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Tuesday 13 August 2013

Idea Of Hyperloop Transport:

California Billionaire Introduces Idea Of Hyperloop Transport:


California billionaire Elon Musk light his  vision of a futuristic "Hyperloop" transport system on Monday, proposing to build a solar-powered network of crash-proof capsules that would whisk people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour.

Chief Executive of Electric Car maker Tesla Motors Inc, MUSK described the system, which if successfully proposed than can revolutionize the inter city transport. But its major concern is about its safety and feasibility.

The Hyperloop, which Musk previously described as a cross between a Concorde, rail gun and air-hockey table, would cost an estimated $6 billion to build and construction would take 7 to 10 years.

Musk, who in the past has hinted at the hopes of building such a system, proposed the Hyperloop as an alternative to a $68 billion high-speed rail project that's a major priority of California Governor Jerry Brown. It would be safer, faster, less expensive and more convenient.As many as 28 passengers could ride in each pod and the system could even transport vehicles, according to the 57-page design plan.

But not everyone is convinced the project is a good idea.
Jim Powell, a co-inventor of the bullet train and director of Maglev 2000, which develops high-speed transport systems using magnetic levitation, said the system would be highly vulnerable to a terrorist attack or accident.
"The biggest overall problem is the idea of the low pressure tube from a terrorist standpoint." he said "All a terrorist driving along the highway has to do is pull over, toss a net of explosives at it, and then everyone in the tube dies."
Musk said that since the tube will be low- but not zero-pressure, standard air pumps could easily overcome an air leak. He also said the transport pods could handle variable air densities.
Musk may also have neglected to factor in a few costs. Powell said that since an extensive monitoring system would be needed to keep track of the tube's pressure, the cost of the project could double Musk's estimate, coming closer to $12 billion.

04:42 Posted by Unknown 0

Friday 9 August 2013

Review Of Chennai Express


Review Of Chennai Express:


Little did the 40-year-old Rahul know that wooing the beautiful Meenamma in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) style would land him up in such jeopardy. That was possibly the biggest mistake of his life. But, this mistake was for good, or in fact the best that was about to happen in his life! 

After ruling the hearts of the audience for decades as Rahul, Shahrukh is back in his trademark DDLJ romance in his latest release Chennai Express, but this time in Rohit Shetty 'ishtyle'. Chennai Express is a super masala entertainment and promises a great deal of laughter as expected from the typical Rohit Shetty style flicks.
It all starts when the 40-year-old bachelor Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) boards Chennai Express train that turns out to be a life changing decision for him. SRK as Rahul does a DDLJ again, when he tries hard to woo the South beauty Meenamma Lochni (Deepika Padukone).

Chennai Express will leave you whistling, laughing and applauding in the theatres. The flick is a thorough entertainer as long as you don't search for logic in it. Chennai Express makes an impressive start, especially the train scene, where Shahrukh Khan meets Deepika Padukone. The scene is simply hilarious!


Shahrukh Khan is splendid and delightful. Even at 47, Khan retains his old boyish charm onscreen. Though there's a bit of overacting in parts by SRK, on the whole, he's the soul of Chennai Express. 
Deepika Padukone is a complete stunner. Forget her breathtaking looks as a South chick, Dippy does an incredible act in the flick. She lets herself loose and surrenders to her character completely. Her performance is impressive.
Chennai Express is a light-hearted entertainer, that stands strong and tall on the shoulders of the super powerful 'Brand Shahrukh Khan'. It is colourful, fascinating, fun-filled and yes, of course... not a mindless slapstick. And remember, you are going to watch comedy, drama, lots of comic action and flying cars! In one word, this one is a total paisa vasool entertainer.



01:45 Posted by Unknown 0

Matosevic to quarter clash with Nadal


Matosevic to quarter clash with Nadal




Australian Marinko Matosevic has reached his first Masters Series quarter-final and booked a game with 12-times grand slam champion Rafael Nadal in the process.

Fourth seed Nadal, playing his first event in seven weeks since losing in the first round at Wimbledon to Belgian Steve Darcis, beat Polish 15th seed Jerzy Janowicz, a surprise semi-finalist at the All England Club, 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.

Matosevic needed two-and-a-half hours to defeat Frenchman Benoit Paire 7-6 (9-7) 6-7 (10-12) 6-3 at the Montreal Masters - but the reward was a big one.

The wildly inconsistent Paire produced 16 aces and a dozen double-faults while saving eight of 13 break points against Matosevic.

