Giant Freakin Robot

While World War Z wasn’t the most effective zombie movie of 2013, it’s opening action sequence was definitely worth the price of admission. The film went from quiet to chaotic in one scene featuring the terrifying zombie outbreak in Philadelphia. It’s just that after that scene, the film really loses steam and its gumption. In the above VFX video, we see how the filmmakers and visual effects artists pulled off a number of the film’s action scenes.

World War Z‘s first action sequence takes place in Philadelphia, but it was actually shot in Glasgow, Scotland. According to CBM, Cinesite VFX supervisor Matt Johnson and VFX photographer Aviv Yaron took a large array of photos of buildings around the Pennsylvania city to digitally match them with the Glasgow setting. The effects looked really believable and go to show how well CGI can be used when blended with practical effects.

The summer movie season is finally winding to a close, but Paramount is making one last play for the contents of your pocketbook by announcing special double-feature showings of Star Trek Into Darkness and World War Z this week, and this week only. The price of one ticket will get you into both movies at participating AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, and other theater chains, good through this Thursday, September 5.

You can check to see if the double-feature is showing anywhere in your area at Paramount’s Ultimate Double Feature website. It is definitely a limited engagement, but if you’re in a major city chances are it’s probably available near you. (For reference, I’m in the Dallas area and it’s showing at one theater here.) The deal applies to 3D and 2D versions of the movies, depending on the theater.

While both movies have their passionate fans and detractors, Star Trek Into Darkness and World War Z are definitely both flicks that benefit from being seen on the big screen. These are movies that traffic in spectacle, and spectacle just isn’t nearly as spectacular when it’s unfolding on the screen of your laptop, or even a decent-sized TV. Hell, even if you only want to see one of the two, it’s still a decent deal in this age of skyrocketing ticket prices. But if you get caught theater-hopping after you watch the one you like, remember to carry some extra cash to bribe the usher.

Next to J.J. Abrams and Michael Bay, he’s one of the most polarizing names in showbusiness right now. Over the past decade, Damon Lindelof’s fingerprints have been on some of the most high-profile genre projects out there. Lost. Prometheus. Star Trek Into Darkness. World War Z. Love him or hate him — just like Abrams — he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In a sprawling new interview, Lindelof is candid not just about the challenges of penning new additions to such iconic fictional worlds as Trek and Alien, but about the diminishing returns of navigating a studio system that demands ever-escalating odds for its summer blockbusters.

Speaking to Vulture, Lindelof bemoans a Hollywood screenwriting process that insists on continually ramping up both the stakes and the action, resulting in what has been referred to this past summer movie season as “apocalypse fatigue.” How many times can you watch the world saved or destroyed before you start craving a story that’s just about people? Hell, Steven Spielberg himself recently predicted that Hollywood’s ever-bigger, ever-more-expensive movies were headed for an “implosion.” The box office returns of flicks such as The Lone Ranger, White House Down, and R.I.P.D. show it’s happening as we speak.

Brad Pitt will probably never fall beyond my second favorite actor of all time, should he ever drop down to number two. Note that I don’t think he’s the second greatest actor ever, but I consider him to be in the top 10 percent, and part of that is a proven track record for quality flicks, with some missteps more obvious than others. Quality notwithstanding, World War Z started off as the biggest film of Pitt’s career, with a bloated budget estimated at $220 million, and it will now end up the most financially successful film of his career, as it has now passed the $500 million mark worldwide. And while Giant Freakin’ Robot isn’t taking personal responsibility for this, we say with tongue firmly in cheek that it is the only film of his that we’ve covered extensively on this website. We like to think we’d have helped 12 Monkeys as well.

The obvious inflated elephant in the room is that ticket prices have obviously gone up, and though it had only a limited run in IMAX theaters, it still had the 3D upsale going for it.

But the other elephant making this a really uncomfortable room is that no one originally thought this movie was going to make its budget back, much less more than double it. With all the negative pre-release buzz regarding the troubled production and obvious changes from the source material, expectations were pretty grim, and yet it has become the biggest genre hit in a year full of them.

A few months ago, World War Z surprised the film industry with a very strong box office performance. The Brad Pitt-produced zombie movie grossed well over $488 million worldwide, with a special limited one-week IMAX engagement currently in full swing. World War Z is a hit, with a sequel and a possible trilogy in the works. Needless to say, when World War Z is released on home video, it is expected to be a bestseller, which will add nicely to the zombie movie’s growing profitability for Paramount Pictures. Now there’s another reason for WWZ fans to pick up the movie on Blu-ray next month: an unrated version of the film.

One of the biggest surprises of the summer was how well World War Z performed at the box office. Since its release this past June, the zombie movie took in $473.4 million worldwide with $193 million of that coming from domestic theaters. Before its release, many box office analysts and movie pundits believed that World War Z would die a horrible death because of negative buzz surrounding the film’s rocky production. Brad Pitt and director Marc Forster pulled it off with a script re-write from Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard and a late scheduled seven weeks of re-shoots. Paramount Pictures wants to capitalize on the film’s success, so the movie studio is planning to re-release World War Z in IMAX theaters for a special limited one-week engagement.

According to Deadline, this Friday August 2nd, World War Z will invade IMAX theaters across the country in a special re-release. Paramount Pictures digitally re-mastered World War Z in the IMAX format to play in selected IMAX theaters. If you were a fan of the film, it would probably be a good idea to watch the film again in IMAX before the week is over. Once World War Z is released on home video with a Blu-ray/DVD release, there won’t be another opportunity to watch the zombie movie again on the big screen.