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How sad is this?

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

How could anyone think it was a good idea to turn this piece of crap story into a movie is beyond my understanding. It was brilliantly acted and directed, no comment there. But the story!!!??? If you boil it down to a couple of sentences, the antagonist was a scientist, atheist and black. Everything the "salt of the earth" people fear and hate. Did anyone even consider this angle? Congratulations on making a fine racist, movie. You also managed to depict non-believers as immoral. And add a reason to dislike educated people. Wow!

A beautiful young woman (Survivor #1) lives alone in a magical valley that has survived a nuclear holocaust. She is a domestic goddess, as well as being hot.A research scientist (Survivor #2) stumbles into the valley and she nurses him back to health after he dives in a radioactive pool. Love begins to blossom, but he resists it, saying it will change everything, and they must take their time. He also confesses that he may have shot her little brother who was dying of radiation. Her passion is not killed by this, however.Another survivor (#3)- who is hotter than Survivor #2 (well it is Chris Pine) - oh, and not black either, like #2 - turns up, and helps him build a water wheel to provide electricity for the woman's refrigerator so she can survive the next winter. They have to break down the small chapel her father built. She is pleased about the fridge.In the meantime she and Survivor man #3 cannot resist having sex. Survivor #2 says it's ok, in spite of his love. We're set up for fireworks.Up to now, ZfZ has been pretty good; maybe a little slow, but so was Manon Des Sources, of which this is a little reminiscent.SPOILER HERE: The ending is that Survivor #2 kills Survivor #3, and tells #1 that #3 just walked off. #1 and #2 resume their life together, awkwardly.WHAT? If she had just fallen down a hole so that Survivor #2's murder of Survivor #3 had been futile, it would have been satisfying. Or she had developed radiation poisoning. Or become pregnant. Or anything. Instead, Nothing. What a let-down. But an enjoyable ride.

Even if this movie is seen as an allegory, or a modern Bible story, it is hard to accept a post-apocalyptic landscape in which no horror or tragedy is ever shown. Instead, nuclear apocalypse is a plot device used to isolate three characters in a love triangle-- a rather extreme device.A young woman (Margot Robbie in a fine performance) lives on a farm in a secluded valley that somehow escaped the nuclear holocaust. She is joined by two men who managed to survive because they were both underground when it happened. The first to arrive is John (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an engineer wearing complex hazmat gear. Later on, Caleb (Chris Pine) arrives, though he skulks around stealing eggs before he's discovered. For all they know, they are the last three people on Earth, people whose survival is very much in question. Their secluded farm, like the Garden of Eden, is an illogical phenomenon that only makes sense as fiction. That's fine, as long as there's a reason to dispense with rationality in the interests of a message, or at least entertainment. I'm not sure that "Z for Zachariah" manages that, because it is diverting but enigmatic, and ultimately unsatisfying. Themes of religion and rebuilding are introduced, but not explored. Alcohol is introduced a few times, only to confuse motivations of characters we barely understand in the first place. The movie is careless about all the characters, in fact-- especially the fourth one, a dog named Faro. He is the girl's constant companion on the farm at first. Then the men arrive, the plot begins, and the movie drops the dog without a word of explanation. (Perhaps Caleb ate him? Hot dog and eggs?)It is classified as sci-fi on IMDb and other places, but use of the word "radioactive" doesn't qualify a movie as science fiction, and I saw nothing else that looked like science, unless you count an engineer building a water-wheel. Really, it's a chick flick that's set in a minimally-realized future. It's not an ordinary chick flick, in that there is no girl talk, but the movie's subject is not survival or the future, it's human emotions under stress-- love, loneliness, jealousy.If you agree that emotions are what will matter most to the last three people on earth after a nuclear holocaust, then this movie may be for you.NB: I haven't read the book, which I gather is superior to the film. But a movie has to stand on its own merits, so the original source material is ultimately irrelevant. As Tom Wolfe said when asked about the film version of Bonfire of the Vanities, "I retained the right to cash the check."

A Post Apocalyptic Mood Piece. A Little Film with Little on its Mind about Exactly What Determined the Fate of the World that Left Planet Earth with a Radioactive Patina. Well, not All of Earth.There seems to be a Garden Patch in a Valley that is "Immune" or somehow "Blessed" with Protection. A Rebuilding "Starting Over" Place, just in case, Humanity is Worth Saving.The Science vs Religion Debate, or "Point of View", is Immediately Front and Center as Margot Robbie Plays a Young Adult that was Raised as a Preacher's Daughter (and it took) that Plays the Church Organ and Defends "God's House" and "God's Way" with a Soft Spoken Spellbinding Character and Performance.Chiwetel Ejiofor is also Soft Spoken but His Words and Deeds are more Earthy and based on Scientific Training and Education. He is Obviously more "Worldly" than the Rural Virgin Girl, but the Two Work Well Together and make for a Productive and Healthy Couple.Enter Chris Pine, also a Young Adult who Exudes Manly Charms that Robbie's Ann Finds Irresistible. That's the Sci-Fi making that Giant Sucking Sound as it is Replaced with Soap.Overall, the Movie is Well Acted from the Trio and it Looks Great. Based on a Popular Teen Book from the Early 1970's by Robert C. O'Brian but "Liberties" have been Taken.It's a Slow Burn, Talky Affair with an Ambiguous Ending and a Calm, Subtle Approach to a Devastating Development that Reduced Earth's Population to Near Extinction.Recommended for those that can Appreciate its Laid-Back Tone and Rather Shallow Sermonizing about Life, Love, Spirit, and Survival.