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The Zombie's genre has been the craze of the last 15 years. We've had a slur of movies and series about it like The Waling Dead, World War Z, Train to Busan and Resident Evil. This is nothing new because it seems like our society has always been intrigued by the concept since 1932 White Zombie. And this story is very similar to Zack Snyder's filmography. Before Justice League, Man of Steel, Watchmen and 300 his career was launched by Dawn of the Dead. It's interesting how life rhymes.
PLOT
"Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted" or "Fast and Furios meets The Walking Dead".
SCRIPT
Snyder drops the balls here. The movie is overstuffed with characters with weak motivations and poor characterization. It's hard to sympathize for a bunch of people who have a questionable moral and take dumb decisions for the sake of spectacle. Everyone seems dumbed down in favor of mindless action and it makes the movie extremely hard to watch, considering the disproportionate runtime, which drags a lot. The climax is anticlimatic because everything could be avoided with some good choices by the characters. I mean, all the movie doesn't need to exist because it's all a stupid decision. The concept of a zombie heist it's interesting but it's made in the most boring way. Here and there are scattered pieces of good writings but these are eclipsed by all the mayhem. The last scene is unnecesary and it isn't deserved. It's a very bad script.
Script: 4/10
ACTING
A bit over place but it's mitigated by the performance of Bautista who delivers a mediocre performance showing his range. I think that it doesn't work because the actors were obliged to work with a shitty script and most of the performers are newcomers.
Acting: 5/10
PHOTOGRAPHY
In the opening credits is great but it dwindles during most of the runtime. There's a good shot in the last act but it's nothing exceptional and it isn't enough to say that the movie is visually beautiful and evocative.
Photography: 5/10
EDITING
Like photography, most of the good things are in the opening and the movie has just a few original sequence. It's strange because usually Snyder delivers movies with over the top editing and visuals. Here he seems restrained but I'm not able to understand why. Surely it's a far cry from 300 and Watchmen.
Editing: 5/10
SPECIAL EFFECTS
It's ok. It works but I don't find it interesting. These are not overused like any other Snyder's movie and most of them are practical. I like the set because it's very well done and a wrecked Las Vegas. Sometimes it seems too fake and it alienates the viewer a bit.
Special Effects: 6/10
SOUNDTRACK
As always the best is in the opening credits but the movie uses a uninteresting song which drags for too long and it becomes tedious in no time. During the movie pop music is used a lot, sometimes it works and sometimes doesn't, but overall it's harmless and without much taste. I could say that Tom Holkenborg tends to underperform under Zack Snyder. His best performance seems so far back in time. Mad Max: Fury Road is where he reached his zenith. Here, he's just a shadow of his former self.
Soundtrack: 6/10
COSTUMES
This is the best section, the only one in fact. The zombie's makeup is outstanding, especially the Zombie's Queen. The characters wears clothes which are in line with their purpose. I think that the costumes aren't used in a meaningful way rather than a stylish reason. Snyder's movie are style over substance most of the time.
Costumes: 7/10
CONCLUSION
Script: 4/10
Acting: 5/10
Photography: 5/10
Editing: 5/10
Special Effects: 6/10
Soundtrack: 6/10
Costumes: 7/10
AVERAGE: 5,42
It's an heavily flawed movie which has a bad pace, a bad script and a the acting is a bit off. This is a big letdown, because the trailer has pumped a lot, making it seem like a better and more appreciable movie. I think that the runtime is unjustified and ruins the experienc. This why I think that you can skip it because it's a waste of two and a half hours. Really, avoid it if you can think. The other option is to see it with very low, lower than zero expections. This movie is an undead crap.
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Army of the dead
2021
18
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana De La Reguera, Omari Hardwick, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighofer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garrett Dillahunt, Tig Notaro etc
Army of the dead: Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted. Army of the dead was decent and was a lot of fun, but it let itself down with a lot of poor creative decisions.
My first few positives would be the fun opening, character introductions and fantastic humour. As well as the great cinematography, action, and gore. As well as some fun scenes. I thought the opening was a lot of fun, it threw you straight into the action, with fun action sequences, brutal kills, and fun zombie moments. It set the tone for the film up very well and didn’t take itself too seriously which I loved. I also thought the character introductions were great, the film established the characters well, seeing them in action showed what kind of strengths they would have as the film developed and was a fun way to introduce them. I thought the film was very funny, it never took itself too seriously which I loved. Most of the humour and jokes landed, thanks to the fantastic and charming cast bouncing off each other excellently with brilliant chemistry. I also thought the cinematography was very strong. The scope the film managed to achieve with mostly just one set location was excellent. It was visually stunning with eye catching set locations and shots and the visual creativity with the zombies was also excellent. I also thought this film had so many fun scenes. The film worked at its best when it didn’t take itself too seriously or add too much. There were scenes were the characters were really fun and the action was turned up to an eleven with the zombies and they were just fun and entertaining to watch. The action and gore were definitely some of the strongest elements of the movie. The action was over the top, entertaining and creative and always kept me engaged and thoroughly entertained. I also loved the gore, it was the top and overexaggerated but that just made the scenes even more fun and entertaining to watch, with some very gory zombie kills.
