George Romero who??? Darabont the new KING of zombies

[DEAD BEAT]

When was a quarantined city mentioned in TWD? well Bass i could be blowing my wad a bit early but i believe thats why they only mention Atlanta in the early promos! As i said not sure if thats where thats headed but, if it is you owe me a beer! lol

[Gryphon]

well Bass i could be blowing my wad a bit early Hate it when that happens.

[Trin]

Once again it was not stolen from 28 Days Later.... Jesus can't people friggin' read. As stated this was taken from a different film way before the comic was made, which was before 28 Days later was made. I maintain that it stole the 28 Days Later start from 28 Days Later.... it stole it from the future using advanced time travel.

[AcesandEights]

I maintain that it stole the 28 Days Later start from 28 Days Later.... it stole it from the future using advanced time travel. I like your gumption, Trin

[Mitchified]

I maintain that it stole the 28 Days Later start from 28 Days Later.... it stole it from the future using advanced time travel. So what you're saying is that Biff also brought back a copy of 28 Days Later when he took that sports almanac to his past self?

[Trin]

So what you're saying is that Biff also brought back a copy of 28 Days Later when he took that sports almanac to his past self? He also brought back a copy of Dawn '04 which GAR used as his template for Dawn '78. It's true. And the legendary "original script for Day?" It was Contagium. Yeah. Fact is stranger than fiction.

[MoonSylver]

He also brought back a copy of Dawn '04 which GAR used as his template for Dawn '78. It's true. And the legendary "original script for Day?" It was Contagium. Yeah. Fact is stranger than fiction. Dude. You're making me ill.

[krakenslayer]

Finally got around to watching the first episode. I'm not going to wade through 13 pages of discussion so I'm just going to drop in with my opinion, whatever that's worth. It was... pretty decent. Lots of action, some reasonably effective emotional hooks, good effects, great production values, slow zombies and loosely Romero-esque zombie rules. However, I have a few moderate gripes with it. First of all, the biggest disappointment was the lack of originality. Seriously, there were only a couple of scenes that I hadn't already seen played out in another horror movie. It wasn't Mattei-level plagiarism, but it was a little uninspiring, like the writers (of the comic, I'm guessing) were just smashing movies together and seeing which parts stuck to the others. Meh. Secondly, the main character is among the most uninteresting, straight-laced, bland, dry-bread male leads I have seen in a TV show since Jack Shepherd opened his eyes in the jungle. Only here there is no John Locke or Sawyer to balance him out, not yet anyway. I liked the older black guy with the kid, he seemed to have some real depth and I cared about them, and it was genuinely upsetting when he was getting ready to put a bullet in his undead wife. On the other hand, I honestly couldn't care less if whitey (whatever his name was) finds his wife and kid. There was that other cop at the camp too, but so far he seems like basically Cop #1 with a slightly different haircut. Finally, and this is a gripe that I have with some of Romero's recent offerings too: the zombies are not represented as threatening enough. In fact, they pose almost no threat until the very end of the episode. For the best emotional and visceral impact, I've always said you need to hit hard, early: get the zombies in there in their droves, kicking ass, or at the very least, making people fight like hell just to stay alive. Then the audience has a chance to be scared of them before the humans can turn the tables, and it makes it more exciting when they finally do begin to successfully fight back. If, within a few seconds of seeing our first zombie, it has been effortlessly exterminated, you've just slashed the possible tension level. Overall, I did enjoy it, but not that much more than your average HPotD Fiction Section fanfic. That's what it felt like actually; like a half-decent fanfic with a good budget, nothing more, nothing less. I actually surprised at this, but I still like Survival better. While it shares most of the same flaws and doesn't have anything approaching TWD's budget, it was quirkier and had more character, I think.

[ProfessorChaos]

I actually surprised at this, but I still like Survival better. holy fuck...never, ever, ever expected to see that opinion... what took you so long to see TWD? we've been going on for weeks about it...seen any of the other ones, or plan to anytime this year?

[krakenslayer]

holy fuck...never, ever, ever expected to see that opinion... what took you so long to see TWD? we've been going on for weeks about it...seen any of the other ones, or plan to anytime this year? I had a lot of fun with Survival, despite its obvious faults. I just didn't have as much fun with this; it was more "realistic", but lacked flavour and at no point was I surprised by anything that happened. TWD, at least in its first episode, has nothing unexpected, no unique spin on anything, it's just plain vanilla, trope-recycling, paint-by-numbers zombie entertainment. It does nothing to subvert the viewers' expectations, instead it just plays up to their expectations. But sadly I think that's what a lot of fans have been crying out for: they have spent so much time imagining their own zombie world that they can't handle new ideas or offbeat tones or anything that contradicts their entrenched worldview, so the only thing they can now enjoy is a show that offers nothing new whatsoever. It took me so long to get around to seeing TWD because I don't have a standalone TV and generally I don't follow TV shows (excluding Lost, X Files and Doctor Who, two of which are now over and the other one I can watch on iPlayer). I ended up having to watch it on StageVu. I'll probably wait until the box set comes out to rent before watching the rest.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Well, as a lifelong zombie fan (well pretty much lifelong) New and Improved zombies isn't what is going to really make me happy... someone actually making a good movie or show is what will make me happy. TWD does just that, and does it very well might i add. I know some fans want some new kind of twist and angle, but when Romero tried it with Big Daddy it backfired miserably.... when Danny Boyle and Zack Snyder went with track star zombies... the community had a snit fit. ROTLD introduced un-kill-able, talking zombies and some Romero purists had a holy shit fit with that as well. Any INdie zombie movie called COLIN that follows everything from a zombies perspective was new and inventive, but because it is indie people won't even give it a shot. I must say, and I don't mean this to be an ass but most zombie fans, myself included are mythology hypocrites. We are, we say we're not, but we are, and honestly when something new is brought into the fold we criticize the hell out of it because most of the time it is handled so poorly. I am shocked Kraken is defending Survival.... and scorning TWD. I respect his opinion even though I 100% disagree with him on it. However, he is entitled to his opinion. Just out of curiosity what new stuff do you want to see?

