Pro: The Filmmakers Amending Their Mistakes
World War Z seriously seemed doomed when it was announced that Paramount hired Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard to rewrite the film's climactic act once it was determined what was originally shot wasn't any good. An expensive, seven-week reshoot schedule was set and all our fears about the product struggling were put to rest once we finally got to see the finale. Shifting the action from a battle in Russia to the interior of a W.H.O. building, the scaled-back, more dramatic third act is one of the most tense ends to a film I've seen in recent memory. In order to get supplies needed to develop a vaccine of sorts (Gerry discovers that people with terminal illnesses are invisible to the zombies, so his plan is to get samples of diseases and inject people with curable sicknesses in order for humanity to survive), Gerry and the doctors must get from one end of the building to the other as quietly as possible so they don't attract the attention of the infected (the zombies are stimulated by sound). Did it seem like something out of a video game level? Maybe. But I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was a wild ride the whole way through. It was a well-constructed sequence that felt like something out of a horror film. The revised third act also gives the filmmakers an opportunity to provide Gerry with a standout character moment that defines his personality. When a zombie is blocking the exit from the sample vault, Gerry decides to test his hypothesis on himself and injects a terminal virus in his veins (the stakes are raised even more when the doctors say certain ones Gerry has will kill him immediately). He writes a note reading "tell my family I love them" and shows it to a security camera where the doctors can see and rolls the dice. It was a heartfelt, emotional scene and I applaud the filmmakers for this. I was certainly not expecting a big-budget film like this to end in such a tender, touching fashion. Of course, Gerry lives and the humans develop the vaccine and start to fight back, but the biggest thing here is the fact that everyone involved with
World War Z knew they were wrong and admitted their mistake. This kind of honesty is rare in Hollywood. Paramount had already spent a lot of money making this movie before the third act rewrite was sanctioned and they very easily could have released the original movie and put out an inferior product. By remaking the third act, it raised the budget and they face an uphill climb to turn a profit, but at least Forster, Pitt, and the execs at Paramount can say they made a film they were proud of. It was a triumph of art over money. You don't see this stuff happen every day (and thankfully, not every blockbuster undergoes the same troubles
World War Z did), but it was nice to see them amend their mistakes and fix what was wrong. Let's just hope they learned their lesson and when
World War Z: Part Two is being written, they get it right the first time around.
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