Nadal, a winner of seven titles already this year, was pleased with his victory.

"I had a very good victory today against a very difficult opponent," Nadal said.

"I did a few things well and there are a few things I need to improve a little bit more.

"In general, I'm pleased with the way I played."

The French Open champion has now won 45 matches since his return in February from a seven-month injury lay-off.

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray slumped to a shock 6-4 6-3 defeat to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.
Murray, who had won all five previous meetings with the colourful Gulbis, saw his 13-match winning streak ended.

Top seed Novak Djokovic dropped the opening set but recovered quickly to earn a 2-6 6-4 6-4 win over Denis Istomin in the late match to book a quarter-final against French seventh seed Richard Gasquet, who beat Japan's Kei Nishikori 1-6 6-3 6-3.

01:16 Posted by Unknown 0

Saturday 27 July 2013

Nokia Lumia 1020 review

Nokia Lumia 1020 review:

 

 There was no shortage of stunned faces in the audience when Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced the 808 PureView at Mobile World Congress 17 months ago. Who would have thought a Symbian-powered device would be a show-stealer -- in2012? After all, Elop had all but declared the platform dead one year before, and the idea of a smartphone with a 41-megapixel camera was an industry first. Questions lingered immediately after: how is that actually going to work on a phone? Why Symbian? And when would it show up on Windows Phone, Nokia's OS of choice?

A few months after the 808's release, we started seeing the first fruits of this effort in the Lumia 920, but there was work yet to be done. Finally, the time has come for the company to launch the 808's WP8 counterpart, the Lumia 1020, and it's launching on AT&T this Friday for $300 as a US exclusive.

Nokia’s Lumia 1020 is easily the company’s most important device to date—maybe one of the most important we’ll see all year. As other companies focus on upgrading familiar internal components—processor, RAM, etc.—Nokia instead played up to its biggest strength: mobile camera technology. The company has already proved itself worthy with its arguably under-appreciated Lumia lineup, but this is different.

On the surface, the Lumia 1020 isn’t all that different from previous Lumia devices such as AT&T’s 920, or Verizon’s 928. It has that familiar polycarbonate design—you either love it or hate it—with only the camera hump as the main physical differentiation. On the software side, too, things largely stay the same, though there’s some exclusive additions (for now) designed to really make that 41-megapixel camera soar.

Design




The Lumia 1020 comes in black and white, but there's something about the yellow hue that really pops. After all, if you want to attract attention with a 41-MP camera, you might as well have a phone that screams "fun." The black lens and chunky buttons that line the right side add a nice contrast, as does the AMOLED display that seems to float slightly above the rest of the sturdy polycarbonate chassis.

Measuring 5.1 x 2.8 x .41 inches and weighing 5.6 ounces, the Lumia 1020 isn't as light or thin as the aluminum Lumia 925 on T-Mobile (5.1 x 2.8 x .33 inches and 4.9 ounces), but it's certainly an improvement over last year's 6.5-ounce Lumia 920 for AT&T. In comparison, the HTC Onemeasures 5.4 x 2.7 x .37 inches and weighs 5.1 ounces

Display and audio




The 4.5-inch AMOLED PureMotion display on the Lumia 1020 stays true to Nokia's formula of offering bright and colorful images. Although the resolution is a somewhat modest 1280 x 768 pixels, everything from the lock screen and the Live Tile interface to our pictures looked vibrant.The bottom-mounted speaker on the Lumia 1020 gets fairly loud. The soaring vocals in Coldplay's "Yellow" sounded distinct from the guitars, but the overall sound wasn't as robust or balanced as the HTC One's dual speakers.


Software

The Lumia 1020 features the same dynamic and fun Windows Phone 8 software found on previous devices, such as the Lumia 925 and 928. We continue to appreciate the Live Tiles on the Start screen, which let you glance at information such as social updates and how many emails are waiting for you. It's also easy to resize tiles to customize the interface. Plus, you can pin anything to the Start screen, from your favorite sports team from the ESPN app (Yankees for us) to Spotify playlists.
However, Windows Phone 8 also continues to suffer from some weaknesses. For instance, you have to tap the top of the screen to see your battery meter and signal strength, and you can't easily toggle such settings as Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi or brightness as you can on most Android phones. And although you can press and hold the Back button to switch between apps in a card-based view, you can't close apps from this menu.

