For Zack Snyder, 2021 started out on the best note possible as he was finally able to release his original vision for 2017’s Justice League, four years after the film’s infamously mangled theatrical cut was released, as an HBO Max exclusive. As it turns out, however, that wasn’t the only Zack Snyder film to get released this year as we also have Army of the Dead, which is a significant release for him in many ways. For one thing, it’s his first film in a decade that has nothing to do with any of the characters from DC Comics; at the same time, though, it’s also quite notable in the fact that it sees him returning to the genre that was responsible for kick-starting his directorial career in the first place, zombie films. In 2004, Snyder, after many years spent working on music videos, made his official directorial debut with the James Gunn penned remake of George A. Romero’s seminal 1978 classic, Dawn of the Dead. And despite the undoubtedly intense expectations of helming a remake of one of the most revered films of all time, the Dawn of the Dead remake is largely considered to be one of the best remakes ever made, especially when it comes to the horror genre. During that film’s production, Snyder began developing his own take on the genre with a heist film set within the confines of a zombie-infested Las Vegas, and while the initial rumors of it being a direct follow-up to Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead were ultimately proven false, it is set to become its own franchise on Netflix, which seems to be Snyder’s new distributor going forward. But until then, we have the first film of this newborn franchise that, for better or worse, is a Zack Snyder film through and through.
When a military convoy out of Area 51 ends up in a
devastating car crash, the cargo that it was transporting, a zombie, breaks
free and makes its way to Las Vegas. Almost immediately, Sin City becomes the
epicenter of a zombie epidemic that results in the government blocking off the
entire city and, six years later, announces plans to nuke it to rid the world of this undead
infestation. Before that happens, however, billionaire casino owner Bly Tanaka
(Hiroyuki Sanada) approaches ex-mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), who
played a key role in quelling the initial outbreak, and hires him to collect
$200 million from a secure vault in Tanaka’s casino. In return, Tanaka will
give Scott $50 million that he can freely split amongst the crew that he forms
for the operation. Thus, Scott begins to assemble a team ranging from old
allies like mechanic Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera) and buzzsaw-wielding
philosophy major Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) to newcomers like safecracker
Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighofer). But as Scott and his crew head into
Vegas, they soon find themselves having to deal with more complications than
they had planned for such as, among other things, Scott’s estranged daughter
Kate (Ella Purnell) tagging along with them to rescue a friend of hers who
snuck into the city. And if that wasn’t enough, the crew also learns that,
aside from the usual shambling zombies, a new breed of highly advanced and
intelligent zombies known as alphas have laid their claim in Sin City.
Army of the Dead is a microcosm of everything that
Zack Snyder brings to the table as a director as it highlights his best… and
worst filmmaking tendencies. As to be expected from him at this point, this
film goes all-in with its visuals, which do a great job of utilizing the
story’s Las Vegas setting. And, of course, Snyder has also proven that he’s one
of the best action directors in the business which, naturally, results in a
bunch of excellent action sequences. However, as great as Snyder is as a
visual/action director, he’s still got a long way to go when it comes to the
narrative aspects of filmmaking. For starters, just like a certain director’s
cut, Army of the Dead is another showcase of Snyder’s tendency to draw
out the pacing of his films’ proceedings to the point where they end up being longer
than they arguably need to be. It also doesn’t help that the writing often
feels incredibly undercooked at times, resulting in a film that, despite what I
said earlier about its solid utilization of its Las Vegas setting, doesn’t necessarily
fully capitalize on its unique premise of being a ‘zombie heist’ film. Granted,
that’s not to say that there aren’t any great sequences here that bring a fun
zombie-based spin to the usual moments that you’d get from a heist plot, such
as a scene where characters utilize a mindless ‘shambler’ to be their guinea
pig for all the traps that are guarding the vault that they’re after. But for
the most part, the film ends up being more of a straight-forward zombie ‘shoot
em up’ that, to be perfectly frank, doesn’t make it that much different from
other recent bits of media from the zombie genre such as The Walking Dead and
its various spin-offs or the zombie modes from Call of Duty games.
Ultimately, though, the biggest indicator of this film’s
narrative shortcomings is its characters. Practically every major character in
this story is one-note at best, and while some do manage to be memorable
standouts, character development is almost non-existent to the point where any
attempts at emotional poignancy are promptly dashed due to the characters who
get these moments immediately getting killed off. Now, with that said, it’s not
like there’s any ‘bad’ performances from the cast or anything because everyone
involved is clearly having fun in their respective roles. Dave Bautista, for
example, proves that he can hold his own as a lead just as effectively as all
the great supporting roles that he’s played over the years. Nevertheless, the
main protagonists in this film don’t get anything of value to work with,
especially when it comes to the female characters. Whether it’s Scott’s
daughter Kate making some questionable decisions during the heist or a poorly
executed attempt at romantic chemistry between Scott and Maria, Army of the
Dead is, unfortunately, another case of Snyder’s less-than-stellar track
record with female characters (e.g. Sucker Punch). The only one who
somewhat manages to overcome this is Tig Notaro, who plays Marianne Peters, the
crew’s helicopter pilot. At the same time, though, that could just be due to a
combination of Notaro’s legitimately great screen presence… and the fact that
she was a last-minute replacement for a role that was originally written for
comedian Chris D’Elia before he was dropped from the film due to his various
sexual misconduct charges.
At this point, I’m well-aware of the risks that film critics
such as myself face when it comes to discussing Zack Snyder films. If the utter
dedication of the ‘Release the Snyder Cut’ and ‘Restore the SnyderVerse’
movements weren’t enough of an indication, Zack Snyder arguably has the most
dedicated fans of any director in the film industry… and by ‘dedicated’, I mean
that they’ll viciously attack anyone who dares to critique his work. Case in
point, even though I will ultimately give this a positive review, I won’t be
surprised if some Snyder diehards will still get on my case about it for not
being a flawless 5/5 review because that’s just what’s expected
from them at this point. And so, with that in mind, all I can do now is say
that Army of the Dead is the very definition of a Zack Snyder film in
the best and worst ways. As can often be the case with Snyder films, it’s a bit
too overlong and despite all the promise of a Vegas-set heist film with
zombies, the script is frustratingly underdeveloped, thus stranding a solid
cast with barely any decent material to work with. That said, though, this is
also very much one of those films that does exactly what it advertises and, if
anything, strongly represents Snyder’s talents as a visual director. Thus, I’ll
admit that, at the very least, I’m interested in seeing how this all pans out
as one of Netflix’s newest franchises. There’s going to be a prequel film later
this year, Army of Thieves, that will center on Matthias Schweighofer’s
Ludwig (with Schweighofer himself directing) and an anime series coming next
year, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, which will see Dave Bautista, Ella
Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Omari Hardwick, and Tig Notaro all reprising their
respective roles. Not only that, but an official sequel has recently been
confirmed as well, which Snyder will do after he helms another Netflix film, Rebel
Moon. But when it comes to the original Army of the Dead,
while I’m glad that Zack Snyder got the chance to do something different after
a decade of doing DC films (that and doing a film that wasn’t hindered by
studio interference), it’s rather disappointing to see that he hasn’t necessarily
evolved as a director.
Rating: 3/5
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