Army of the Dead
A couple of years ago I read about a new zombie movie coming out and was immediately convinced that I had no interest in it because it’s directed by one of my least favorite people, Zach Snyder, the biggest mansplain-y director in the business. What I forgot is that the only Snyder movie I really like is his remake of the George Romero classic Dawn of the Dead. About the only things the two films have in common is it’s set in a mall, and there are zombies, though they are way different in each. The original is blue faced, stupid, slow moving 1970s zombies and the remake is fast and smart millennial zombies. Side note, the Snyder remake stars Sarah Polley, who went on to make Women Talking a couple decades later and it’s one of my favorite films.
This time around, the titular army of the dead is the thousands of dead people trapped inside an overrun Las Vegas. The U.S. Army managed to corral them with a few thousand cargo containers, but they also left millions of dollars in the vaults. Some of the people who fought in the brief zombie war that created the containment are years later trying to get over the PTSD and grief from the awful struggle. The devastated town is now inhabited by gnawed up showgirls, gamblers and dead Elvises. This backstory basically takes place in the opening credits. The rest of the movie is your basic Ocean’s Eleven style heist, with a diverse group picked to head back into Vegas to grab a few million and make a quick buck. Darned if the military doesn’t pick that day to nuke the place, so the clock is ticking.
I love heist movies, so that made me a little more interested in maybe watching it. What put me over the top was discovering that they fired one of the actors AFTER they were finished with principal filming. The director called on an old friend to come in and redo all the scenes featuring the smart mouthed, cigar chewing tough guy helicopter pilot. That was interesting enough, but they replaced him with Tig Notaro, a skinny, older comedienne who ended up doing exactly one quick scene with another actor. The rest was entirely on green screen and then she was inserted everywhere the other guy was literally erased. Well, dang, now I had to see it. I never got a chance to watch it before dvd went belly up, but I did stream it and discovered a rare making of featurette to go along with it. So I watched it. Zombies, a heist and interesting new tech? I’m in.
As a zombie film it’s not bad. They hired a lot of dancers and parkour people to play the very fast, and very smart zombies instead of making that all cgi. The tech has come a long way, but it’s still just enough off to be noticeable. These zombies are actually pretty scary because they’re tough fighters and have a leader who uses them strategically. The hard core toughs hired to enter Vegas by a super rich backer are a nicely diverse group, headed by Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Glass Onion). I really like him, but he just doesn’t quite have leading man chops. There are several women in the group, a fan favorite being Lily the Coyote played by Nora Arnezeder (Colony). She hasn’t done a lot of film work, but she’s great in her small role here, rocking an interesting look and a dead eyed ability to enter the zone at will.
The retroactive addition of Notaro was the main thing for me, and I think I’d give them a B- overall. Most of the original guy’s scenes were over-over two shots, meaning the camera “looks” back and forth between actors speaking to each other. They only had to have Notaro do the lines and digitally insert her, so she’s not really talking to Bautista or any of the others. Apparently, that only worked if her background became very fuzzy. I noticed that right away and it bugged me a little bit. I suspect most people would never notice, especially if they’re not looking for it. As a technique I don’t remember seeing before, kudos. I’m not going to go into the ethics of it because that’s a whole nuther essay.
The zombies were great, beyond being fast, aggressive and smart. There were a LOT of them, and they were varied, like in any Romero movie and I was surprised how much of it was cgi. They achieved this with some high tech digital work, a camera that goes around a motionless actor made up as a zombie to scan them and use that as a “skin” for the cgi zombies that create the horde scenes. It’s similar to how the humongous Orc army was created in The Two Towers, but with more precision and variety. They also updated a technique that most people are at least vaguely familiar with, when the actors are covered in ping-pong balls and filmed doing the movements that are later fed into a huge computer that converts it into a moving character. Now they have a bodysuit which is essentially completely bluetoothed into the computer. Every tiny movement is captured, not just the singular white balls, and there’s no transfer required. A dozen actors doing different zombie walks and running and jumping, paired with the hundreds of skins made an impressive army. Pretty cool stuff for a film nerd.
I was pleased to notice some interesting nods to other movies, like some of Steven King’s The Stand, and the original Dawn of the Dead. It’s always fun to look for that kind of thing and I also thought the acting was solid if not stellar. There was too much plot for the movie and could have easily pared down one of the sub-plots to make a more fast paced film.
Overall, if you are a zombie film fan or a heist movie fan who can take a lot of gore, I recommend seeing this movie. I’m excited to see the new technologies that have created this impressive zombie army, and can’t wait to see what other people do with it.
LINKS:
CFR: In Addition
Oh Army of Darkness! Oh Zach Snyder! OMG TIG NOTARO LOOKING SO HAWT I WANTED HER AND I’M STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW!! I was so excited to see this show. Especially because the trailer is so HOT and EXCITING! So, I planned big time to see this. I wrote down in my calendar when it would release. I planned a fun snacky meal (chips, crackers, sauces, salami, cheese, etc.) and I turned it on.
I was so disappointed.
I mean, like wow.
I love Zach Snyder and I love how he supports women kicking butt and both men and women being well rounded characters. I LOVE IT! I was so excited to his vision of a zombie genre story. And the sexiness of Tig Notaro. I agree with the Internet – sexy and hawt!
So to sum it up: ridiculous writing, silly characters, not armed enough, treasure not enough to risk life and limb, not enough Tig Notaro (even though yes, I know she was CGI’d in because Zach Snyder got rid of a questionable actor) because HAWT, and the ending, uh, no, no one can survive that.
So my final analysis: Watch the above trailer over and over again ’cause that is a great movie.
Chick Flicking Reviews 