Army of Thieves Review

 

Army of Thieves is a romantic heist comedy movie, the prequel to Army of the Dead, and the second installment of the Army of the Dead franchise. The movie is produced by The Stone Quarry and Pantaleon Films and distributed by Netflix. Army of Thieves is written by Zack Snyder and Shay Hatten and directed by Matthias Schweighofer.

The story is it's years before the events of Army of the Dead and we're only at the beginning stage of a zombie outbreak in Vegas. During this time of confusing and panic, Ludwig Dieter has only just begun his days of safecracking but is called upon by a mysterious woman for a job. Now it's up to him and a group of other aspiring thieves to get the job done.

Initial Reaction

Now since I had blast with Army of the Dead it was only natural that I would be looking forward to what came next. So when I saw a trailer for this movie I was very much interested. And I really loved Matthias Schweighofer as Dieter, he provides a great performance for the character so the fact we're getting an entire movie based on his character seems like a good idea for a movie. Especially since everyone else seemed to love his character too.

Cons

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

Middle Ground

One gray area with Army of Thieves is the humor. There were some funny moments, but you do get those bits that just don't work. Then we have a feeling a familiarity. There are at times when you are gonna see things that you've seen from other heist films. But the filmmakers did try to do something. For instance our team isn't going after one item but three, and each one absolutely needs a different plan for everything to work, otherwise they're screwed.

Pros

Now for the pros about this film, one of those being Dieter. I mean when I say I love this character. He's just so likable that there's nothing to really hate about him. Then we have quite a bit of focus on characters. I'm by no means saying Army of Thieves has the greatest character development but, I felt like I knew enough to make a decision of which characters I liked and wanted to win in the end. I also want to give credit to Matthias Schweighöfer's directing. I don't know if this was he's debut as a director and if it was good job Matthias. The last thing I want to give the movie credit for is the pacing. I was surprised by how fast things went. I remembering going to the bathroom and pausing the movie and seeing I was 57 minutes into the movie. I felt like I was watching the movie for quite awhile but I didn't think I was that deep into it.

I had a lot of fun with Army of Thieves. Sure there were some funny moments that didn't work and you can't help but have a familiar feeling when watching it. However, what saves the film is Dieter himself, a focus on character, Schweighöfer's directing, and the pacing.

My final rating is Good.

Okay I'm all done here. Come back on Monday, Nov 1st when I return to the Road to The Matrix Resurrections with my review of The Matrix Revolutions. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.