Army of the Dead

[Magnum Valentino]

It's not a great film but I don't think it's fair to say there's no zombie originality in it. I've seen nothing like the zombie class system, royal heirarchy, hibernation, drying out in the sun in any other zombie film. It had a few interesting ideas even if it didn't do much with them.

[checkoutgirl]

What was the hierarchy though? It was like half an idea just abandoned. Any time I saw the leader zombie with his group I wondered what they did all day, do they eat? How do they survive? What do they get up to when the camera isn't on them? Most zombie films don't make me ask these questions.

And what a boring zombie leader villain. He can't speak and I couldn't make out any personality or much to distinguish him. He just runs around on a horse and keeps people he's captured. Why? What does he do with them? Why make a 2 and a half hour B movie?

I'll concede the drying out idea and hierarchy weren't done before but I didn't understand the hierarchy at all so that's a waste and as mentioned the drying out seed never got a call back so that was wasted as well. The hibernation idea was just a way to do another cliche scene of creeping through a bunch of zombies. The new ideas were just buried under a massive pile of clichés.

[frajer]

The opening was probably the best part of the film. Snyder films usually have good opening credit sequences to be fair to him.

Yeah he's undeniably good at those. It's just strange because for me those pulpy zombie shenanigans that fill the credits felt mostly absent from the rest of the film.

Even the

Spoiler alert

zombie tiger chomping on the duplicitious shit

[close]

sequence felt overly long and stupidly solemn. What should have been an audience cheer moment just left me feeling sorry for the fucker.

Not sure why you'd come up with the pulpiest concept ever (a heist in zombie-infested Vegas, yes please!) but then put in such a lot of tedious character interaction.

[Bad Ambassador]

Both Romero's Land of the Dead and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars have zombie leaders, in the latter played by the same actor as in AotD.

[bgmnts]

I was going to say Land of the Dead but its not really like a hierarchy its just one zombie who develops intelligence over the course of the film.

[Magnum Valentino]

What was the hierarchy though? It was like half an idea just abandoned.

...

The new ideas were just buried under a massive pile of clichés.

Agreed, it's shit...but they are there. Don't worry, I'm not defending Zack Snyder - I think he's awful. Probably the most frustrating thing about watching his films is being driven to think what someone else would have done with the same materials. Like Alan Moore or Frank Miller or George Romero or

And here, your man Big Daddy wasn't the only clever zombie in Land of the Dead, mind they all knew not to be fooled by the fireworks at the end?

He was a dab hand with the petrol pump but.

[SteveDave]

Does the guide woman say "They've dried out but they'll come back to life when it rains"? Or something like that? Seems like a bit of a waste of a thing if it then doesn't start raining later in the film and the zombie numbers double.

[Magnum Valentino]

Aye I really wanted to see that pay off. It's there a name for that, some filmmaking principle that if you show a gun, you have to use it? Chekov's gun?

[El Unicornio, mang]

Even the

Spoiler alert

zombie tiger chomping on the duplicitious shit

[close]

sequence felt overly long and stupidly solemn. What should have been an audience cheer moment just left me feeling sorry for the fucker.

Yeah in the equivalent Aliens version, the door opens, we see Burke turn around and the alien face and that's it. We hate the character but we don't need to actually see him die. The look of horror on his face is enough. Here it's more like a teenage boy fantasy of a bad guy getting killed.

But, not wishing to generalize but I imagine a lot of Snyder fans are like the League of Gentlemen "how many killings?" kids who want to see as much carnage and gratuitous violence as possible.

[phantom_power]

Aye I really wanted to see that pay off. It's there a name for that, some filmmaking principle that if you show a gun, you have to use it? Chekov's gun?

Chekov's blue balls

[checkoutgirl]

Here it's more like a teenage boy fantasy of a bad guy getting killed.

To be fair in the horror genre that could be viewed as some nice gore if you're that way inclined. I actually enjoyed that sequence even though I'm not much of a gore hound. I noticed Red Letter Media criticised that sequence but it was only a minute long and I feel there are much worse things to criticise.

Although it is indicative of Snyder's inability to edit a film sufficiently by hiring a decent editor and leaving them alone to sprinkle their magic on it. You get the feeling Snyder would at least be in the editing room at the back making sure not too much gets cut, or anything gets cut by the looks of it.