41-MP PureView camera

The 41-MP sensor inside the Lumia 1020 isn't a first for smartphones, having first appeared inside the Symbian-powered PureView 808 last year. But Nokia has streamlined its imaging system to fit inside a thinner body while layering powerful apps on top to give photo enthusiasts more control. The 1020 boasts Carl Zeiss optics with six physical lenses, and its sensor is capable of taking 38-MP and 5-MP images simultaneously (the latter designed for social sharing). If you shoot in 16:9 mode, the Lumia 1020 captures 34-MP and 5-MP shots at once.

You can also have some fun revisionist zoom history with photos in the other direction. If you zoom in on a subject before snapping a photo, you can then reframe the shot with the press of a button and zoom out. You may even decide to create a whole separate photo. No other smartphone can do this.
In Auto mode, the Lumia 1020 blew away such competing smartphones as the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One when we took a shot of two colleagues on our office rooftop. Not only did the image have more saturated colors, but we could easily make out fine details and folds in the shirts they were wearing.

Nokia Pro Camera app


The fun really starts when you use the Nokia Pro Camera app, which features all sorts of manual controls via a slick radial interface with multiple sliders. You can tweak everything from manual focus, ISO and shutter speed to white balance. Not sure what any of these things do? Nokia provides an in-depth tutorial that lets you try out a lot of the features to see how they'll affect your photos, as well as offers a glossary. Plus, you can preview many of the settings changes in real time when you're taking pictures.


Camera drawbacks


The autofocus is a little slow, too, so you could miss a moving subject. All of Nokia's competitors have faster cameras. Our advice is to use the physical camera button and press it halfway to focus before firing.
Another drawback is that the Lumia 1020 has multiple camera apps with different interfaces. For instance, the Pro Camera app has a dedicated on-screen shutter button and shortcuts to your gallery in the upper-left corner (one of the last shot you took, and the other for your entire camera roll). With the regular Camera app, you can press anywhere on the display to take a photo and swipe in from the left to access the camera roll. That's confusing.

Video


The Lumia 1020's video capabilities are quite impressive, allowing you to zoom in up to six times while still maintaining a quality image. And with Nokia Rich Recording, you'll enjoy stereo sound. 

Overall performance


Equipped with a 1.5-GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and 2GB of RAM, the Lumia 1020 offers the same snappy performance we've come to expect from Windows Phone.

On the WP Bench -- which measures CPU, memory, storage and GPU performance -- the Lumia 1020 scored 224, which is the exact same score as the Lumia 925 recorded and just a couple of ticks behind the Lumia 928's score of 228.
The Lumia 1020 did get warm at times, especially when the 4G LTE radio was active, but not disturbingly so.
Pros: Sharpest photos ever from a phone; Pro Camera app provides lots of creative control; Great flash; Bright and colorful display; Optional Camera Grip offers DSLR-like feel
Cons: Bulky backside; Noticeable lag on shutter and shot-to-shot time; Windows Phone still trails in apps and features; Pricey; Too many separate photo apps
The Verdict: The Nokia Lumia 1020 raises the bar for smartphone cameras with its 41-MP sensor and prosumer controls, but the price is somewhat steep. 


06:29 Posted by Unknown 0

‘The Wolverine’ movie review:

‘The Wolverine’ movie review:













A refreshing summer cocktail of action-movie staples, “The Wolverine” combines the bracingly adult flavor of everyone’s favorite mutant antihero — tortured, boozy X-Man Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine — with the fizzy effervescence of several mixers from the cabinet of Japanese genre cinema: noirish yakuza crime drama, samurai derring-do and ninja acrobatics. It goes down super smooth but packs a punch, erasing not only the memory of Marvel’s last foray into the Wolverine mythos, the 2009 stinker “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” but also washing away the more recent unpleasant aftertaste of this summer’s other Asian-set action thriller, “Pacific Rim.”

