Review of the film “Army of the Dead”. Sniderpocalypse – review addiction

Today it is not so often recalled that Zack Snyder’s film career began with “Dawn of the Dead” – a remake of the cult 1978 film. And although critics greeted him warmly, and he collected a good box office, many fans of the original called the new version a soulless fake. They can be understood, because the remake really went far from the intention of George Romero. Social commentary, black humor and general melancholy were replaced by brutal and evil zombie-crumbling, seasoned with hopelessness and clip editing. Be that as it may, Snyder declared himself, was appointed to “300 Spartans”, and then it started … And now, seventeen years later, after the tragedy in the family and the epoch-making drama around Justice League the director returned to the good old zombies.

One rainy night near Las Vegas, a military truck crashes, from which the most real living dead man gets out. Through his efforts, the capital of the casino is covered by a zombie epidemic in a matter of hours. All attempts to recapture the city fail, and then the government decides to simply enclose it with a wall.

Scott Ward is a former mercenary who lost his wife in all this turmoil. His life is hard and joyless: his relationship with his daughter is ruined, his job as a cook in a diner brings neither money nor pleasure, and nightmares torment him at night. But then one day the millionaire Bligh Tanaka turns up to him and offers a dashing adventure: Scott must assemble a team, penetrate the wall and take $ 200 million from the vault in the casino. If everything works out, he can take 50 million for himself. Big risk, big jackpot – but, in general, there is nothing to lose. Having gathered a group, Ward goes to the city of zombies.

The best part “Armies of the Dead” – opening credits. And not because the rest of the film is so bad, but because Snyder created a small masterpiece at the level of the opening of his own “Guardians”… It has a hit hit, branded slow-mo, fountains of blood, black humor, bright colors, spectacular images and the unique flavor of Vegas. Actually, most of the frames for the trailer were borrowed from this clip. The problem is that the opening promises a somewhat different picture that awaits the viewer in the future.

The plot before us is an honest tracing paper with “Aliens” Cameron or, say, from the first “Resident Evil” Anderson. A squad of thugs is sent to a very bad place to complete a task with a trick, and on the way to die in full or almost full strength, finally giving out luli to the final boss. The formula was effective forty years ago and twenty, and now it may well work too. The main thing is that there are two components in place: memorable characters, on which the viewer does not really care, and vigorous action (preferably interspersed with suspense). All of the above is in the “Army of the Dead”, but as if in the background. The first, oddly enough, comes out of the drama. Before us is the most personal film of Zack Snyder: he acted as a director, producer, screenwriter, and even – for the first time in filmography – as a cameraman. And it just so happened that he took it off shortly after a terrible personal tragedy: the suicide of his adopted daughter. As a result, whether deliberately or accidentally, Snyder made Scott’s troubled relationship with his daughter Kate a pillar of history. And when, closer to the finale, the main character asks for forgiveness for the fact that he was not there at a difficult moment, it is impossible to get rid of the thought that the director himself speaks through the mouth of Ward.

If you think that this cool circular saw, which even appeared on the poster, will receive its bloody moment of fame in the film, then you are wrong.

Therapy, if it really is her, is, of course, a good thing, but the whole line with the daughter loads the picture with a not particularly necessary and very mediocre drama written. But she gives Dave Batista the opportunity to finally reveal her acting potential. Another short episode in Blade Runner 2049 made it clear that the former wrestler is capable of more than grimacing in Drax’s makeup. “Army of the Dead” confirms this. Batista drags the entire film on himself, confidently acting out a worried father, a grieving widower, a faithful friend, and a brutal zombie extermination machine. Scott Ward will hardly be on a par with Ellen Ripley or Ash from Evil Deadbut it’s nice to follow him on screen.

The rest of the team members are also relatively well worked out: they are remembered, if not by their names, then by their distinctive features. There is a sarcastic pilot, there is an equally sarcastic African American who, for some reason, quotes Joseph Campbell (the author “Thousand Faced Hero” – a reference book of almost every Hollywood screenwriter), there is also a Mexican video blogger and his girlfriend, clearly copied from Vasquez from “Aliens”, Tanaka’s suspicious-looking henchman, and also a blonde stalker who knows more about Vegas than others. However, Dieter steals all the audience’s attention: a German burglar, who apparently got the role of the main comedian. True, one cannot say that he copes with it flawlessly – there is just a lot of him. Almost every scene of the film is accompanied by the reaction of a chatty German, which for some will be a plus, and for others an excuse to turn off the film in half an hour. Oh, yes, there is still a daughter, Kate, but she is needed just for Batista’s mental torment and doing stupid things that move the plot further.

And the “Army of the Dead” is full of nonsense. If you are not ready to close your eyes to turmoil, lack of logic and giant plot holes, it is better not to start watching. Here, either the director and part-time screenwriter finally scored on the minimum reliability of what was happening, or some kind of awkwardly cropped version came out on Netflix, and at the time it was time to again demand a “snidercat”. It comes to the point of absurdity: some plot lines remain without any completion at all, and the characters, for whose fate the viewer should seem to be worried, disappear without a trace.

According to the credits, the leader of the dead is called Zeus. And the casino that the heroes are storming is called Sodom. Without references, Snyder simply cannot

The film, in principle, leaves a keen sense of incompleteness. Everything in it is with the postscript “almost”: the characters are almost charismatic, the jokes are almost funny, the finds are almost successful. For example, smart and dexterous zombies, who were so filled with their knowledge that they organized themselves into a real tribe with hierarchy and traditions. The local king of the dead even has a whole set of attributes of royal power: a tunic, a spear and a metal helmet. This is a curious and not hackneyed concept that develops the ideas laid down by George Romero in his “Day of the Dead” and “Land of the Dead”… The trouble is, Snyder does almost nothing to her. When it comes to conflict, zombies, as elsewhere, rely on numbers and brute force, except that now some of them can dodge and occasionally use improvised objects (by the way, ghouls were capable of this even in “Nights of the Living Dead” 1968). The same with the zombie tiger, which was proudly shown in the trailer. He appears in three scenes, of which only in two, in principle, does something and only in one eats someone, after which he disappears forever. The action in “Army of the Dead” is very meaty and effective in places, but it is almost always cut off before it reaches its climax. It seems that a little more – and real fun, trash and frenzy, promised in the prologue, will begin. Right now … A little more … In the next scene for sure … And then the film ends. It turns out that just a good shootout ten minutes earlier was the very grand final to which they were leading all the way.

Another dubious aspect of the tape is how it was actually filmed. It has long been known that a sense of proportion is alien to Snyder the director, but Snyder the cameraman does not seem to have heard of him at all. It plays with the depth of field so often and so irrepressibly that you may seriously think that you are going blind. Each frame is partially out of focus, the background is constantly in “soap”, but this is not a technical defect, but the author’s vision, which is supposed to be accepted.

Just a couple of months after everyone’s acclaimed and monumental Justice League, Zach Snyder has released his most personal, yet sleaziest and most controversial film. Handsome and ugly, soulful and empty, excessive and underdeveloped. Army of the Dead is like a test of faith for the most dedicated fans. Say, here he is, Snyder unbridled, Snyder unleashed, with a full Netflix carte blanche and without any pressure from the studio bosses who do not whip the chip. And, as the reviews show, not all of this test has passed.