REVIEW: 'Army of the Dead' is lively action but still dead on the inside
Dave Bautista stars in Army of the Dead, directed by Zack Snyder.
I can’t pretend to understand the entire zombie genre, and I definitely can’t pretend to be a fan. The only zombie media I ever consumed on a regular basis were the ‘90s jianshi films from Hong Kong that were so ubiquitous they became stupid and annoying, and seeing other people blowing out zombie brains always felt far less satisfying than any Resident Evil video game or House of the Dead at the local arcade.
So, it seems fitting that the newest zombie film is helmed by Zack Snyder, who consistently evokes feelings of confusion and overall dissatisfaction. Especially in character development and plot, even though he’s very good at making things look good on screens. Featuring an ensemble cast, Army of the Dead follows a ragtag team of misfits led by Scott (Dave Bautista), who are tasked by Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) to retrieve $200 million in cash from an underground vault in a casino in Las Vegas, which has become ground zero for a zombie infection and is scheduled to be wiped out by a nuclear bomb.
Scott has to retrieve the money while establishing a romance with Maria (Ana de la Reguera) and a relationship with his estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell) which, of course, brings up painful memories of a troubled past. Joining the trio are tough guy Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), safecracker Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer, easily the funniest of the bunch), helicopter pilot Peters (Tig Notaro), zombie expert Lily (Nora Arnezeder, also a scene stealer), adrenaline junkies Guzman (Raúl Castillo) and Chambers (Samantha Win), and Tanaka’s bodyguard Martin (Garret Dillahunt).
On one hand, I get it; with so many characters to service, it’s impossible to do everyone some justice, though Snyder obviously tries hard because none of them really go out like the dispensable Jedi in Attack of the Clones. But the plot elements and relationships are so clichéd and uninteresting it never really provides any emotional depth – there’s so little tension between Scott and Maria that their confessions of love end up being kind of awkward – and each move motivated by emotion over logic keeps leaving them vulnerable to a zombie attack. The characters arrived fully formed, and while there’s some mutual respect that starts to grow amongst themselves, none of them ever really change.
The alpha zombie known as Zeus (Richard Cetrone) is smarter than your average shuffler.
The most frustrating part, however, is Snyder’s refusal to ever delve deeper into the universe he creates. We see this in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, where he clearly has an entire library of stories and whole universes planned out, and he ever so subtly hints at them. He does the same thing here, where he’s established the zombie population as more than just a simple horde of flesh eaters, but one that has a clear social hierarchy with alpha zombies and beta zombies. Rather than relying on infecting other people to increase their population, he hints towards a new race of zombies that are produced through childbirth. Now that is interesting, but frustratingly we never get to learn more about it.
Visually, Snyder hits all the notes, as he usually does: there’s plenty of blood splatter and gore, and no one does an opening credits montage better than him. Almost every character gets a chance to shine, and even the first victim – spoiler alert! – Chambers goes out guns ablaze and literally burns up the entire screen. But for every well-placed song, for every well-framed shot, for every spectacular blood splatter, there’s also always one (mostly unintentional) corny line that Snyder can’t help but throw in. Thank goodness he had the wherewithal to cut out a crude penis joke that would’ve sunk this movie into the depths of Michael Bay territory.
You know what you’re getting with Snyder, and if you can put aside his usual deficiencies, Army of the Dead is an okay time. Like all of his films, it goes on a lot longer than it should, but there’s usually enough to keep your interest. It is by no means significant in the zombie genre, and more like a pet project follow-up to Dawn of the Dead without the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut momentum behind it, so it’ll probably satisfy a small niche crowd, but make little waves beyond that.
Army of the Dead gets two and a half stars out of four.