One might think that having superpowers or at least extraordinary abilities would make a person cheerful if not downright happy. But no, the stalwarts of the Marvel universe like Spider-Man and the Hulk are always moping around letting us know that nobody knows the trouble they've seen.
The grumbliest of these grumblers has always been Wolverine, the man with the adamantium claws. As played over and over again to great effect by Hugh Jackman, Wolverine can be counted on to be surliness personified, a man who would have us believe that the gifts of self-healing and berserker strength are a curse not a blessing.
After a brief prologue, the film opens on the titular hero (Hugh Jackman), who is now a virtually homeless alcoholic living in a squalid encampment in the woods, where he’s plagued by nightmares starring his late lady love, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Fans of the “X-Men” series of movies will recall that Logan was forced to kill Jean at the end of the final chapter of the “X-Men” trilogy, 2006’s “The Last Stand.”
In short order, however, our hero is on his way to Tokyo, escorted by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a magenta-haired Harajuku girl whose powers of persuasion are enhanced by her skill with a samurai sword. A mutant with the ability to foretell people’s deaths, she’s a great character, hinting at a soul as dark as Logan’s.
Yukio has been sent to retrieve Logan on behalf of her elderly patron, Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), who is dying.Yashida, it seems, wants to say more than goodbye and thank you to his old friend.(Logan was once a World War II prisoner outside Nagasaki, Japan, where he saved Yashida’s life after the atomic bomb was dropped)
Yashida, it seems, wants to say more than goodbye and thank you to his old friend. He has summoned Logan to take advantage of his healing powers, whether the world-weary mutant is ready to relinquish them or not.
Fun, of course, is subjective.
It may be a bit of a cliche, but Yashida’s family has both violent mob connections and a long history of association with ninjas, embodied by Harada (Will Yun Lee), a bodyguard who wields a bow and arrow like Legolas. When Yashida’s granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) is abducted by gunmen, Logan’s nihilistic instincts are overridden by his heroic ones and he becomes the young woman’s protector and lover.
One of the film’s great set pieces is a fight between Logan and a knife-carrying Japanese thug that’s staged atop a speeding bullet train carrying Mariko. The choreography is terrific.
Trust me, it’s all a lot less complicated than it sounds.
Where “The Wolverine” delivers isn’t in plot, but in its core dynamic, which places Logan in the familiar, if somewhat paternalistic, role of savior.It’s symbolism that’s driven home by all the bullet wounds that he sustains, and which no longer instantaneously heal, leaving bloody stigmata.

The film also miscalculates in its romance between Mariko and Logan. Okamoto, a former model making her film debut, looks lovely but nothing within hailing distance of chemistry between Jackman and her is visible on-screen.
Also unsatisfying is the key plot point that has Wolverine facing a mysterious diminution of his powers. The notion of the mutant becoming more human is intriguing in theory, but in practice it turns out not to be anything we want to see. If the Wolverine can't be the Wolverine, why are we putting up with all that grumbling?


05:52 Posted by Unknown 0

Friday 26 July 2013

Woman 'electrocuted' by iPhone in Australia

Woman 'electrocuted' by iPhone in Australia



MELBOURNE: A 20-year-old Australian woman has been hospitalised in Sydney after she got a shock from her iPhone, according to media reports.


The woman from Sydney's north was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in a stable condition, the spokeswoman of New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance was quoted as saying in reports.

It is not known if the phone was plugged in to a charger at the time, she said, adding that the paramedics had responded to a number of shocks from mobile phone chargers this year.

Inspector John Brotherhood said it only took a small shock to interfere with your heart.

"Basically, if the jolt moves you, if it takes your breath away or if it's at all a cause for concern, you need to get it checked out," he said.

The incident comes a week after technology giant Apple announced it will launch an investigation into claims that an iPhone electrocuted a Chinese flight attendant who was making a call while charging her iPhone.

NSW Ambulance attended 232 Triple Zero calls for electric shocks between January 1 and June 30 this year, reports said.
03:32 Posted by Unknown 0

Nokia Lumia 928 Reviews:

Nokia Lumia 928 Reviews:



 The Nokia Lumia 928 is a beautiful device with innards similar to its cousins (AT&T’s Nokia Lumia 920 and T-Mobile’s Nokia Lumia 925). It recently saw a price drop, and is available for the crazy low price of $49.99 on-contract at Verizon.

Hardware

The Lumia 928 deviates a bit from the design we’re used to seeing from Nokia. There’s a lot less of a “bloated” feel to the Lumia 928 compared to the Lumia 920, but there’s still a rounded back to help make it feel more comfortable in-hand.


The glossy, white polycarbonate body does a nice job masking fingerprints, dings, and other accidents, but we do miss the color options the AT&T variant has (the Lumia 928 only comes in black and white). There’s one thing we don’t miss much on the Lumia 928, and that’s the Lumia 920’s IPS LCD screen. The Lumia 928 has a 4.5-inch AMOLED display, so keep in mind that while the Lumia 928’s screen looks incredible indoors, it’s close to unreadable on a bright, sunny day.

