Happily, while there are some undead bumps along the way, Zack Snyder‘s Army of the Dead hits the beats you expect from both heist films and zombie flicks while still managing to deliver some fresh mythology of its own.
The US government has impending plans to nuke the mess right off the map, but while most sensible people head the opposite direction a ragtag group of mercenaries, weirdos, and broke fools is heading towards the heart of it all.
The human side of things are entertaining even as they feel familiar, but the film finds enough fresh angles with its undead population to keep the meat on its narrative bones from growing stale.
From its slow-motion opening montage — an epic short film in its own right that gifts viewers with enough gloriously stylish carnage for a whole movie — to later zombie attacks, we’re introduced to two different breeds of the undead.
Army of the Dead‘s visual style fluctuates at times as Snyder moves the action from sunny slaughters to massacres on the casino floor, but while most of it holds up and works well to build the world of the film, some elements fall short.
Song choices and needle drops, an expected element of any Snyder film, are the usual mixed bag as slow covers and rocking originals penetrate your ears.
While it never drags, the two-and-a-half hour film does spend too much time in its build up — it’s a full fifty minutes before the team enters Las Vegas — before cutting loose, and character motivations/behaviors are mostly pretty familiar.
He’s a gravitational force due as much to his charisma as to his counterintuitive blending of size and emotion, and you can’t help but root for his character’s desire to open an artisan grilled cheese food truck.
Army of the Dead is a big and bloody blast made by the same guy who made Dawn of the Dead which killed off the entire cast in the end credits, so proceed at your own risk.