerusalem itself. This feat did cost an astronomical amount of money but, leaving no stone unturned seemed to be Pitt’s forte for this film. There was a twist toward the ending that you wouldn’t have expected watching the film. A series of strange occurrences reveals that the infected only the healthy and that if one infects themselves with a terminal disease then they are rendered invisible to the walking dead. The film did turn out alright. I wasn’t blown away by how amazing it was. The CGI was great, but that has nothing to do with the story line. If every film relied on CGI alone there would be no use in live action at all in a film. This aside the amount of drama that went into this film almost completely set up it’s demise. The film was originally allotted a budget of under $150 million. However with a change of heart and creative momentum they decided to film a completely new ending that would cost an additional $70 million dollars to recreate. The original ending is somewhat featured in the film. It should have been a 12 minute long battle of anarchy and uprising against zombies in Russia, which would have been epic. Instead they decided to go with a watered down family reunited ending which has been done and targeted pansies. I don’t understand, if you’re going to create a film that has epic action throughout then why give a fairytale ending? WHY? Needless to say Paramount was pissed and was instantly counting out a sequel. Then the movie was released and did alright in box offices which has lead to speaks of a sequel almost immediately after box office releases. I think the saving grace of this film was that it was stationed around the world thus procuring a world wide audience and not relying on all of it’s ticket purchases residing in the United States. That and it’s a zombie film, everyone loves zombies…. and I do mean everyone. This with a new look added to zombies making them a fast paced hoard of evil living dead and a twist of a cure lead to a decently original story line that hasn’t really been seen before. I’m interested in seeing if they break even with the ridiculous amount of money that was spent on it’s creation.