Art of the Film World War Z Book Review

• 18th Jul 2013

Whilst interesting, I’m not sure I would consider this an ‘art of’ book as there’s very little artwork here. Most of the space has been taken up by the screenplay, which is reproduced in full on these pages. Whilst unique in that respect, I’m not sure that’s what fans of artwork want and therefore who is the audience for the book?

There are concept art images peppered throughout the book, but these are few and far between, and all in the same style. There are some fantastically detailed storyboard images, all done in pencil with a gorgeous sketchy quality, but really it’s not enough. If they wanted to reproduce the screenplay, it might have been an idea to reproduce the storyboard in detail alongside it, fans of the process can then see the jump between the words on the page and the visuals on screen.

Instead of that, the book has an inordinate number of stills from the film, and not even the most cinematic shots. It also contains some really dull double page spreads of sets, including one of an abandoned supermarket. Without any explanation of how the sets were created and to what purpose, the layout artist seems to have forgotten that we’re just looking at a bunch of empty shells. Most disappointing is the Zombie section at the end of the book with it’s scant pages on the make-up and CG effects – they could really have gone into the make-up and the inspiration for the look, all of the looks that were discarded before they settled on the look that used in the films.

Despite the gorgeously textured soft cover, this isn’t an ‘art of’ book in the traditional sense and there’s little for film fanatics in these pages. If you’re a fan of the film and want a copy of the screenplay, then it’s ideal. For me it’s dull and and flat and does neither the book or the film justice.

Maliha Basak