The Syndicate

Here's my non-spoilery thoughts. Overall, I felt it was pretty solid but could have brought a little more of the tools and tactics in from the book.

World War Z made me write this because I was so impressed.

x-posted to facebook

SOAPBOX MOMENT:
Something hit a nerve with me tonight at my increasing dissatisfaction with Hollywood. I'm going to use my experience tonight as a springboard into this rallying cry.

Tonight [my husband, friend] and I saw World War Z. I'd been following the reviews on my RSS feed for weeks now, and was pleasantly surprised they were overwhelmingly positive.

It's proof Hollywood can make a decent Blockbuster film. It reads more like Contagion than Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, which should hearten you. The pacing is excellent, the characters (those that are developed) are interesting, the music is good (can't have zombie films without Muse, for more info, see my facebook note from 2008 or so stating such), and the cinematography is surprisingly astute.

The film is not gorier than it needs to be and doesn't play for cheap scares. One of my pet peeves with the horror genre is how laughs or funny moments will undercut the tension in some of the scariest scenes. This does not happen here, yet the film never takes itself too seriously as evidenced in the few moments of levity. I'd expect no less from Brad Pitt's Plan B Production Company, but I think it's difficult to reconcile in one's mind that WWZ isn't just a solid film for the zombie sub-genre, it's solid overall.

While certainly not for everyone, if you even remotely think you will like or enjoy it, you probably will. I'm not trying to express that WWZ is the Citizen Kane of Z-flicks, because it isn't and it's not without its flaws.

That said, we need to ensure Hollywood keeps making more high-caliber action/thriller films for us to enjoy during Blockbuster season. Tell these movie moguls to take their prequels/sequels/threequels/midquels/shriekquels/remakes/screamakes/reboots/gorenography and to shove it.

If people deserve the government they elect, then audiences deserve the media we're given. We have to stop settling for sludge or Hollywood will keep doling it out to us like farmyard critters to slurp from our industrial-sized troughs.

I still believe in the power of the pocketbook. Vote with your dollars. Go out there and see the films that deserve to be seen. Tell Hollywood that we're "mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore."