Army of the Dead
Eric S Brown
In 2004, Zack Snyder stunned the world with his remake of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. While the remake lacked the depth of the original, it was an amazingly well done and fun zombie romp, reaching the # 1 spot at the boxoffice. Fans of the remake waited a very long for Synder to helm another zombie film and this year, Army of the Dead was finally released.
Army of the Dead has no relation to Dawn of the Dead, or any of Romero’s work, being a stand alone original in its own right. The movie’s story centers around a zombie outbreak, localized and contained, in Vegas. A group of soldiers who saw action during the outbreak are hired to re-enter Vegas and break into the vault of a casino said to contain two hundred million dollars.
Dave Bautistia, of Guardians of the Galaxy fame, headlines the film’s cast as the leader of the soldiers sent back into Vegas to steal the cash but while the acting isn’t bad, there are a lot things that do go wrong for the film. Its writing is weak at times with the opening feeling cliché and predictable as the origin of the zombie virus is the same as in the Return of the Living Dead 2 (aka- a zombie being transported that somehow gets free). From there, the movie goes on to mention super fun concepts that it never comes back to explore such as all the bodies lying around the streets of Vegas getting back up whenever it rains.
All in all, Army of the Dead is a worthy attempt a good zombie film but utterly fails in living up to its potiental. Its ending, while leaving room for a sequel, again comes across as weakly written and cliché.
