Army of the Dead - New Release Review

Zack Snyder helped rebirth the zombie genre with his 2004 film Dawn of the Dead, coming out with the other undead rocketships that were 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead. And 17 years later, he returns after his obsession with comics to give us another violent, stylish zombie thriller, this time set in Vegas. In Zack Snyder fashion, it’s loud, self-serious and angry. But unfortunately, it’s not that good.

Army of the Dead follows a zombie infestation in Vegas which has been quarantined by the government (in the worst way possible), and a year after that, the city’s going to be nuked permanently. So a Japanese businessman hires Dave Bautista to get together an elite team of mercenaries to break into a vault under a Vegas casino in the middle of the outbreak. This cannot end well…

This movie was very different to what I was expecting. I suspected that the film would be set in the neon night-sky of Vegas, full of rapid-fire humour and colour like Pacific Rim. Instead, what I got was a whole lot greyer, a whole lot more self-serious, and a whole lot less entertaining.

Arguably the most disappointing thing about this movie is the setting and portrayal of Vegas. As I said, I expected neon and colour, but all that I saw throughout the movie was a drab ruin that could be pretty much any city whatsoever. Entirely grey without any other colour through Snyder’s cinematography (which he did himself, unlike his previous films where he worked with Larry Fong), Vegas may be one of the most boring locations for an apocalypse ever.

This is part of a low-scale approach Snyder takes to the whole film with his cinematography. Mostly handheld and dirty similar to a war film, Army of the Dead is almost documentary-esque in some scenes, holding back on Snyder’s normal colour palette and going for a blander setting. The trouble is, that setting and the bleaker story surrounding it is offset by the ludicrous sight of zombies jumping everywhere, as well as Snyder’s terrible use of changing depth-of-field (making it look like a three-year old is fiddling with the settings on a Nikon.)

Another annoying thing with this movie is the very inconsistent tone. Sometimes, this movie is clearly trying to be self-aware and comedic, and at those times it succeeds (especially when zombie tigers get involved). But then when it tries to get emotional with the relationship between Dave Bautista, it fails as neither the character development nor especially the dialogue has any punch to it. It fluctuates between these over a 2-and-a-half-hour runtime that makes the film feel longer and more imprecise.

What’s worse is when the tone suddenly gets way darker, and Army of the Dead can get very, very cruel. There’s an extended scene where a character is left to die and be mutilated which feels so much like a torture pawn like Saw, and it’s neither fun nor emotional. It’s just gross and disgusting, especially when it gets to the gorier stuff (like aborted zombie foetuses – I’m not making that up).

Despite all this, Army of the Dead certainly has good to it. The best part is undeniably the zombies themselves – the makeup effects are brilliant, and the physical performance aspect of the creatures is excellent. It also breaks down zombie myths in an interesting way that isn’t covered much outside of works such as The Enemy, showing intelligence and love in them that would normally just be rage.

Additionally, there’s a strong cast at the centre of it all, especially Bautista who gets to show his more dramatic range after being a comedian for most of his acting career. There’s a mix of comic relief and toughness that feels well-balanced and that would work far better in a more compact, more self-aware movie, which Snyder is certainly capable of making.

Ultimately though, Army of the Dead is not that compact, self-aware cinema that it needed to be. Overlong, uncertain and unable to fulfil its potential, it’s too shaky to be fully enjoyed by everybody.

Army of the Dead gets a C.

What’s next? I don’t know. What can you suggest in the comments?