ARMY OF DEAD
My Rating: 6/10
STORYLINE
With the unwanted, walled city of Las Vegas invaded by zombies after a deplorable government flaw, the wealthy club financier, Bly Tanaka, realizes that he has left something there: $200 million to be more exact. For now, his heaps of money are safe behind his invulnerable club vault; however, the US President intends to nuke the entire city in under 96 hours. Now, Tanaka will pay $50 million to the enhanced former mercenary, Scott Ward, and his hand-picked team to recover the money before the bomb destroys the city. Indeed, this is an excellent deal Scott can't afford to ignore; nevertheless, the rules have changed, and the horde of the walking undead seems more organized than they might have anticipated. However, time is running out. Can they return from Vegas in one piece and be rich? Does the enhanced one compare to that tight horror remake or the work of Romero? Yes and no. There are elements of this aggressive action event that are well-conceived and executed, mainly in the "zombie headshots" department. Some themes feel jumbled and incredibly thin characters, even for a film like this one, where the character is seldom a strong suit. However, the film delivers on what it promises in its title, which might be all that is needed for Snyder fans and those looking for another action film at a time when it still feels like all the blockbusters have been delayed.
"ARMY OF THE DEAD" opens with a clever scene involving a tactical vehicle crashing into a couple of lovebirds "celebrating" their marriage while driving down a Nevada highway. A bit of dialogue reveals that the cargo has recently come from Area 51 and that their vague payload is so dangerous that their military-grade weapons won't make much of an impact. When the large container holding that hazardous passenger is damaged, it opens, and the soldiers who survive the accident are soon turned into the undead before climbing a hill to target the city of sin, Las Vegas. Despite its considerable length, "ARMY of the DEAD" is a deliberately lean film that effectively blends the heist genre with the zombie one. Snyder's co-written script has just enough novelty in both categories, although I wish there was a bit more to the heist itself than the direct line from A to Z(zombie) and trying to get back to A again. It sometimes feels like the plot of "Army of the Dead" is merely a skeleton on which to hang the action scenes rather than something inherently clever on its own. I kept waiting for a twist or a surprise that never really came.
It would have helped for the lack of creativity within the story to be balanced by more interesting characters, but these ones are quite shallow even for the "zombie action" genre. One could sum up almost every character in the movie with no more than three words max. For instance, Ward is a father, chef, and soldier, and that's all that anyone knows about him. Bautista, a charismatic and underrated actor, struggles to make himself feel 3-dimensional, but he fares better than De la Reguera or Hardwick, both of whom have almost no character at all. It's one of those movies where the supporting players steal focus from the straight-faced leads simply because they give the film some energy, especially Dillahunt, Schweighöfer, and Arnezeder, who are all fantastic. However, why not punch it up and give everyone a little character? Some of the zombies here have more character depth than the people, for Romero's sake.
So what works about "ARMY OF DEAD"? It's fun and unpretentious, driven more by its action set pieces than anything else. It's equally inspired by modern "fast zombie" films like "World War Z" or "28 Days Later" as it is by the works of the master. There are moments when its grand insanity just clicks thanks to the set-piece ambition of its filmmaker and the willingness of its cast to go wherever he leads them. An unforgettable zombie tiger, a unique undead king/queen dynamic that shapes the action, a fantastic sequence involving using brain-eaters to spring booby traps—these are the kind of fun, clever beats that keep "Army of the Dead" alive. There are just enough of them to hold it together, even though it's a spin or two away from winning the jackpot.
Critic Reviews
Freed from the shackles of superheroes, this boasts Zack Snyder’s best (and worst) traits in full force: a stupidly entertaining — if excessive and overlong — zombie blockbuster blowout. Full review by John Nugent, Empire.
Zack Snyder’s zombies-in-Vegas extravaganza is an exhausting pivot from brilliant to boring, accomplished to shambolic.
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