Army of the Dead Review

 

Army of the Dead is a zombie heist film. The movie is produced by The Stone Quarry and distributed by Netflix. Army of the Dead is written by Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, and Joby Harold and directed by Zack Snyder.

The story is mercenary Scott Ward has been offered a deal that will make him a quick $15 million dollars. After assembling his team they head to the now zombie infested Las Vegas. However the moment they get there they realize their not dealing with your average zombies. Now not only do they need to get the million dollars out of the vault but they must also fight for their lives.

Initial Reaction

I've been looking forward to this ever since it was announced all the way back in Jan of 2019. Then I waited for the teaser to pop up on it finally did on Feb 25th and since I've been counting the days for when it finally arrives on Netflix.

Cons

I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.

Middle Ground

One thing that's a gray area with the film is after the opening scene things do get a little slow. I understand why that is because they've gotten set up character and the heist. But it did kind of feel just a little longer than it should've been, but you're willing to forgive that because once that's over things get back into full speed. The other mix bag is yes there's predictable moments but I was willing to forgive those because by the end of the movie you're still giving a fun zombie flick to sit back and watch.

Pros

Now let's get into more positive things about Army of the Dead and that's it's not your typical zombie movie. Yes you get your plain regular zombies but you also have zombies that are hibernating, zombies that can dodge your attacks, and zombies that act like a tribal leader. But most importantly I'm seeing people come up with fan theories about this movie because there's a sci-fi element that was brought up when Dieter, Vanderohe, and Mikey find the vault. Never seen that before for a zombie flick of all things. What also made this movie a joy to watch is Zack Snyder's directing. That was probably something that goes without saying but I'm telling you about it anyways. This was different from he's usually stuff and that's worthy of praise because it shows his range as a director. He still does some of his usual stuff, for instance a close up of a gun firing and you get a stylized shot of the shell flying out. But stuff like that was very minor, and that opening scene is just amazing. Another thing that was great about Army of the Dead is the performances. The biggest ones for me were from Matthias Schweighöfer and Omari Hardwick. They had some good chemistry between them, and what made it even better was their characters were completely opposites from each other. The other great performance was from Dave Bautista. He really should a lot more range than previous movies I saw him in and that was a quite a surprise. The other aspect of the film that was awesome is the action. I loved the action scenes in this. They were badass and during the final act it gets really crazy. The last thing I'll give Army of the Dead credit for is the humor. There were a lot of funny moments during the film and what made them so great was the timing and those jokes felt appropriate for those scenes.

Army of the Dead is just a blast. It has a fresh take on zombies, Snyder's directing was great as always, Matthias Schweighöfer, Omari Hardwick, and Dave Bautista gave great performances, the action is awesome, and there's some good humor thrown in there. There is a slow bit and there are predictable moments but you can brush those aside because the end result is still an awesome film.

My final rating is Good.

Okay I'm all done here. Come back on Saturday, May 29th for my review of Cruella. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and check out Army of the Dead.