In terms of specs, the Lumia 928 has the same DNA as the Lumia 920, with some changes sprinkled in to differentiate between the two. Both offer a dual core 1.5 GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 8.7-megapixel rear cameras, 4.5-inch screens,  and a 2000 mAh battery. The Lumia 928 adds a Xenon flash to its rear camera, and changes the IPS LCD to AMOLED.

Software



There’s not much here that’s different from the Lumia 920 in terms of Windows Phone 8’s software, but the software from the Verzion can be easily uninstalled if tis not your cup of tea.That’s a welcome change from a lot of Android devices, which often find themselves bogged down with carrier-imposed — and branded — apps. 

Windows Phone 8 is still the sleek, responsive OS it’s been since the Lumia 920 was released, it brings an air of customizability Windows Phone desperately needed, and it’s also much more convenient for a user to shrink an app they don’t use as often, while expanding the ones they want the most information from. It’s very easy to set up all your accounts on the Lumia 928.

Camera



The Lumia 928 camera has the same 8.7MP camera, Carl Zeiss lens, and PureView software as the Lumia 920, but a Xenon flash has been added to the 928. The Lumia 920’s low light performance is one of the best in terms of smartphones, and the Lumia 928 is no different.That Xenon flash is an interesting addition, but honestly, it doesn’t do much for you in broad daylight, and in low light situations, it actually gets in the way of great shots.

Video-wise, the Lumia 928 does an admirable job, filming at 1080p and offering a 720p option natively to save on space, something that’s rare in other smartphones currently without the help of third party apps. There’s some haloing around bright objects, especially if you’re using that Xenon flash to illuminate a dimly lit room, but overall, it’s a good bit of software. We really like how the Lumia 928 has “lenses” for you to download via the Marketplace, but they’re installed within the camera’s software menus, not outside of it, making them easily accessible without cluttering up your tiles.

Battery Life

You’ll get a good day’s worth of battery out of the Lumia 928’s 2000 mAh battery if you’re a light to medium smartphone user, meaning if you check your phone for texts and emails here and there while you’re at work on a wi-fi network, you’ll have no problems with battery life.


03:05 Posted by Unknown 0

Friday 19 July 2013

Researchers Take Carbon To a New Form :Graphene

Researchers Take Carbon To a New Form :Graphene


Researchers at Boston College and Nagoya University have synthesized another form of carbon unofficially dubbed "grossly wraped nanographenes." The research, which was published in the journal Nature Chemistry,has led to creating a material that is essentially defect in two dimensional hexagonal honeycomb of trigonal carbon atoms found in graphene. These defects consist of non-hexagonal rings that force distortions out of the two-dimensional structure. 

The grossly warped nanographene consists of 80 carbon atoms joined together in a network of 26 rings, with 30 hydrogen atoms on the outside rim. In contrast to graphene sheets, which typically have planar two-dimensional geometries, the new material juts out from a single plane because of the five 7-membered rings and one 5-membered ring embedded in the hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms.
Pushing its geometry out of planarity has altered the new material's physical, optical, and electronic properties vis-à-vis its carbon cousins.
“Our new grossly warped nanographene is dramatically more soluble than a planar nanographene of comparable size,” said Lawrence T. Scott, professor at Boston College and one of the principal authors of the research, in a press release.  “The two differ significantly in color, as well. Electrochemical measurements revealed that the planar and the warped nanographenes are equally easily oxidized, but the warped nanographene is more difficult to reduce.”
These are just the initial differentiating characteristics of this new form of carbon. If the near-decade-long history of graphene is any guide, we can expect new properties to be discovered on a regular basis. 

Graphene Optical Switches One Hundred Times Faster Than Current Devices


Researchers at the University of Bath in the U.K. are reporting measurements indicating that graphene could lead to optical switches that are nearly a hundred times faster than materials used in today’s current switches.
The research, which was published in the journal Physical Review Letters(“Carrier Lifetime in Exfoliated Few-Layer Graphene Determined from Intersubband Optical Transitions”), found that the response rate of an optical switch using graphene to be around 100 femtoseconds, which is about a hundred times faster than the few picoseconds measured in today’s devices.
“We’ve seen an ultrafast optical response rate, using few-layer graphene, which has exciting applications for the development of high speed optoelectronic components based on graphene,” said lead researcher Dr. Enrico Da Como in a press release. “This fast response is in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, where many applications in telecommunications, security, and also medicine are currently developing and affecting our society.”
In addition to photodetectors and optical switches, graphene is proving attractive for tunable notch filters, an area where IBM has made some interesting progress. Also, researchers have been able to exploit graphene’s wide spectral range for different kinds of tunable lasers that are used in optoelectronic systems.

