Hands Off My Franchise!

Or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Pop Culture

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I'm something of a zombie afficionado. I've seen most of the great zombie films - and quite a few of the not-so-great ones, as well. I have a bookshelf that has two full shelves of zombie literature. Without a doubt, the crown jewel - the piece de resistance, if you will - would have to be Max Brooks' sprawling epic, World War Z: The Oral History of the Zombie War. It's fantastic. More than a simple zombie book, it takes a global scope and really shines a light on the human condition - how do we react during periods of unrest? The conceit is that the novel doesn't really have a main character - the narrator (Brooks himself, ostensibly) travels the globe, interviewing various people and recording their memories of the great zombie war, some ten years after humanity had 'won'. The result is a series of vignettes that piece together a sprawling epic that is, at times chilling, believable (especially by genre standards) and utterly human. The book is as much about humanity as it is about zombies and it's written with incredibly-intelligent prose.

I've read it cover-to-cover five times and every time I read it, I love it all the more. Forget zombie novels, it's my favourite novel, period. I'm something of a Patient Zero in that I have lent my copy out to five different people now and each person who has read it has been similarly amazed (two even bought their own copies).

So, suffice it to say, I'm a bit of a zealot.

When word first came out in 2009 that Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio's production companies were engaged in a bidding war over the rights to Brooks' novel I was both excited and terrified. I was excited because the idea of a big-budget, globe-trotting zombie epic would be the be-all, end-all, 'I can die a happy man' sort of once-in-a-lifetime (or so I thought at the time) deal. Simultaneously, I was terrified, because there was the very real potential of Hollywood fucking up this perfect, beautiful little thing that I loved so dearly.

Keep in mind, this was somewhat ahead of the curve in terms of zombies in mainstream culture. The Walking Dead wouldn't premiere on AMC until the following August (at which point the genre officially exploded - now we have zombies on TV, zombies in music, zombies that fall in love, etc.).

Eventually, Brad Pitt won the bidding war and early reviews of the first-draft of the script (as written by J. Michael Straczynski) were unanimously positive.

I was excited.

Then, word came out that they brought in another writer to change the script in a bid to make it more 'filmable' (which, in my opinion, was bad news because the book as it was essentially was 'unfilmable' (at least not in one movie), so this had to mean they were "Hollywooding" it up a bit).

I was terrified.

Then, MORE re-writes - this time, from Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof (whom I loved from LOST and the Star Trek reboot - and at this point I hadn't yet experienced the disappointment that is Prometheus.)

I was excited.

Then came words of endless re-shoots, release delays and, finally, a trailer that showed ... *gasp* ... FAST zombies. ... Who are JUMPING. ... And creating a literal MOUNTAIN of writhing, CGI flesh that was trying to climb over the (extremely mild spoiler here) Israel defense perimeter. In short, the trailer made it appear that the film was everything that I feared it would become. A dumbed-down, over-simplified, Hollywood version of my favourite novel of all-time.

I was inconsolable. I ranted on Twitter. I cursed Brad Pitt's name. I even spat on my DVD copy of The Curious Life of Benjamin Button. (I don't actually own that movie)

Early reviews started sneaking out and they were, surprisingly, quite positive. I'm not going to say I was emboldened, but I began to take notice again. The reviews were quick to warn you that the connection to the source material was scant, at best, but the film was an enjoyable zombie epic. Given that I had decided to shut up and give Max Brooks my money (through residuals, anyway) the moment the movie deal was signed, my mind was set. I was *going* to see this movie.

I saw the film today and it was a perfectly serviceable - indeed, even enjoyable - zombie film. If it had been called 'Brad Pitt in "Global Zompocalypse"', I might have really loved it. But, alas, it was called World War Z, and I'm stuck here, two hours after the film, ranting on the internet about 'what might have been'.

But the purpose of this post isn't to post a ranty review on the many things they did wrong, or the numerous things they could have done differently to make the film more closely resemble the source material. What I'm trying to say here, in my own, convoluted way, is that geeks, as a general rule, are passionate people. We unabashedly *love* certain things - love talking about them, love sharing them with our friends, love debating-minutiae-until-we're-blue-in-the-face about them.

But we're also fiercely protective of these things we've come to love. I've long argued that the Hipster is an offshoot off the genus, 'Geekus Sapien'. Think about it - they love music and hideous clothes almost as much as we love zombies and sci-fi. They'll debate the merits of their favourite band with anyone who'll listen, ad nauseam. But what really connects us here is the need to brag about how long we've been 'into' things. Seriously, I know a few people who've actually said, "You think the TV show is good? I read Game of Thrones when I was in tenth grade!"

As for me? "I liked zombies before they were a thing. Now everybody's all about them. I bet they've never even read Wellington's Monster trilogy. Pfft."