[wooders1978]

Doesn't I am legend/omega man have a zombie hierarchy thing?

[AsparagusTrevor]

But, not wishing to generalize but I imagine a lot of Snyder fans are like the League of Gentlemen "how many killings?" kids who want to see as much carnage and gratuitous violence as possible.

Yeah, one of the things the Synder fans seem to jump on and fixate on is the R rating, e.g. the Justice League Snyder Cut being bumped to an R rating or the Batman V Superman extended version (which was still considered 12A material here in the UK). A blockbuster just isn't mature unless a bat-costumed superhero can tell someone to fuck off more than once.

[St_Eddie]

And here, your man Big Daddy wasn't the only clever zombie in Land of the Dead, mind they all knew not to be fooled by the fireworks at the end?

I thought the scene of the zombos all gawking at the fireworks and going "ooooooohhh, ahhhhhhhhhh, ooooooohhh, ahhhhhhhhhh" was a bit silly.

[Famous Mortimer]

I enjoyed it, for what it was. Not trying to set up a franchise (I assume), just a fun story with a bunch of characters I rather liked. None of the beats are that surprising or anything, but it was still well done enough.

When you knew Tig Notaro was green-screened in, it was hard not to look for the bits where the effect wasn't quite good enough, or where it felt she wasn't really in the scene but sort of ironically commenting on it. Also, I can't imagine Chris D'Elia doing any of Tig's scenes, so I think they made it a slightly better movie with his removal.

[phantom_power]

I thought the Tig stuff was almost seamless, especially if you weren't looking for it. There were bits where her separation from other people in the scene was a bit more obvious than others but on the whole it was done well

One thing that I just remembered and have no idea why I forgot - The Fucking Robot Zombie!

[El Unicornio, mang]

Yeah I didn't notice at all, probably would now that I know

[kngen]

Does the guide woman say "They've dried out but they'll come back to life when it rains"? Or something like that? Seems like a bit of a waste of a thing if it then doesn't start raining later in the film and the zombie numbers double.

I thought that when they started the generator for the casino, it would switch on a big Bellagio-style fountain outside that would bring a ton of zombies back to life. That might have been cool. But no.

[phantom_power]

Yeah I didn't notice at all, probably would now that I know

When they are escaping through the casino at the end, Bautista shoots a zombie in the head and it reveals metal underneath and does the classic "Ping" sound of bullet against metal

[St_Eddie]

I enjoyed it, for what it was. Not trying to set up a franchise (I assume)...

You assume wrong.  It was very much setup to be the beginning of a multimedia spanning franchise.  They had plans for multiple sequels, TV spin-offs, videogames and comic books.  I would expect those plans to have been scuppered now, due to the box office being less than half of the minimum expected projections (not to mention the poor critical response).  There's a couple of books and a videogame coming out because they were already completed but yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath for a sequel or anything.

It's one of the things which pisses me most off about modern Hollywood; the sheer arrogance to assume that they'll have such a mega hit on their hands that they plan ahead for multiple sequels and spin offs, instead of just concentrating on making the best movie they can and then crossing the expansion bridge if and when they come to it.

When they are escaping through the casino at the end, Bautista shoots a zombie in the head and it reveals metal underneath and does the classic "Ping" sound of bullet against metal

This was one of the setups for the sequel they arrogantly expected to be making.

[holyzombiejesus]

I thought the scene of the zombos all gawking at the fireworks and going "ooooooohhh, ahhhhhhhhhh, ooooooohhh, ahhhhhhhhhh" was a bit silly.

They're not fireworks, remember. They're sky flowers.

[Famous Mortimer]

I thought that when they started the generator for the casino, it would switch on a big Bellagio-style fountain outside that would bring a ton of zombies back to life. That might have been cool. But no.

I assume it was a rather nice little red herring, one of quite a few. Like, who else expected the vault to be empty?

[Alberon]

I watched it in several chunks over a few days. It's okay, but totally by the numbers all the way through.

It's probably why the robot zombie and the time loop suggestions get the most interest from me as they are something different.

There's a prequel with one of the characters (no zombies though, I believe) and some anime bullshit, but the main film has done well enough for a sequel at least. The dreaded word 'franchise' is being thrown around a lot, so it seems this is going to around awhile at least.