01:07 Posted by Unknown 0

Thursday 18 July 2013

Indian-American teen invents device to charge mobile phone batteries in 20 seconds

Indian-American teen invents device to charge mobile phone batteries in 20 seconds



A super capacitor device could potentially recharge your phone's battery in about 20 seconds.

Eesha Khare, an Indian - American girl from Saratoga, California, has invented a new device that could be the solution to all recharging related troubles for our portable devices like mobile phones in the future. Known as a super-capacitor, it would enable devices to recharge and regain battery power in as less as 20 seconds.



According to Eesha’s project, ‘Design and synthesis of hydrogenated TiO2-polyaniline nanorods for flexible high-performance supercapacitors’, with the rapid growth of portable electronics, it has become necessary to develop efficient energy-storage technology. While batteries are used for storing energy, they suffer from long charging times and short life cycles. The project aimed to design and synthesise a supercapacitor with increased energy density while maintaining power density and long life cycle. Eesha specialises in using nanotechnology.

The device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries, according to media reports.
For developing the device, California-based Eesha has been named one of the three winners and has received $50,000 as cash prize at Intel Foundation’s Young Scientist Award recently held in Phoenix, the US. As of now the device has been tested on LED light. But, it can be used for mobile and car batteries and other portable electronic devices.

06:00 Posted by Unknown 0

Sunday 23 June 2013

Review Of World War Z


Review Of World War Z



Same as the hollywood has been filled with pandemics and zombies, here is another Mark Forster's WORLD WAR Z which is going to notch higher the obsession giving you epic scaled, fast paced zombie invasion movie that is extremely gripping and fully entertaining.



This movie has everything a zombie blockbuster can be expected to has from the origin of virus, after effects, destruction caused, investigation involved to solve the crises. Some moments Forster gave over than what was needed.



The film is impressive in its big set pieces. The initial panic on the streets of Philadelphia is thrilling, as is the fall of Jerusalem to the undead horde and an airborne sequence that might easily have been called Zombies On A Plane.
But the film is horrifyingly feeble when it comes to characterisation. All we know about Pitt’s Gerry is that he loves his family, but no one has given this hero any exceptional qualities. The same goes for the other characters: as uninteresting a lot as I’ve seen in a disaster movie.

World War Z had what might euphemistically be called a troubled history, with producer-star Pitt publicly at odds with Forster, who shows here once again that he is more confident with small-scale projects (such as Finding Neverland) than action adventures.

After negative reaction within the studio, the final 40 minutes were rewritten and reshot, at an unprecedented cost of £125  million. It’s hard to know where the money went. The climactic sequence inside a Welsh research laboratory looks about as lavish as the average episode of Doctor Who.  Pitt introduced the screening I attended and called the film ‘original’ and ‘genre-bending’. If only it were.

If you’ve read Max Brooks’s original book, published in 2006, you will know that Pitt’s character is a UN worker trying to piece together the truth from a variety of sources.

Disappointingly, the final product is much more conventional than the book. Brooks’s purpose was to satirise the bungling of government, the excesses of survivalism at all costs and the dangers of corporate power. He took a particularly cynical stance on George W. Bush’s ‘shock and awe’ tactics in Iraq; like Muslim extremists, his zombies are too obsessed with slaughter to be shocked or awed.

In the book, the zombie virus spreads from China via refugees and an illicit trade in human organs. Pakistan and Iran destroy each other in a nuclear dispute over border controls, while Cuba becomes the world’s most  thriving economy.
The people at Paramount evidently think all this political stuff is too difficult for a cinema audience. Maybe they’re also nervous about how it might go down in China, Pakistan and Iran.

So they’ve played safe, cut it all out and turned the story into a one-man triumph for an American UN operative blessed with movie-star looks.

World War Z isn’t terrible. Parts are impressive and exciting. But the incredibly long distance it falls short of its source material means it is a woefully wasted opportunity.

It has been estimated that the movie will have to gross £350 million merely to break even. Yet its lack of ingenuity and personality — all avoidable at the script stage — means it has virtually no chance of making that back.



Last year’s most under-performing blockbuster, John Carter, is said to have lost Disney more than £125  million and resulted in regime change in the studio. If I were a senior Paramount executive, I would be afraid. Very, very afraid. 




04:38 Posted by Unknown 0