My next few positives would be the setup, creature designs. Excellent Jumpscares and worldbuilding with the zombies. As well as strong female characters and some good character background and depth. I thought the set up was incredibly fun. Setting up the team and clearly setting out there motivation for the heist was great fun and intriguing. Introducing some interesting relationships and some great comedic moments with the main character Scott (Dave Bautista) offering the characters a different amount of money. I also thought the creature designs for the zombies were excellent. I really like the work they did here with the zombies. They looked scary and creative. Almost with a human like aspect to some of them which gave the film a bit of uniqueness to it. I also really liked the worldbuilding with the zombies. I loved that the zombies essentially had their own kingdom. The rules and hierarchy within the population was fascinating, I have never seen this kind of intricate character work with the zombies almost making you connect with them, I also liked the different types of zombies with the more advanced ones being really strong and much faster. I also thought the Jumpscares and building of tension was excellent. The Jumpscares were well timed, suspenseful and often took me surprise despite their occasional predictability, I also thought the film built tension well. With some excellently crafted and clever scenes involving the zombies that were dormant that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Finally, I loved the strong female characters and the background and depth to the main character. I loved that this film had strong female characters and representation, they were of equal capability to the male characters and held their own in the action scenes showing that you can have a healthy balance of male and female characters and make it work. I also thought the characters in general were really likeable and had great chemistry with each other. Each character had their own distinct and fun personality and had a good amount of time to shine throughout the film playing there specific roles within the team very well. I also liked the character background and depth between the main character Scott and his daughter Kate (Ella Purnell) the fact that Scott had to kill his own wife due to the zombie outbreak really effected his relationship with his daughter. This was great background and paved the way for some good depth with their relationship as they slowly grew closer and opened up to each other about how they felt.
My first few negatives would be the rushed character introductions, and bad creative decisions when it came to the camerawork, structure, and soundtrack. I thought that the film needed to spend more time fleshing out and developing the characters. Considering its run time, they could have easily spent longer introducing the characters and establishing that connection with them. I also thought there was some bad creative decisions across the board. There were some odd soundtrack choices, they worked for the most part. But there were particular scenes where the song felt completely out of place and didn’t fit with the film whatsoever and it was very jarring. I also thought that there were some annoying and overused visual techniques with the camerawork. There were some scenes were they would blur the characters face for an extended period of time, or they would have this strange glare In the lens that was really distracting to see. Finally, I thought there was some lazy structure choices that either didn’t make sense or were a missed opportunity. There were certain decisions made with the father and daughter as well as the reasoning for certain characters to join in with the heist that were either rushed or unexplored so they either felt forced or illogical.
My final few positives would be the soundtrack, the connections, and links between characters. The great performances added stakes with the characters. As well as the plot twist and development to the plot. I thought the soundtrack for the most part was a lot of fun and really worked. It added humour and style to the scenes and added the extra entertainment value to the action scenes. I also really like the connections and links with all of the characters. I really liked that a lot of the characters already knew each other before the heist, so their connections were already there, and they knew how they worked. And a lot of the characters were linked with others which made recruiting them fun and more easy for the characters. I also thought the performances were great here. The whole cast did a brilliant job. This for me was Dave Bautista’s strongest performance to date. He was fantastic with the action and humour as expected. But he also bought a bit of emotion to the character and it came across well and it made me connect with his character. He played a bit more of a complex and fun character and he stepped up well. I also thought the films plot twist added a great new element to the film. Having it never be about the money and be about survival was a great and fun twist. The character of Martin (Garrett Dillahunt) turning on the team despite being predictable did increase the stakes for the characters a lot as their lives were even more endangered, with the death of the Alpha Queen being a big turning point in how the plot developed and the stakes increased.
Now time for my final few negatives, the twist with the character of Martin was very predictable. I didn’t like the amount of character deaths. And the final act was a massive mess. I thought that despite the twist adding stakes to the plot well it wasn’t well executed. It was obvious that the character of Martin was not good as soon as he first appeared. And just because the script made the audience aware of this doesn’t mean it was done well if anything it just made it more predictable to figure out and wasn’t structured very well into the plot. I also really didn’t like the amount of characters killed. The film basically killed off the whole cast. I thought this was a poor decision and a big kick in the stomach for the audience. If a film spends over two hours developing characters and making you connect with them only for them to kill them off like they were nothing it almost made a lot of the movie pointless. Finally, my biggest issue with the film was with its final act. It felt like it was written by a completely different person. The first 2/3rds for me were fun and well written with a lot of great elements, but the final act was a mess. It was predictable, generic, and poorly structured. Falling into the genre tropes that it was mostly staying clear off, with dumb and illogical character decisions that were very frustrating to watch and a lazy set up for a sequel that I am now considerably less excited for.
