As someone who grew up being absolutely obsessed with Romero's Holy Trilogy (later a saga, I guess. Land of the Dead was awesome, I don't care what anyone says), I am naturally inclined to like and enjoy The Walking Dead. When the comics first debuted in the early 2000s, I skimmed through them. At the time, Kirkman was just a guy to me riding the coat tails of the greater genius, George-y Boy. But I eventually grew to respect Robert for keeping the zombie dream alive (and Danny Boyle, whose 28 Days Later pretty much kickstarted the modern zombie craze that still hasn't ended yet.)
Then, when they announced The Walking Dead tv series, naturally, I was ecstatic. I can't help it, I love zombies. And it's been a hell of a ride these four seasons, with tonight's "No Sanctuary" beginning a fifth season. But I'm not just in it for the zombies, or killing them. I actually think zombie slaying is the weakest part of any zombie movie/game.
From when I was young, I ALWAYS understood that zombie movies weren't just about fighting off hordes of Returners. That was just a tertiary part of The Zombie Movie. The MEAT of these movies is all about the characters--what they go through, how living through a zombie apocalypse changes them.
I don't think people who watch The Walking Dead understand this. Everywhere I go on the internet, I see people criticizing The Walking Dead for being such a slow burn at times. The episodes with a lot of zombie killing action are given high reviews, while the episodes with characters talking and doing less exciting things are criticized for not having zombie killing action.
I think this is a byproduct of the modern zombie movie-making machine. Every zombie film you find on Netflix is about a character who eventually becomes a Badass Zombie Killing Machine, slaying the undead left and right with a variety of clever weaponry. It's like taking the formula for a successful slasher series sequel like Friday the 13th where the focus is not on the creeps or the scare factor but the cleverness of how Jason can kill his random stupid victim with a piece of cardboard and applying that sort of scenario to zombies, and while its fun and preposterous, zombie movies throughout their history have been anything but fun.
I just don't understand criticism of a work of fiction for focusing more on serious drama. Not like East Los High drama where it's just a bunch of "teenagers" talking behind each others backs, I'm talking real drama. The moral dilemma of whether or not a group of people needs to kill a character because they may or may not be a danger to their survival. That shit is real. By the way, if you want true horror, try to sit through an episode of East Los High. It's phenomenal how shows like that get made. Absolutely phenomenal. I actually haven't sat through an episode of East Los High, but I would never force anyone else to do so.
I think there is a huge rift developing between the outside world and their likes and opinions and me. I love the Star Wars movies. All six of them. And I like the Clone Wars television show that just recently ended. I hated Frozen. With a passion. Tangled was a much better Disney Princess movie AND experience. Yet everyone else just ate up that fucking movie. Seriously, it was a movie predicated on the fact that every character is dumb and makes dumb decisions but never suffers any serious consequences for their actions.
I am majorly digressing, so I apologize, but do you understand where I am coming from? How can a movie like Prometheus or Man of Steel get made and everyone trash it for being horrible and making absolutely no sense? What cut of these films did these people watch to jump to that conclusion? And why is it not okay for characters to explore deep issues in the middle of a zombie apocalypse without being criticized for being boring? Why is the world so backwards and whyamIsoalone idon'tunderstand.
To really wrap this mess of a post up with a nice pretty bow, I want to apologize and thank Robert Kirkman and the other contributors to the Walking Dead machine for ensuring the survival of zombies and respecting the legacy of that genre and George A. Romero. I may have misjudged you all those years ago when I was a young dumb teenager, and for that I am sorry. Keep doing what you're doing, carry on the legacy and make it more of your own.
No comments:
Post a Comment