TwdPepper

0/10

Disappointed. This movie is entertaining. It is good. Thanks to its big budget, it looks better than 90% of zombie films and has many great ideas. But it fails to take any of these ideas to the next level. The hierarchy of zombies is extremely interesting, and while we do get a sufficient amount of it; I wish this was one of Zack Snyder's epic "Director's Cuts" and it had gotten another hour or so to flesh it out. A handful of characters are also on the edge of greatness. They were awesome, but a little more time to shine could have done them wonders! But at least with these examples: what we got was still really good. My biggest issue is with the awesome action sequences that they tease but never deliver. A character has a favorite weapon—NEVER USES IT! A bunch of dried-up zombies are said to come back to life when it rains—IT NEVER RAINS! Why?! Why would you have these things in the movie if you aren't paying them off? These add to the overall feeling that this is a tame return to the genre for Snyder. His 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake is one of the wildest and scariest zombie films ever made. I have my issues with 'Dawn', but it clearly swung for the fences and accomplished everything it was going for. Army of the Dead doesn't feel this way. I appreciate that it isn't as bleak as 'Dawn', but it has so much less bite. Half of the kills are good, but the other half feel very basic or even happen offscreen!! A father/daughter subplot adds nothing new—and drags down the fun. Not just their relationship, but her entire involvement is seemingly just there to mess up the characters' plan. A tired and frustrating trope. Army of the Dead had all of the ingredients to become a classic. Instead, we settle.

Chris Sawin

0/10

Army of the Dead injects some much needed vitality into both zombie films as a whole and Zack Snyder’s career as a filmmaker. Dave Bautista is also the best he’s ever been as far as his acting ability goes. Gory as hell and entertaining through and through, Army of the Dead is a must-watch for action and horror film fans alike. We really needed more scenes with Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) using that giant circular saw to tear through zombie flesh though. Full review here: http://geekshavegame.com/army-of-the-dead-review-zack-snyders-return-to-zombie-flesh-eating-form/

Paladin5150

7/10

As much as I wanted to like this movie, and ESPECIALLY not wanting to throw shade on Dave Bautista, I'm afraid the words of none other than Macbeth are the most fitting as far as a review of this enterprise goes: A.O.D. is but a walking shadow, some poor players That strut and fret their two and a half hours upon the stage And then are heard no more: It is a tale Told by idiots, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. That having been said, the REAL shame here is, that, with just a little bit of re jiggering, and a little less stupidity on the part of any one of the panopoly of characters, and, this could have not only been an epic movie, but, possibly a even a (2 or 3 movie) franchise! Any move that starts from the jump with nekkid zombie stripper ta ta's is a go for me, just on the "Hmmm, I ain't seen THAT before factor alone. Now, throw in Siegfried and Roy's zombified Manticore' , and, you're going to hold my interest. Add super quick and agile "rage zombies, and a mix of your usual suspect "shufflin' and bitin' " zombies, as well as a full auto Drax the Destroyer, and a crew of mangey former tier one operators, who served their country honorably, but per current SOP, were promptly shat upon by the country that they so dutifully served, then, give them a chance to for once not just even the score but come out ahead, and, you HAD the basis for a pretty decent horror adventure flick. But then SOMBODY had to go and try to grow a brain, perhaps thinking they could be "edgy", and, instead of delivering a fun, intelligent live action "Walking Dead" (first few seasons only), they decided to suck all the common sense from EVERY characters brain, and then have each one of them suddenly go mute at the most inopportune times, when a word, a note, or even a cryptic whisper, could keep someone from becoming zombie snackos'. Now add to that mix, a teenaged girl with one of the most full blown cases of narcissistic personality disorder ever witnessed on film, and have her played by an actor who every time she opens her mouth you just want to backhand her and send her to her room with no dinner, but, she's a master of either guilting her father (team leader Scott Ward) for doing something she later admits "he had to do", or by threatening to run off and do it anyway, which is a certain one way trip. So, welcome to mercenary baby sitting, Z/A style. All is not lost though as there are some nice bonding moments between Zen "man some of the shizz I've done" Vanderohe, and newbie merc / safecracker Ludwig Dieter, especially when it is discovered he doesn't even know Zombie 101 basics. Raul Castillos' "Mickey" who at first seems to be either a You Tube poser, or just a bit crazy, Turns out to be an honorable guy. Samantha Joe's "Chambers" is a formidable street fighter, but, sadly , her heroic last stand is wasted when in the end, she got a case of the mutes, when she could have saved the entire crew with a shouted warning. Nora Arnezeder is believable as Lilly, The Coyote, even if she does let little miss prissy teen smack her around a bit, for helping another of Kates IDIOT friends do something stupid. that in the end, does not bode well for the entire team. Tig Notaro I guess is OK, especially since she was a last minute "digital" substitute for Chris D'Elia, who was unceremoniously cancelled and erased from the movie due to misconduct of the sexual kind. It's not seamless, but, it's not distracting either. But, she too, got hit with the idiot stick at the last minute, and, her indecision literally was catastrophic. In BOTH their story arcs, Snyder chose to plagiarize, er, uh, be "inspired" by ENTIRE SCENES from "Aliens", then "edgily" flip the script, by declaring opposite day at their individual conclusions. The longest walk of shame, IMO, goes to Bautista's character Scott Ward, for being either too blind of just plain dumb, to not see through the machinations of neither his Japanese Benefactor, nor his henchman sent along to fulfill the ACTUAL goal of the "heist". But, in his defense, a couple hundred million dollars tax free, can buy a mighty dark pair of rose colored glasses, and, even though he can't see the forest for the trees, nor, apparently when the passion fires of his former flame have burst into a bonfire. Her end was so telegraphed, that even as it occurred, you weren't really shocked, just saddened. Just as his end, and the way it came about, had one waiting for the sound track to cue up Alanis Morrissette, but, perhaps they couldn't get a music clearance.. ONE final chance at redemption comes in the form of the epilogue with Vanderohe, and, it could have played out the epic revenge scenario, but, alas it was not to be, and he, along with any chance at a sequel, was D.O.A. So, in conclusion, I don't dislike this movie for it's short comings, but, because of it's unfulfilled potential. It didn't necessarily have to be all happily ever after, but, as you watch it, and the idiocy starts leaking out of the characters, see if you can glimpse the great movie that COULD have been.

