Army of the Dead
Dir Zack Snyder
Written by Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, Joby Harold
Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Garret Dillahunt, Tig Nataro, Hiroyuki Sanada, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Raúl Castillo.
After a shocking accident, Las Vegas was overrun by a zombie appocolypse, and cut off from the outside world by a perimeter fence of shipping containers. Soon they are going to drop a nuclear bomb in a few days to kill the remaining millions of zombies left over – which includes several species including ultra intelligent ones that rule the lands.
A wealthy businessman Tanaka (Sanada) tasks one time hero, of the initial outbreak Scott Ward (Bautista) to head back to his building in Vegas, to get $200m from his safe – and he can choose his team.
What then begins is a 2.5 hour slog for Scott to build his team, head to to the city, and get back with the money, before the bomb gets dropped. Before they leave, Scott’s estranged (of course) daughter signs up to go too, as she wants to go try to find the mother of some kids she watches in a camp outside of LV.
I really did not like this one. The characters are so poorly written, it is hard to really care about them once they start dropping when they get back to the city. The acting is wooden by pretty much everyone, which either suggests poor talent or poor directorial notes from Snyder.
The forced emotional moments between Scott and his daughter and later by Scott and a potential love interest are paired with the ‘dramatic’ music to try to emphasise the emotion – but it is just laughable.
As much as I love Bautista, I found he didn’t quite find his footing as a lead star in this one, and that is probably due to the poor screenplay and direction. Snyder used some new techniques where he ‘blurred’ the lens – while I get he was trying to add to the tension of the moment, it did not work for me.
At 2.5 hours long, it is almost an hour too long, and it is such a slog to get through. I was on the edge of my seat… waiting for the end.
Saved from a lower score by an ‘okay’ cliffhanger, and the use of The Cranberries ‘Zombie’ later in the film.
Give this one a miss.
1/5