[phantom_power]

Oh yeah, forgot about the time loop. I think that is just a crackpot theory and/or joke from the character, though I vaguely remember some portentous music and camerawork when he said it, and this is Zack Snyder so who the fuck knows

[Alberon]

Can't be bothered to link to it but a webpage goes into this in far too much detail. For instance, the key one character wears has three loops on the corpse, but four on the one around her neck. Plus Liberace says something along the lines of "one more time fellas, a one, two, three, four. So the theory goes this is the fourth run through by the team, but the first one any of them survive.

[St_Eddie]

So the theory goes this is the fourth run through by the team, but the first one any of them survive.

I'm sure it'll all be explained via the prequel comic book and on the back of the officially branded hoodie.

"Self-contained narrative?  Whassat?  Nah, mate.  Get them to spend their money on loads of auxiliary merchandise to get the whole story about the badly written characters killing zombos."

[Brundle-Fly]

I really wanted to enjoy it but it was too corny even for me and I was a bit bored by the end. I don't like it when zombies are

Spoiler alert

intelligent

[close]

or in any way

Spoiler alert

mystical

[close]

. Too much like a video game. Mind you, I had drunk two bottles of wine though which is never a good thing, because every misgiving you have becomes magnified and you end up spoiling the film for yourself. And for your very patient partner.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm genuinely surprised that anyone even vaguely liked this, the opening ten minutes were fun I guess but after that it's tediously shit for an hour and a half, briefly okay for twenty minutes, and then turgid crap for the rest of it. It's full of incredibly stupid characters making terrible decisions, awful dialogue and rubbish plotting, I have a soft spot for zombie movies and really hoped to enjoy this, but there's only about half an hour of gory nonsense and two hours of appallingly awful tedium, and it's been a long time since I hated a movie as much as this one.

[SOMK]

I stood up and applauded when

Spoiler alert

"Zombie" by the Cranberries

[close]

started up near the end of the film. Snyder you've done it again, you overly literal man you.

The idea was good but it got a bit meh after they got the money and the main villain seemed too easy to kill. It's a solid 2/5 film.

Spoiler alert

RIP Dolores, but the lyrics to 'Zombie' arguably constitute the worst poem ever written about Ireland, do people genuinely not know Zombie is about the civil war in the six counties? Fun fact Adam Curtis was going to use it as the closing music to 'Can't get you out of my head' until he realised he didn't like it. It's very person in early twenties who has achieved ego bursting success and reenforcing flattery and full of self belief and conviction about their own genius tries their hand at solving complicated and poorly understood (given how much it was censored in the south) political situation by informing people "it's all in your head", well quite but in a manner of speaking so is everything.

[close]

Wild horses with reigns attached to fishhooks looped through my eyes couldn't make me watch this, his 'Dawn of the Dead' is fine, Justin League was okay-ish, of course you wonder in this day and age do what degree is it 'his' really. There's no voice there, other than a kind of survival of the fittest post hoc rational of the extremely privileged, his films are like what I'd imagine those burgers Cartman made by farting on them, because his farts contained the perfect blend of all the other fast food brands he eats, only I'd imagine Cartmans special ingredient is a lot less vulgar than what goes into making his particular brand of pseudo fascist purile gash.

There you go I have emitted the requisite daily brain parp. Was settling in to watch the redlettemedia review of it, completely know what I'm getting with this Zack Snyder is like the perfect microcosm of everything that is wrong with culture of the moment, like a pastiche of a pastiche of a pastiche, that takes itself so dryly serious it'd be funny if it wasn't so bloated, a walking tragedy of convoluted ideology, where Ayn Rand meets CGI via a weird kind of west coast misanthropy, Joe Rogan complaining about homelessness in LA, where post Cold War nihilism meets pot smoking self actualisation & MMA culture, a mind that no sense of irony can penetrate, you could never see a Zac Snyder film in your life and still by just existing in the contemporary moment know the aesthetic inside out.

Now for a productive day, cycling, read another chapter of capital volume 2 (nigh on incomprehensible), write an abusive email to the arts council, meditate, the overdue painting, apologise for forgetting the political meeting yesterday, work as if you are living in the early day of a better nation!

[Glebe]

Watched this last night, reasonably entertaining. Yeah, 'pays homage' to Aliens in a very obvious manner.