A Review of “Army of the Dead (2021)”

 

Zack returns to the zombie genre after his 17 years since Dawn of the Dead (2004). I enjoyed Dawn of the Dead so I hyped at the idea of him making another zombie movie. The premise is “After a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries takes the ultimate gamble by venturing into the quarantine zone for the greatest heist ever”. So was this one hell of a heist or dead one?

Firstly, the action scenes are great. The opening montage scene showing vegas becoming infected was phenomenal and could’ve been a movie itself. There is also a cool John Wick style zombie shootout scene that was awesome. Near the end where it starts to live up to the title of “Army of the Dead” was one chaotic but fun zombie action sequence. I also like the soundtrack by Junkie XL even though there isn’t a memorable soundtrack such as with the DCEU stuff. For the most part, the soundtrack elevates the scene and there is also pop music that actually works well in the movie.

I also really liked Dave Bautista as the main lead. Dave gives a pretty strong performance and shows that he can give emotive acting if need be. In terms of characters, there were three I liked which were Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) and Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro). I liked how Vanderohe was this badass zombie slayer while Ludwig was skilled in safe cracking but knew nothing when it came to zombies. The growing relationship between them is one of the best parts of the movie. I also like Marianne’s wisecracking and sarcastic personality which was charming despite her small screen time. I also got to appreciate how they green-screened Tig to replace Chris D'Elia, who was accused of sexual misconduct, into the movie as it still feels natural. Although, the green screen can feel pretty obvious at times.

Unfortunately, I could give zero care for the other characters. Everyone else is either so forgettable, dies too early or is unlikeable. Zack seems to kill off characters for shock value when the character themselves are becoming interesting which is a shame. There are also way too many characters in my opinion and I honestly feel like some of the characters just didn’t need to be in the movie. I also have mixed feelings about the cinematography which is done by Zack Snyder, the director, himself. The cinematography isn’t awful or anything but it certainly isn’t as good as Zack’s previous movies which are clear as he didn’t hire a cinematographer and did it himself. It’s just very dull to look at. There are also a lot of shots where it is blurry and pixelated which is just very ugly to look at.

The biggest problem with Army of the Dead is the writing which is also done by Zack Snyder. Zack had a unique idea with the zombie heist idea but he then ruins it by adding a bunch of convoluted zombie stuff and a dumb plotline with Scott (Dave Bautista) daughter Kate. Kate joins because a stupid mother went into a zombie-filled Las Vegas and she is going to find her. What annoys me is that there is no reason for Kate to be a part of the heist which is made worst as her character is annoying. Zack also seems to even forget about the mother as well which makes this plotline seem even more irrelevant. There is also a plotline with a spy that also amounts to nothing by the end of the movie. There is also some dumb plotline with the Alpha zombie and some baby thing which was also very pointless. Army of the Dead is 2 hours 28 minutes which is very noticeable as the pacing slows down a lot. They could easily cut it down by 30 minutes and the movie remains the same.

I don’t mind dumb movies and a movie can be so dumb that it becomes good. However, Army of the Dead is so dumb to the point that the movie loses enjoyment. THERE ARE MILD SPOILERS HERE but who cares because the movie is stupid anyway. Why is it the government can allow a group to fly out of Vegas but not fly into Vegas? Why is there a line about zombies hibernating but wakes when it rains if that is never going to come into play? If the vault is owned by Tanaka, the big boss who wants the heist, why does he not just give them the code? If Tanaka wanted the zombie blood then why not just have the heist be about getting the zombie blood instead of the bloody vault? Why does a character who never killed zombies ever, able to John Wick all the zombies? Why does the character who gets betrayed not mention the person who betrayed them? Why does no one help save the person who is only surrounded by 5 zombies and instead just stare at them? Why do the characters talk about their suspicion of this person being a spy but never bring it up again? Why is it with a Nuke incoming that the characters stop and stare at each other a lot? Why do they not just use dead bodies to activate traps instead of an alive zombie? Why is a dead zombie hand able to attract a zombie? Why do some zombies hibernate but some don’t? How is a zombie horse able to catch up to a helicopter? Why do some people turn into zombies in a matter of minutes but someone else can takes hours? WHY ARE THERE ROBOT ZOMBIES? Why does Zack not understand how nuke works?

Overall, Army of the Dead could’ve been a fun, exciting zombie and heist movie but fails to deliver in both. The movie had a lot of potentials but it is ruined by Zack’s terrible writing skills. If you want some fun zombie action then there is that but don’t expect much more.