Overall, Army of the dead is a lot of fun and very entertaining. With some creative work with the zombies and an excellent cast. But its creative decisions hold it back from being much more than style over substance which is a shame with all the worldbuilding they set up. With a messy, formulaic, and generic final act that slipped too far from what the film was originally doing so well and therefore missed the mark in creating a fresh and creative new zombie film.
Overall rating 64/100
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Il progetto aveva preso vita già nel lontano 2007 e doveva essere una co-produzione tra Universal Pictures e Warner Bros, ma non se ne fece più nulla. Così nel 2019, Netflix acquistò i diritti di distribuzione affidando la regia a Zack Snyder. La storia alla base non risulta essere una novità e rimanda a film e avvenimenti visti e rivisti, ma con la mano di Snyder, il tutto prende un’altra piega.
Attualmente Zack Snyder è al centro di quasi ogni conversazione, grazie alla recente uscita della sua versione di Justice League e così Netflix ne ha approfittato per rilasciare il suo nuovo film, in lavorazione ormai da diverso tempo.
Il prodotto diretto dal regista de L’uomo d’acciaio ha tutto ciò che un fan di questo genere apprezza. Nonostante la storia degli zombie sia stata continuamente abusata nel corso degli anni e proposta in quasi tutte le salse, grazie a un ottimo cast e una buona base tecnica, il film intrattiene al punto giusto, caricando di adrenalina lo spettatore.
Le vicende narrate non sono nulla di particolarmente complesso, ma la messa in scena e la cura del regista rendono questo film scorrevole e di buona fattura. La fotografia risulta ben curata, così come i vari passaggi di macchina e il montaggio. L’ironia che caratterizza le dinamiche proposte alleggerisce alcune scene più macchinose, spezzando il ritmo eccitante che segue tutto il film.
Il cast riesce a mettere del proprio in ogni scena, guidati da un Dave Bautista in splendida forma che nel corso del film si lascia andare anche a qualche riflessione più profonda e romantica a cui non siamo del tutto abituati (fatta eccezione per qualche spezzone in Guardiani della Galassia) e se inizialmente ciò può far storcere il naso agli spettatori in cerca di un prodotto esclusivamente action e ricco di violenza, con il passare del tempo permette di legare con il suo personaggio e la storia che nasconde alle spalle della sua corazza da uomo tutto d’un pezzo.
Non tutti i personaggi vengono caratterizzati benissimo però, e con alcuni si lega molto meno rispetto ad altri, ma in un film che fa dell’azione il suo punto forte e pone circa dieci diversi personaggi sullo stesso piano, non ci si poteva aspettare certamente altro.
Una pellicola che rappresenta la rivalsa del regista, a lungo criticato e screditato, che riesce a mettere in scena tutto il suo repertorio, dagli slow-motion (molto ridotti rispetto ad altri suoi film) alle varie inquadrature che portano lo spettatore al centro dell’azione, quasi come se fosse un membro della banda capitanata da Ward.
Com’è giusto che sia e come ci si aspetta da un film targato Snyder, l’action non manca e viene realizzato in modo ottimale. Sono infinite le scene di lotta contro zombie assetati e in cerca di vendetta e per una volta questi, non vengono rappresentati come esseri senza un cervello, che attaccano totalmente senza una ragione, ma tutt’altro. Gli zombie Alpha (così vengono definiti da Coyote) sono più intelligenti degli altri e soprattutto hanno creato un proprio territorio, pronti a difenderlo a ogni costo.
Infine, la colonna sonora non si concentra su un genere in particolare, ma lascia spazio a diversi panorami musicali, creando un mix perfetto che si amalgama con le scene proposte, i ritmi veloci e quelli un po’ più delicati, chiudendo con una chicca che farà sorridere i più attenti.
Un film che non si prende mai sul serio, che spazia tra diversi generi trattandoli tutti in modo adeguato e senza cercare di strafare perdendosi in dinamiche deleterie. Un ottimo prodotto per staccare la spina e godersi quasi tre ore di puro action e adrenalina, stando però attenti a non essere morsi, perché altrimenti poi bisognerebbe uccidervi.
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Director: Zack Snyder
Screenplay: Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten
Cast: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, Garret Dillahunt
Soundtrack: Tom Holkenborg
Cinematography: Zack Snyder
Running Time: 148 minutes
Budget: $80 million
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