Review of Army of the Dead
midlandsmovies • May 24, 2021
Army of the Dead (2021) Dir. Zack Snyder
Although we didn’t review it, I was quite the fan of the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Given a more free reign over his “vision” and allowed space to develop the characters further it was an interesting if slightly flawed reimagining of a film originally cut to pieces. Well, the cut to pieces part carries over from that (albeit as literal bloody carnage in this film's skirmishes) but so does the elongated run time in his new film Army of the Dead.
In short, the film is an Aliens-Ocean’s 11 riff as a gang of rag-tag fighters is challenged with stealing money from a casino bank vault in a zombie-infested Las Vegas. It’s a great idea, it really is, and young me would have lapped up the prospect. However, the 2 ½ hour run time, terrible script and Snyder’s own blurry cinematography strips the film apart like its bloodied victims.
The problems begin from its start as there appears not an ounce of originality. The obvious Aliens references seem an intentional nod with Burke, Vasquez and drop-ship equivalents front and centre. But the slo-mo (typical Snyder) stretched out (typical Snyder) cover-music infused (typical Snyder) opening is ripped from the superior Zombieland wholesale.
It’s shallow depth of field ensures most shots feel out of focus, you get endless Elvis/classic rock covers done in that breathy-acoustic style and the action has horrid Michael Bay vibes.
The dialogue is bad (“$2 million would change my life” Oh, really?) and the film takes a full one hour (!) for these stereotypical characters to even enter the Vegas compound to begin their heist. If you do watch it then jump in from that point as you won’t really miss anything of value.
I swear this is not an anti-Snyder rant, it’s an anti-this film one if anything, and I absolutely love 300 and Watchmen – his 2 best films by far in my opinion. But this movie squanders all its interesting ingredients and likeable actors like Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell and Nora Arnezeder who do well with flimsy parts.
What should have been a 90-minute fast-paced silly Zombie actioner, instead is a lengthy disappointment with its extensive run-time unable handle the absurd premise. Bringing nothing new to the table, Army of the Dead is a brain-dead b-movie which felt completely zombie-bland.
★★
Michael Sales
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