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Comment by tholman | Hacker News Reader

It's fiction, but I really enjoyed the chapters of World War Z [1] from the perspective of the nuclear submarine, and their "oh it seems like the world is ending, we have to wait this out" perspective. Really something that just get's you thinking, and I'm not sure if I feel safer, or more worried that people have been thinking about exactly that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z

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What a fantastic book. The movie was such a disappointment.

My guess is that the studio knew the adaptation of such book would make a mediocre movie, and decided to save the effort and go straight to mediocre movie instead.

I guess it doesn’t have a likeable protagonist per se and is mostly episodic. Maybe it would work better as a Tv show instead? Still I came away disappointed.

Yeah, as a TV show it would almost be an anthology series. Lots of little vignettes told in the same continuity with totally different casts.

If I had seen the movie before reading the book, I think I would have enjoyed both, maybe the problem was our high expectations.

I've always said it should have been handed to HBO to make a mini series out of it.

I didn't hate it. I just didn't like it that much. What most stuck with me was that it seemed like it required a string of unlikely events/coincidences without which you wouldn't have had a movie. So, yes, episodic in that sense.

Felt like it needed the starship troopers sort of treatment as a movie.

I found the movie to be far better.

What did you like about the movie? The book made the whole “surviving a zombie apocalypse” trope...I hesitate to say realistic, but at least more realistic than other treatments at the time. What I remember of the movie, a standArd blockbuster. Nothing wrong with that I just felt that it was much weaker than the book.

The unabridged audiobook is actually better than book, because of the amazing actors.

It amazes me that I like even though it requires a huge suspension of disbelief when the military is brought up.

Thanks for the tip. I just borrowed that from my library. The cast of voice actors is impressive

Make sure you get the later unabridged version since it has the full book and some really cool performances.

The book was so great, I have to read it again. The movie, so, well, it has nothing to do with the book, does it?

The book is also the only zombie fiction that really covers, somewhat realistically, the period between case zero and the break down of society. All other shows just show the early outbreak and then jump right into the post apocalyptic anarchy.

One good historical precedent to build this kind of fiction upon would be the Black Death in Europe. Good sources, real apocalyptic pandemic without counter measures. And yet society didn't completely disintegrate. World War Z is the only work I know of that comes close.

I like the film. It wasn't anything to do with the book except in name, that was disappointing. But taking the film as its own thing I thought it was good.

I think the book would be better as a series.

Me too. The scene on the passenger aircraft really stood out for me. Honestly don't understand the hate for the movie, as it allows the book to stand on its own.

The hate is the vocal minority (those of us that love the book)

Think of it this way, if the lord of the rings films had kept the idea of a powerful ring and orcs, but changed the pacing, plot and characters, most people who liked the books would be understandably pissed.

Sadly it seems to be an on going trend with cherished books.

First WWZ, then Artemis Fowl, and soon, Discworld's The Watch....

That's.... actually movies in general (IMHO).

To me the last 20 years has been the true Golden Age of Television because streaming has enabled the rise of serialized TV as the best medium to adapt long form written content.

Movies are for comics, short stories and literary works (because they tend to be incredibly short). TV is for novels.

Like Game of Thrones would never have worked as a movie (or even a series of movies). It's just such a shame it mysteriously ended after season 6.

Back in 2006 I actually had a conversation with someone after seeing Deadwood (fantastic show BTW) where I literally said that the GRRM books should be a TV show and it would probably take the likes of HBO to do it. IIRC HBO optioned the books in 2007.

I haven't read WWZ but yeah, the movie... was not great. Like 3 things happened.

Movies, miniseries, and long-running TV series are just all different. Even if it means trimming out subplots and side stories, a lot of the time I just want a story that plays out over a couple hours. (I'm also not sure the distinction you're drawing between "literary works" and novels. There are tons of novels that are "literature" and many have been made into very good films.)

I agree with your basic point that streaming has somewhat freed video from the confines of either having a ~2 hour film or a generally episodic TV series that runs for as long as people will continue to watch it. There have obviously been various exceptions but 2 hour film or Law and Order was pretty much the norm.

I’m looking forward to Apple’s upcoming TV versions of Dune by Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. These are such big stories that they can’t be squeezed into a movie without losing their allure.

What a fantastic book. The movie was such a disappointment.

The only let-down about WWZ was the lack of a convincing biology or physics model for the zombies. The Girl With All The Gifts does it better IMHO (only read the book, not seen the film).

Similar setup with the submarine in Terminator Salvation.

Too bad that movie was terrible, terrible, terrible. Worst movie in the franchise IMHO.

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