Harry Situation Reviews: Army of the Dead

Army of the Dead is a zombie heist movie (now that's a new one) directed by the one and only Zack Snyder. It stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Tig Notaro, Theo Rossi, Garret Dillahunt, and Hiroyuki Sanada. A zombie outbreak has devastated Las Vegas, leaving the whole city quarantined off from the world. But a wealthy casino owner (played by Hiroyuki Sanada) hires a gang of mercenaries, led by Dave Bautista, in breaking into his casino amid the zombie horde in order to retrieve $20 million. Sounds like nothing could go wrong, right?

Zack Snyder seems to be getting good with the critics of lately. While I haven't had the chance to see his version of Justice League, I'm glad that Warner Bros. gave him a chance to release it. And I'm glad that his version was well recieved. If this film is any indication that he's improving as a filmmaker then he'll still get my support.

This film's got a great cast. Dave Bautista is awesome as a lead in this movie. Honestly, I think this is the first time I've seen him in a leading role. Good for him. Everyone else does a great job too but it really is Bautista's performance that really shines through in this movie.

I like the style and direction in this film too. The way Snyder made this film reminds me much of a George Romero zombie film. It is worth noting that Zack Snyder did direct a remake to Romero's Dawn of the Dead (a film that I really like), but this movie is not at all connected to that or any of the Living Dead films. Honestly letting this film being its own thing is actually a good thing. Nowadays every film is a sequel, or prequel, or remake, or whatever. So it's nice to see a standalone film for a change.

The action is great. There's plenty of zombie killing and gore to go around in this movie. Brains are splattering, people are getting eaten and ripped apart. It's all good fun and all I could as from a zombie film.

The zombies themselves are also cool. You have just about every zombie type seen in other movies compiled into this film. You have the classic, slow, Romero zombies. You have the fast Danny Boyle zombies from 28 Days Later. There are also super smart zombies that act as pack leaders to the other zombies. There's even a zombie tiger. It's all great and they all get plenty of screen time and plenty of action.

I would say that the only issues I had are its lengh and tone. This is a two and a half hour long movie. I don't know what is with Snyder's obsession of making his projects extremely long but I don't think a film like this needed to be that long. At best a two hour runtime would have been better for this kind of film. As for its tone it's a bit jarring. This film tends to switch back between comedy and horror often. So which is it suppose to be? Is it a comedy? Is it a horror movie? Is it an action movie? This movie needs to pick a tone and stick with it.

Now that theaters are starting to gain audiences once again it is nice to have a film that's just pure dumb fun and anyone watching can have a good time with it. While this is a movie that is available on Netflix I believe you can see it in select theaters. Regardless I would still recommend checking out Army of the Dead if you ever get the chance.

Positives:

-Great cast

-Style and direction

-Great action

-Zombies!

Negatives:

-Length

-Confusing tone

Final Grade: B-

So those are my thoughts on Army of the Dead. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts on it? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!

Best Quote:

Marianne Peters: "Somewhere between leaving your ass and saving my own I developed a conscience. It's exhausting."

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