Riot’s Movie Reviews: Army of the Dead
*Quick update: Hope everyone is continuing to stay safe/healthy out there. I’ve been juggling some persistent health issues on top of returning to work full-time for the last few weeks. It’s been hard to find any energy to do normal things around the house, much less finding the time to read or participate in anything creatively. Now that a couple weeks have passed, I am hoping to jump back into the classic literature reviews soon. For now, I thought it was easiest to do a movie review to get back into the swing of things. Thanks to everyone still reading and I hope you continue to enjoy the content.
Coming hot off the heels of his release of Justice League: The Snyder Cut, Zack Snyder has delivered a new(ish) take on the zombie movie universe. With a run time of two hours and twenty-eight minutes (something I should have expected from Snyder), Army of the Dead is a moderately paced, quite overtly graphic, and surprisingly emotional film that seesaws its way between aligning with typical zombie movie plot lines and inventive new takes on the long-running sensation. Many films have tried to reinvent the genre to make it unique. Some are hits (ex. Warm Bodies, Zombieland, or Shaun of the Dead) and some are misses (take your pick on any of the Resident Evils or World War Z). There are a multitude of other titles that could make either list which begs the question if the saturation of zombie flicks has finally peaked or not. So what does Army of the Dead bring to the table that other films haven’t? Turns out not that much, but it was quite the ride while it lasted.
The film opens up on two separate scenes. The first, a young couple inexplicably celebrating their Vegas marriage in the middle of a long desert highway and the second following a military caravan as it leaves the fabled Area 51. While two soldiers speculate on the contents of the payload they are escorting, the young bride “distracts” her new husband whilst driving down the highway. The predictable car crash ensues, killing the couple and leaving the army escort at the mercy of what turns out to be the patient zero of the story. As the newly zombified soldiers stand on a hillside overlooking the Vegas skyline, Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” launches the audience into an opening credits montage that shows the zombie apocalypse taking over Las Vegas. So begins the first bit of borrowed zombie movie plot lines. While effective, it’s not anything we haven’t seen before and the stuff we learn about the eventual main players of the story doesn’t end up being very consequential. The movie’s main protagonist Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), being one of the survivors of the earlier montage, is contacted by a wealthy Japanese Business man, Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sonada) to return to his Vegas casino and retrieve 200 million dollars that was left behind in the underground vault. Meanwhile, Scott’s estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), who volunteers at the survivor’s camp, is shown trying to convince a mother, who has been trapped in the camp quarantine, to not go into the walled-off Las Vegas. The woman wishes to scavenge some money from the city to buy her and her children’s way out of the camp. She eventually leaves anyways with another camp detainee, who is known to smuggle people into the city and therefore is aptly named “The Coyote” (Nora Arnezeder), and does not return. Scott puts together a rag-tag team of sorts (composed in part of other montage survivors because, why not?) and contacts his daughter to help get his team into the quarantined Las Vegas. After enlisting “The Coyote’s” help and picking up one more last minute police goon, the crew enters into the zombie wasteland.
Now as far as the synopsis goes, I’ll stop here and you might think “man, it seems like the movie barely just started but Kevin sure wrote a lot.” Well you’d be right with that assumption. One of the best/unique things about this film is also a bit of its Achilles’ heel. There is quite a bit of time spent on character development. Going further into the synopsis will venture into spoiler territory though and while the development is much better than many zombie films that have come before it, a lot of it becomes incredibly inconsequential. So what else makes this movie stand out from the pack? First, solid acting from actors/actresses that aren’t necessarily big names. Second, (although stomach churning) this film sets a whole new level for graphic deaths and blood in a zombie film, which is saying something. One in particular involves a zombified tiger, which after the trailer released, everyone was waiting to see how that one played out. The set designs were incredible and it was interesting to see a large amount of time being spent inside the casino, highlighting a different aspect of what that might look like post-apocalypse. (Ironically we got to see a taste of that last year, ugh) Finally, while it’s not necessarily a “new” idea, the film takes a different spin on the concept of a patient zero, turning it into more of an alpha of the pack situation more than anything else, hence the “army” in the title. Admittedly, the concept gets a little muddled along the way, paving the way for a gnarly, gory scene that was so asinine that it was almost good. (You’ll know it when you see it) My biggest complaint honestly just has to do with Snyder’s directing and his excessive overuse of bringing characters in and out of focus. It didn’t work for the Justice League scene with The Joker and it didn’t work here either. Also, they could have spread the love around for the prosthetics/costumes for the fast zombies. It was obvious that a lot of the chase scenes toward the end were just an open casting call for people in Under Armour gear to run around, play parkour, and jump on things.
At the end of the day, Army of the Dead delivered along the same lines most zombie films do. There’s one a-hole who betrays everyone, the humans make too many stupid choices, and the movie ends with the all-too-familiar “it’s not really over” schtick. Teasing the audience with different explanations/theories about what is happening in the film wasn’t the best tactic and it seemed like there might have been an alternate story line that was being developed but then got scrapped at the last second. (If you guys watch it, let me know if you thought “robot zombies” at one point) Because it spends a significant amount of time on conversations and character development, there are long lulls in the action and the film generally relies a lot more on the suspense than anything else. If you can ignore some of the glaring plot holes (particularly at the end, again you’ll know it when you see it) you will definitely enjoy this one. It is certainly not for the faint of heart and absolutely not for kids. If you generally partake in zombie movies, I have no doubt you’ll appreciate this one too.
Riot’s Rating: 8/10
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