Army of the Dead (2021) review (Netflix)

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

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) review

Ever since he made his feature-length directorial debut in 1985 with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Tim Burton has proven himself to be one of the most visually unique filmmakers in the entire film industry. Thanks to big hits like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and his two Batman films, he’s become well-known for his dark and quirky gothic style. And even though some of his more recent films haven’t exactly fared as well with critics, including the remakes that he did of films like Planet of the Apes and Alice in Wonderland, he’s still very much one of those directors whose films are always worth checking out just to see what he does next. For his latest film, Burton takes on a very Burton-esque kind of story that some might describe as a cross between Harry Potter and X-Men; Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The film is based on a 2011 book of the same name by author Ransom Riggs, who was inspired by a series of vintage photographs that he had been collecting over the years. Originally intended to be released as a picture book, Riggs instead decided to use these photographs and craft a story about a series of children with extraordinary powers or, to be more precise, ‘peculiar’ powers. The book became a big hit and has since led to two sequels, 2014’s Hollow City and 2015’s Library of Souls. Five years later, it now spawns a feature film directed by the one and only master of the macabre himself, Tim Burton. And while it ultimately may not be one of his ‘best’ films, it’s still a solidly entertaining film that highlights Burton’s talents as a director, especially in terms of visuals.  

As the film begins, 16-year old Jacob Portman (Asa Butterfield) is suddenly dealt with the tragic loss of his grandfather Abraham (Terence Stamp). When he was younger, Jacob’s grandfather always used to tell him stories about a group of children with extraordinary abilities (or ‘peculiarities’ as they’re referred to in the film) living on an island in Wales being looked after by a woman named Miss Peregrine. Given the mysterious circumstances surrounding his grandfather’s death, Jacob convinces his parents to let him travel to the island so that he can seek ‘closure’ and find out whether or not his stories were true. Once he gets there, Jacob does end up coming across the children his grandfather told him about and they take him to their home, where he meets their protector, Miss Peregrine (Eva Green). Jacob learns that because those with ‘peculiarities’ are often frowned upon by others, Miss Peregrine and her children live in a peaceful abode away from the outside world, with Miss Peregrine having the ability to keep them within a closed time loop that has them reliving the same day over and over again safe from harm. However, the peaceful lives of the ‘Peculiar Children’ are soon threatened by the arrival of the Wights, a group of immortal human-like creatures, led by Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson), who hunt peculiars for their eyes in order to maintain their immortality. When Mr. Barron ends up taking Miss Peregrine hostage, Jacob takes on the responsibility of keeping the Peculiar Children safe from Barron and his fellow Wights, as Jacob learns that he himself has the ‘peculiarity’ of seeing the monstrous creatures known as hollowgasts that the Wights control and yet are invisible to others.

Admittedly this film starts off on a rather slow note. It does take a little while before it really gets going and starts to get into the stuff with the titular ‘Peculiar Children’. But once it does, I can safely say that this is where the film really starts to shine. In terms of story, this definitely matches with Burton’s visual sensibilities as well as his tendency to focus on characters who are generally seen as ‘outcasts’ (e.g. Edward Scissorhands, Batman, etc.). As a result, the visuals are definitely the best part of the film, from the action sequences (the big action sequence involving re-animated skeletons and hollowgasts at a carnival is easily the best moment in the entire film) to even minor details like the shift in color scheme that occurs whenever characters go in and out of time loops. But ultimately the key success of this film comes in the form of its titular ‘Peculiar Children’. While her name does come first in the title, Miss Peregrine ultimately isn’t the main character of the story; the children are. Granted, like I said before, it takes a while before they really start to let the kids use their abilities but when they do, they’re easily the best part of the film. They work very well together and there is a nice variety to their abilities, from Emma (Ella Purnell), who can control air, to Olive (Lauren McCrostie), who can control fire (and yes, their abilities were switched from the book which is really no big deal in terms of the overall story), to Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), who can bring inanimate objects to life (e.g. those aforementioned skeletons). So in short, while the first half of the film does start off rather slow, the second half does end it on a good note.

Because the focus is on the kids, they get plenty of screen time during the second half of the film. And for a cast of general unknowns, they all do a really solid job. Sure character development is admittedly pretty simple in this story but the ‘Peculiar Children’ do make up for it thanks to the variety of their abilities and their solid camaraderie. As for some of the other members of the cast, Asa Butterfield does a good job acting as the audience’s avatar in this world of peculiarity. He also has solid romantic chemistry with Ella Purnell in what will no doubt be her breakout role as Emma, who’s easily the principal member of the ‘Peculiar Children’ and quite frankly provides a lot of the film’s heart. While Miss Peregrine does end up taking a back seat to the Peculiar Children during the second half of the story, Eva Green, in her second collaboration with Tim Burton following 2012’s Dark Shadows, brings just the right amount of eccentricity to the role while also very much conveying the compassion that she has for the Peculiar Children that she protects. As she put it, she’s ‘Scary Poppins with a Big Heart’. And finally there’s Samuel L. Jackson as the film’s main villain, Mr. Barron. I’ll just say it straight up; Jackson is very much hamming it up here. But if you ask me, that’s totally fine. Campy Samuel L. Jackson is fun Samuel L. Jackson and it’s very clear that he’s having quite a lot of fun in this role. And just like in The Legend of Tarzan earlier this year, he gets plenty of the best lines.

Admittedly I wouldn’t really say that Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is one of Tim Burton’s best films. Given the films that he’s made over the years, this one is admittedly a bit standard by comparison, especially in terms of story. And as noted earlier, it does take a bit for it to really get going. But once it does, that’s when the film really starts to shine. It smartly focuses on what it should be focusing on; the ‘Peculiar Children’. The kids are easily the stars of the show and they all do a really nice job for being a cast of general unknowns. The other members of the cast are solid as well and this is very much a Tim Burton film in terms of visual style and how it reflects Burton’s quirky sensibilities as a filmmaker. Overall, if one were to rank all of the films that Burton has directed over the years, this one would fit somewhere nicely in the middle. As noted in the intro, this is based off of the first installment in a series of books that author Ransom Riggs wrote that was directly inspired by the collection of vintage photographs that he has amassed over the years. At the moment it’s unclear if this will be followed by a sequel and for the record, this can technically be classified as being part of the ‘Young Adult’ genre that’s had generally mixed results in terms of film adaptations the past few years. But in that case, at the very least I can say that for a film that’s based off of a ‘Young Adult’ novel, this is definitely one of the better ones and I wouldn’t mind seeing another film set in this universe.

Rating: 3.5/5