Movie Review: Army of the Dead (R – 148 minutes)

 

I wanted to like this, I really did.  But I have now concluded that I have conducted enough experiments to state that in general, I do not care for Zack Snyder films.

This particular Zack Snyder movie is one that is meant to launch a new Zack Snyder universe of Zack Snyder zombie action. It begins by showing us a couple of army dudes transporting a ‘thing’ from a ‘base’ that is possibly alien.  A recently married-in-Vegas couple crashes into the convoy, releasing the ‘thing’.  We then get a couple of interesting sequences - one campy over-the-top montage of Vegas zombies as the outbreak sweeps through the city with all the tropes you expect: Elvis zombies, Stripper Zombies, party zombies, even hot tub zombies that are all played over a classically Vegas song.  This would lead you to believe that the movie will be a fun campy ride of a heist in a zombie infested Vegas.  However, you also get shots of what will be our main characters as a team fighting their way through the outbreak to escape the city, intercut with very somber shots of them holding pictures of their loved ones. This would lead you to believe that the movie will be a very dramatic character study of what happens to people when they lose loved ones in this outbreak. 

This type of back and forth with the tone continues throughout the movie.  Vegas is eventually sealed off so that the zombies do not spread to other cities. A fancy-pants business man shows up to request that Scott Ward put together a team and go into Vegas through the zombies to get his millions in cash that is in the safe of his casino. Ward eventually agrees and assembles his team of standard heist-movie-types: the tough guy, the lunatic(s), the safe-cracker, the navigator, the pilot, the obvious traitor, his old partner, etc.  But as a bonus, it also includes his estranged daughter who seems to be in a separate movie where she is volunteering at the refugee camp just outside the Vegas walls and trying to help people get flights/transportation out of the city, but that requires payment, and many of the people do not have money, so they are tempted to sneak into the city to get money, and the guards/staff are often terrible and taking advantage of them. Ward takes his team in, and as you can expect – things go awry.

Snyder directs it with all the love he shows to his work. This means some fantastically beautiful shots, some fascinating slow motion here and there (maybe too much), some fun action sequences, all shot with some new camera technology.  There is no denying his skillset, I just do not enjoy his finished products. He includes interesting characters, but the rapidly shifting tone felt jarring to me.  There are so many ideas introduced that have no payoff or are not revisited. I know the plan is for more movies prequels, sequels, and spin-offs, but I feel like this would have benefitted from more focus on it and less on possible future endeavors.  I could not find a character to root for because they were all a little grating – some more than others.

Dave Bautista does his darndest to center the movie with an interesting leading man. He is great and certainly watchable – he is certainly in the drama version of the movie, focused more on the strained father/daughter relationships than the loony zombie action. He chose this over the part James Gunn had written for him in the upcoming Suicide Squad (with Gunn’s blessing). Ella Purnell plays his daughter and I enjoyed them together because they were on the same page even though that was not the version I thought I had signed up for.  

Omari Hardwick plays Vanderohe and shifts back and forth between the horror-comedy and drama aspects. He carries a large buzz saw that is meant for slicing zombies, but he also is very philosophical and brings up one of the most interesting theories in the movie that is then not addressed again. He has many scenes with Matthias Schweighofer as Dieter, who is doing such a strong Flula Borg impression that I found myself wondering why Flula was not in the movie.

Ana de la Reguera plays Maria who is Ward’s old running partner and used to working with him. She and Vanderohe worked with him previously and help ground him.  Tig Notaro plays Marianne Peters, the pilot, and yes, she was blue-screened into the movie to replace Chris D’Elia. They did a great job, and for the most part, it feels like she was there the whole time being snarky and sarcastic – which is what you want from Tig Notaro. The team is rounded out by Raul Castillo and Samantha Win who play what seem to be influences who kill zombies for social media content.

Theo Rossi plays one of the terrible guys from the refugee camp and Nora Arnezeder plays Lilly – a ‘coyote’, who works getting people in and out of Vegas.  Well, mostly in. She is not great at the out part. Garret Dillahunt shows up to play the incredibly obvious traitor, Martin, who works for the guy who hires the team, Tanaka, played by Hiroyuki Sanada.

If this movie had been a simple straightforward heist-in-zombie-Vegas movie, I think I would have enjoyed it more. As it is, I feel that it tried way too hard to include way too many things and set up way too many spin-off or sequel options (slight spoilers here): organized zombies, zombie tigers, dehydrated zombies that come back when it rains, zombie kings and queens, robot zombies, zombie breeding, zombie communication, secret experiments, aliens, etc.  It is also way too long.  There is no reason for a movie like this to be two and a half hours long.  If you enjoy Snyder’s style, this will definitely make you happy. 

2 out of 10