[MoonSylver]

TWD, at least in its first episode, has nothing unexpected, no unique spin on anything, it's just plain vanilla, trope-recycling, paint-by-numbers zombie entertainment. It does nothing to subvert the viewers' expectations, instead it just plays up to their expectations. Well, as a lifelong zombie fan (well pretty much lifelong) New and Improved zombies isn't what is going to really make me happy... someone actually making a good movie or show is what will make me happy. TWD does just that, and does it very well might i add. ^ This. I don't need to see something new done WITH the genre, just something well done WITHIN the genre AS IT EXSISTS. I've said it before, but I think it bears repeating, the genre is the canvas, it's what you paint on it that matters. I don't need somebody to paint on a wall instead of a canvas just for the sake of doing something new, because canvas has been used before. Characters, situations, stories. These are what matter. Kirkman himself said that he wanted TWD to be "a zombie movie that never ended." Where you got to "see what happened next". And THAT is what's groundbreaking here. Instead of, for example, seeing Peter & Fran fly away in the helicopter & going "I wonder what happend next?", now you get to find out.

[krakenslayer]

Well, as a lifelong zombie fan (well pretty much lifelong) New and Improved zombies isn't what is going to really make me happy... someone actually making a good movie or show is what will make me happy. TWD does just that, and does it very well might i add. ^ This. I don't need to see something new done WITH the genre, just something well done WITHIN the genre AS IT EXSISTS. I've said it before, but I think it bears repeating, the genre is the canvas, it's what you paint on it that matters. I don't need somebody to paint on a wall instead of a canvas just for the sake of doing something new, because canvas has been used before. Characters, situations, stories. These are what matter. Kirkman himself said that he wanted TWD to be "a zombie movie that never ended." Where you got to "see what happened next". And THAT is what's groundbreaking here. Instead of, for example, seeing Peter & Fran fly away in the helicopter & going "I wonder what happend next?", now you get to find out. There's a little misunderstanding here, I am not talking about the lack of New and Improved Zombies, or really anything "canvas breaking". The lack of originality and new ideas has nothing to do with the zombies themselves, which I thought were absolutely fine, and everything to do with the stock characters and situations that made up most of the pilot's running time.

[MoonSylver]

There's a little misunderstanding here, I am not talking about the lack of New and Improved Zombies, or really anything "canvas breaking". The lack of originality and new ideas has nothing to do with the zombies themselves, which I thought were absolutely fine, and everything to do with the stock characters and situations that made up most of the pilot's running time. Hurm. Well, that one I can't even debate, because I just don't see it, so... Maybe it's because I'm coming from the comic on this, but I don't see them as "stock" characters or situations at all. And even if they were, keep in mind that since it's a TV SERIES, you're going to have a certain amount of "set up" at the get go. Where you're going to see the evolution is over a long arc. It's a a long haul format. I've got to admit, I'm really baffeled. If we've seen this all before, where? If it's all be done before, by who? Why have we all been clamoring for something like this if it already exsists in abundance? Outside of GAR's original 3 there are VERY few examples that I can think of that focus on the characters, the story, character development, & approach the genre itself in serious & respectful manor. Not trying to be contentious, but I'm quite puzzled...

[krakenslayer]

I've got to admit, I'm really baffeled. If we've seen this all before, where? If it's all be done before, by who? Why have we all been clamoring for something like this if it already exsists in abundance? Outside of GAR's original 3 there are VERY few examples that I can think of that focus on the characters, the story, character development, & approach the genre itself in serious & respectful manor. Not trying to be contentious, but I'm quite puzzled... Most of what makes up the central focus of TWD, is just considered background detail in pretty much every other urban-set zombie movie I've seen. It's people fighting zombies and sometimes hiding from them - that's the canvas, but here it's like there is only that blank canvas. Since Dawn, and to a lesser extent since Night, Romero has always painted his stories on top of that canvas. Sometimes some people haven't liked those paintings, sometimes they've found those paintings distracting, because they'd rather stare at the canvas itself. They don't want any moral ambiguity or interesting observations, they just want the fantasy of people trying to survive in an undead world, without such distractions. Now they have it. But to me, it's boring, like eating unbuttered bread. I've not seen the follow-up episodes yet, so I can't really comment too much on character, but with the exception of the black family, there doesn't seem to be a lot of interesting character stuff going on in the first episode either. The guy wants to find his wife and son? What an utterly predictable and generic motivation. Sure, that's what everyone would do, and that's why I don't find it interesting. He's not given much of a personality, even his friends rib him about what a boring, poor conversationalist he is. There's no depth, no dark side peeking through, no humour or pathos, he's just a bland authority-type that I really don't care about.