Kowalski 1 Julianne Kowalski Mr.

Newman English 101: Rhetoric 16 October 2013 Epidemic Kills In our time of the 21st century, many crave the thrill of vampires, zombies, and werewolf themed series. Marc Forster directed World War Z, a zombie thriller, which focuses on just one character, Gerry Lane, played by Brad Pitt. Lane is a retired United Nations official who must leave his family to help the government figure out where this virus has come from and more importantly, how to stop this spreading virus. Critics, Rene Rodriguez and Michael Phillips agree on the use of the 200 million spent on the production of the movie and the predictable ending, but they both readily disagree on the great opening scenes. Both critics include the use of the 200 million dollars that was used to produce this thriller in the midst of their reviews. Rodriguez compares the Evil Dead to World War Z. The Evil Dead is very gory and World War Z was practically bloodless. Rodriguez makes it clear that with the use of the $200 million spent, Forster played things extra-safe to ensure that 12-yearolds were able to attend with their parents. For example, "In one scene, a character's hand gets chopped off, and the camera shies so quickly you can't even tell what's happened until a few scenes later." Phillips also agrees that his use of "careful" barely got him by with a PG-13 rating. They both agree with the use of 200 million dollars, Forster wanted to create a movie that attracted all audiences to make their profit.

Kowalski 2 Additionally, both reviewers decide if our world ends like World War Z, were going out with a whimper. Rodriguez and Phillips are aware that World War Z went into creation without an ending and it showed. Phillips includes World War Z went into production without and ending, and the rewrites and reshoots threw out much of the final third in favor of a new climax. Phillips thinks the climax satisfies the scenes that excludes mass destruction but turned it into zombie problem solving. Phillips even says the epilogue and attendant voiceover narration that caps it? It was pure desperation. Rodriguez changes his beliefs about Forster. Forster might have chickened out, more afraid of offending viewers with delicate sensibilities than earing its budget back. Rodriguez declares there are some good images captured during the movie, but there isnt a single good fright. Rodriguez ends his review by saying, The last 20 minutes are so annoyingly predictable that unintentional laughs start to creep in. Although they agree on the focuses above and also the opening scenes, both critics appeal the opening scenes to different movies. Rene Rodriguez's review of World War Z begins with a brief overview of different scenes from the movie; including the traffic jam in Philadelphia, the hordes of zombies jumping the Israeli wall, and the airplane scene when a zombie comes from the bathroom. After emphasizing the traffic jam, he says "Such scenes make director Marc Forster's attempt to adapt Max Brooks' unfilmable novel -- an oral history of mankind's war against the undead -- a fun scary blast." He feels that he Forster did a good job focusing on the story of Gerry (Brad Pitt) and his family, instead of cramming the book into a two hour film. Rodriguez compares World War Z to the Walking Dead and Steven Soderbegh's Contagion, only a lot more timid. Michael Phillips starts his review very similarly. Every thriller starts with a family that will initially be put at risk. He says "OK pass the OJ! Let's get on with the rest of our undead- plagued lives, shall we?" because he knows a couple of epidemic movies that were

Kowalski 3 released that started with an American family. Phillips feels that Forster "loosely focuses on Brook's novel, it takes only 10 or 12 seconds for a chomped human to join the undead hordes." Phillips considers that 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later already made that statement within their movies, and did it better than Forster. Rumors have spread about the zombie apocalypse for years and World War Z is a good example of to date tragedy that Americans are afraid of. Forster was able to find a way to make a usually R-rated genre PG-13 without totally moderating its force, and I believe he deserves credit for doing so. Phillips and Rodriguez both consider the 200 million used, but they agree that maybe more is less in this movie considering the predictable ending. Also, they consider the differences with the opening scenes, reminding them each of different films. Though the critics seemed to dislike the movie in sections, the people seemed to enjoy it because it was a good thriller, including the new era of zombies.

Kowalski 4 Works Cited Phillips, Michael. "World War Z PG-13." Chicago Tribune 19 June 2013: Web. Rodriguez, Rene. "'World War Z': Fast zombies, global chaos and a semi-entertaining mess." Miami Herald 20 June 2013: Web.