4. Departure From The Source
I write this at the risk of sounding like a precious fanboy but I
have read the book three times and it
is in my list of favourites without a shadow of a doubt. That said, I'm also a Stephen King fan and still believe Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining was actually better than the book. I don't resist departure from the source, provided I can see some sort of artistic reasoning for said departure. But where's the artistic reasoning in turning an Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse, set years after it initially happened, into something that more closely resembles a cross between I Am Legend and 2005's War of the Worlds? It looks like a total hack job if you ask me, changed not for reasons of artistic merit but simply to make it easier to write, shoot and ultimately to sell to a mainstream audience. In its defense, I'm not entirely sure World War Z would ever make a great movie adaptation. I do however think it'd make a fantastic TV series, with each episode featuring a new "source" for journalist Max Brooks to interview, learning their story through a series of flashbacks. But what do I know, I'm just a blogger.