Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’ Review: An Original and Creative Rejuvenation of the Zombie Genre
“Army of the Dead” from director Zack Snyder released this Friday on Netflix and in select theaters nationwide. But how does this zombie flick stand out higher amongst others of its kind and bring new life into zombie horror?
This film follows a team of mercenaries (played by an ensemble cast including Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Matthias Sweighofer, Tig Notaro, Raul Castillo, and more) who are hired by a mysterious wealthy businessman (played by Hiroyuki Sanada) to pull off a dangerous heist in zombie-occupied Las Vegas. Their objective is to retrieve $200 million from a safe beneath a casino in exchange for a cut of $50 million to split.
Zack Snyder previously immersed himself in the zombie genre with his directorial debut film “Dawn of the Dead,” a 2004 reboot of the 1978 George Romero classic. The film was widely regarded as a critical and commercial success, as well as a fan-favorite. The question remains: is Snyder’s second outing in the zombie genre another success?
To start off with, the film has a stellar cast where everyone seems perfectly fit into their role and comfortable in their skin. In a true team effort, no one slacks in this film and everyone gives it their A-game to play these characters perfectly. While none of the writing here is set to win any Oscars, and the characters are all developed to varying degrees, the film still gives us the sense that we know each of these characters, who they are and what makes them unique, even with limited setup and screen time.
The absolute standout character of this film was Sweighofer’s Dieter. Sweighofer’s entire performance is quirky, zany, and just the right degree of hilarious to always lighten up the mood whenever he is onscreen, especially in his dialogue. For a character that is so out-of-place in a zombie apocalyptic scenario, the way his character is written and performed is perfect to the vibe of the whole film.
Dave Bautista also continues to show that he can be a high-quality actor, as well as an action star, and reigns supreme atop the WWE-turned-actors. Once again, while nothing about the characters and their writing is award-winning, Bautista’s performance as Scott Ward shows the right amount of professionalism and emotional depth necessary for a movie such as this.
But of course, this does not limit how great every other performance was in this film. No one felt out-of-place or beneath any of the others. Similarly, their team dynamic brings so many zany and quirky characters together in an odd way that works out so well for everyone else. For a zombie horror action movie, this film takes its time to set up a real story with real characters and real twists, which immediately puts this above most in the genre.
The entire film is very creative, interesting, and original with a story created by Zack Snyder himself. Snyder takes the time in his film to develop the zombie lore in a way that most zombie movies are severely lacking. It presents an intriguing and unique concept of how zombies operate, straying away from the stereotypical lethargic, shuffling mobs (although these do play a part in the film) and showcasing a new type of zombie referred to as “alphas,” as well as even a zombie tiger.
These alphas are unlike anything seen in mainstream zombie film where they are primitive, yet strategic, savage, yet structured, and have an entire zombie society with even their own monarchical system of government. Even the zombie king, nicknamed “Zeus,” proves to be a brutal and frightening antagonist for our main characters to face, written in such a way to resemble even a human villain. These zombies are fast, cunning, and have strength and fighting skills superseding even our best mercenary soldiers. All of this zombie mythology from Snyder’s story crafting makes the entire thing more engaging and appealing.
This is particularly why Snyder has rejuvenated the zombie genre with this new take on zombies as monsters and as characters. Many tired tropes are finally laid to rest as he explores newer and more innovative avenues of exploiting the audiences’ fear of the undead.
However, not to leave everything from the zombie genre totally in the dust, Snyder gives us all the delightfully gory zombie action we all know and love. Combined with Snyder’s own cinematography, we get no shortage of blood being shed and guts spilling—all framed and shot with his expert camera work. Particularly, the opening credits sequence (for which Snyder has a reputation for making cinematographically stunning) is where he truly outdoes himself and gives us arguably his best credits sequence to date. We get the iconic slo-mo, mixed with so much blood and gore, and shot and framed beautifully to satisfy everyone’s action-movie lust.
To the delight of many, this film sets itself up perfectly for sequels, prequels and spinoffs (two of which are already in development at Netflix) with a vague and open ending, warranting much speculation on many fronts as to implication. One thing to appreciate about this film is how it seems to answer just the right amount of questions while simultaneously leaving just the right amount open for further exploration as well.
The film is not without its own faults, however. As has been previously said, nothing in the character developments and character moments is going to be top-notch. The dialogue is just about what you would expect from a zombie film, despite Snyder’s flair. To some audiences, this can come across as cringe or eye-rolling cheese, or it can be something which others can appreciate about this movie.
This movie does suffer from a far too long runtime, clocking in at nearly two-and-a-half hours with a story that really only warrants a crisp and clean two hour runtime. Particularly in the beginning, the film is very slow to get to the point and get to the zombie action. Similarly, once the characters are inside the casino, the story seems to hit a bit of a wall and dramatically slows down to where you think it seems the end of the story, but there’s still nearly forty-five minutes left to go. These noticeable pacing issues could have easily been fixed in perhaps another draft or two of the script, to limit the setup in the beginning and not prolong the ending as much, and just focusing in on that glorious middle act.
Another noticeable problem in this movie was the inclusion of Tig Notaro as Peters. As many already know, Tig was added in post during reshoots to replace comedian Chris D’Elia after multiple sexual assault allegations surfaced and he was removed from the project. While Notaro did a solid job as her character, it seemed rather noticeable that she was added in post, with some moments being more jarring than others, where there seems to be a disconnect between her and the rest of the characters onscreen. Some of these moments did distract and pull out of the viewing experience.
The last real negative to be said about this movie is that, while the zombie action is fantastic, some action scenes used an overabundance of CGI and special effects for the zombie gore and action, whereas the practical effects looked amazing in others.
This film is through-and-through a fun zombie action movie; it has thrills, action, cool characters, quippy one-liners and everything a film like this needs to be. “Army of the Dead” is a B-movie at heart, through its own design, and fulfills this purpose exceedingly well.