sporkproductions

0/10

Zach Snyder is a director I have an incredible amount of respect for. He has a truly original vision, he makes films unlike anyone else, and he seems to relish being a bit of an outsider who somehow gets to make whatever he wants. Sort of like this generation's version of 90's/00's Robert Rodriguez. Yet, try as I might I just can't seem to actually enjoy his films. I won't bother going into it because personally I'd prefer not enjoying a wacky Zach Snyder film then being mildly entertained by most mainstream fluff that seem crafted by algorithms. If you like Snyder's films this one will most likely be a real joy. If you don't this one won't win you over. Either way, I hope he gets to keep making his manic fever dreams because we need more films with authentic voices.

JPRetana

0/10

The only good thing about Zack Snyder's masturbatory exercise Army of the Dead, is that it's comparatively shorter than his version of Justice League – but what movie isn't? An hour and a half short of a four-hour movie is still too long, especially considering that if everything we've seen before were edited out of the film, AotD would be a short feature. True, we may not have seen a heist/zombie apocalypse movie, but we've seen dozens of heists and dozens of zombie apocalypses, and bringing the two genres together only serves to highlight the inconsistencies of each. But, let us start at the beginning. A US military convoy is transporting an unknown cargo from Area 51. The two soldiers in the cab of the truck debate the contents of the box (“the original draft of the Constitution written in the blood of the Founding Fathers… Amelia Earhart, long live ", etc.). Whatever it is, it’s highly inflammable, judging by how the truck instantly turns into a huge ball of fire the moment it makes contact with a considerably smaller vehicle. Actually it is some kind of superhuman zombie that kills a bunch of soldiers and infects two of them. This entire scenario could easily have unfolded without the arbitrary and random explosion; the gigantic fireball is here solely because Snyder is such an impatient director that, in a 140-minute film, he can't wait even five minutes before blowing something to bits – the cinematic equivalent of premature ejaculation. On the other hand, Snyder takes his time on plot points that we all know by heart. Hero is offered a job. Hero turns down job. Hero changes his mind and takes the job. Hero assembles team. And so on and so forth. So as to leave no cliché unused, the hero also has an estranged daughter, Kate (Ella Purnell); this, however, deserves some more attention. Kate works in a quarantine camp for zombies, which is nothing short of a logic-defying concept. It is first established that the zombie bite takes immediate effect, transforming the victim into another zombie – and one does not quarantine a zombie; one shoots a zombie in the head and moves on. Now, it has always been a habit of zombie movies to play fast and loose, depending on the requirements of the script, with the time it takes for a bite to kick in, but two wrongs don’t make a right. All things considered, AotD is a rip-off that makes it a point of ripping off bad ideas – which might be all right if it were a parody, but the movie is too bloated and excessive to ever be able to take itself lightly.