Here's the thing, though - we're going to have to get used to this. Hollywood is going to stripmine our beloved franchises and turn them into bastardized, Hollywood versions of themselves as 'geek' is now bigger than ever. As ironic (see? hipster) as it sounds, all of a sudden we're cool. We run shit. We're a target market. The biggest show on TV is a drama about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. A-list stars are actually asking for roles in a new Star Wars film. Joss Whedon is the most sought-after director in Hollywood. Tyrion Lannister won an Emmy, for pete's sake (well deserved, too, I might add).

It's a brave new world, but we're going to have to get used to giving up control of these things that we hold so dear. It's scary, I know. I have a couple of friends who have the same sort of trepidation towards the new Ender's Game movie, starring Harrison Ford, that I had regarding World War Z. To them, I can only say, I feel your pain.

But the bottom line is this - even if Hollywood cocks it up, in no way should it change the way you felt in the first place. That comic book, series of novels, etc. is still just as incredible as it was the first time you read/watched/played it. Dig it out, devour it, savour it again, pass it off to a friend.

And then hit the internet and debate the hell out of how much better the book was than the movie.

What I'm Playing:The Last of Us on PS3

What I'm Reading:100 Bullets - vol. 13 (Azzarrello / Rizzo) (The end of a truly epic series. I can't wait)

In Which I Heap Untold Praise on The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games has done something truly remarkable with The Walking Dead: The Game. They took a choose-your-own adventure in a recognizable, post-apocalyptic society - an ingenious enough idea on its own - yet managed to turn it into something more. It furthers the idea of games as a storytelling medium and over the course of all five chapters of season 1 they manage to redefine the very genre of adventure gaming.

I've held off reviewing each individual episode as they came out because I felt the game was better-served to be judged on the whole rather than as the sum of its varying parts. This is something I stand by as the game has high points (episodes 2 and 5 are brilliant) and parts where the story bogs down a little bit (parts of episodes 3 and 4), but taken a single, overarching story you can really appreciate it that much more.

Episode 1 starts out simply enough - as Lee Everett, you find yourself in the back of a cop car, headed towards prison just outside of Atlanta as the world is very slowly going to Hell in a handbasket. For the first time in Walking Dead canon, this shows what the apocalypse was like in the early days (as previous instances had Rick waking up from his coma several weeks after the fall of society) so it's interesting to see things from a slightly different perspective this time around. Inevitably, of course, the car hits a walker, crashes and Lee escapes - thus starting his journey.

I'm not going to touch on any plot points because this is really something you should experience for yourself, but, as you would expect in a zombie game, you meet people who will form the basis of a survival group. You'll get along with some, you'll want to kill some, some you'll just wish would get eaten alive so you won't have to listen to them anymore (*cough* Ben *cough*). Episode 1 has a couple of cameos from existing Walking Dead characters (Hershel of 'Hershel's Farm' fame and everyone's favourite college-educated pizza-delivery guy, Glenn) but thankfully they are off-screen quick enough that they don't act as a distraction. I liken it to the developers saying, "Hey, look - our story is taking place in the same universe!" but they smartly allow it to become Lee's story. And that's important because, as Lee, you will mould the way your group of survivors react. Will they be forthright and honest? Will you backstab them? When the going gets tough, will you run or will you refuse to leave anyone behind? All of these choices - some of which appear to be rather inconsequential at the time you make them - serve to round out your playthrough. Couple this with several quick-time events that can dramatically change how scenes play out and the time-limit you're given to choose your dialoague options (gone are the days where you can just mindlessly ask every single question that comes up on your dialogue wheel until you find out what you need to know - The Walking Dead demands you pay stay on your toes and you can only say one thing. And the character you're speaking to *will remember*. So think long and hard before you call Lily a bitch.) and it's not surprising to find that this is a game that encourages multiple playthroughs. How many other adventure games can say that, right?

A game that's as heavily character driven as this one needs good voice acting to really enhance the story that the writers are trying to tell and thankfully The Walking Dead has some of the best voice acting I've heard in a while. Featuring several of the company's stable of voice actors (If you've played Back To The Future or Sam & Max chances are you'll recognize some of the voices), the work is uniformly excellent. What might be most shocking is 8-year old Clementine - a character who you will quickly learn serves as the emotional heart of the story - who is actually played by a 40-year old woman.

If a game can be judged on artistic merit by its ability to illicit emotional responses, the finale of The Walking Dead may well be Telltale's Mona Lisa. The finale is frantic yet emotional and heartfelt and as beautiful as something knee-deep in zombie gore could possibly be. The fact that it can manage to be that satisfying, however, is only because the previous acts grew and developed characters and a story that we were interested and invested in. It is truly a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Geek Score: 10 out of 10 bacon strips (Golden Bacon award!)

What I'm Playing: The Old Republic (free to play!) on PC, Dishonored on XBox 360

What I'm Reading: Sweet Tooth vol. 5 by Jeff Lemire (only one more trade after this one. *sniff*)