Those that raised their expectations to the ceiling might have been chiding themselves for doing so to be realistic, but those that kept their expectations moderate to low might have found a reason to enjoy this movie while finding the time to laugh at certain points. Let’s put it this way, Zack Snyder’s movies are a LOT better when he’s not using pre-existing material since he does tend to like to go outside of the lines occasionally. This time around it has to be said, there are definitely a few elements that feel as though Snyder saw them and figured they would work for his movie. To his credit a couple of them did, but there were some that really made a person shake their head while trying to figure out what they were watching. The way the movie starts is simply insane since a newlywed couple leaving Vegas crashes into a military convoy as the woman is, well, showing her appreciation for her man.
The fiery inferno that engulfs them and their car becomes kind of a moot point when the large steel box that was being hauled atop the truck in the convoy hit the road, causing the door to pop open and the unknown cargo to emerge. Now, however, decided to first let zombies run needs to be given a big, hard pinch because there are creepier things out there than zombies that can sprint, jump, and evade gunfire, but there aren’t many. Zombies are already terrifying so it’s easy to imagine that watching them fight with some semblance of intelligence and a type of cunning is absolute. But as the audience sees three zombies looking over the bright lights of Vegas, it’s fully established that trouble is about to begin. Two thoughts come to life thanks to the opening of this movie, the fact that the eyes of the zombies resemble the red and yellow cast of the Sith, which is interesting. The second is that it feels kind of like Zombieland 1 and 2 during its opening, with mayhem going off in the city and soldiers attempting to save who they could.
Even more interesting is an ongoing discussion on the TV about nuking Las Vegas and reducing the number of infected to a hopeful zero since walling off an entire city is a drastic measure, and one that no one is bound to think will work forever. Yet, the zombies appear to have their own little communities within the city, with the shamblers and the alphas dividing into their own groups yet working as a part of a single community. Even more interesting, the shamblers tend to hibernate, kind of and will stand motionless in groups, perhaps to conserve energy, which is kind of an odd thought. The alphas actually appear to have a set hierarchy and will take live people to turn into other alphas, as Theo Rossi finds out since he plays a despicable border guard that’s selected at the last second for the same mission that is concocted by Bly Tanaka, who is played by Hiroyuki Sanada.
Once a proud soldier, Scott Ward had to kill his own wife when she turned into a zombie, and when he’s offered this chance to recover a fortune in cold, hard cash by Tanaka, he gathers a team and sets out for the city. The team he gathers is a motley bunch, but there are at least a few faces he knows well and trusts, while the rest are needed for their own reason. But the promise of $50 million dollars split in a number of ways is hard to say no to. Overall this movie wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t quite the experience that a lot of people might have been hoping for. Giving props to Snyder is easy enough on this one since he did have a vision of what he wanted to do, but it does feel as though he borrowed from a lot of other elements and did his own thing with them. An undead tiger and an undead horse are both pretty cool if a little unusual. But it’s Vegas, so at least one tiger was a nice touch.
All in all, Army of the Dead was a movie to walk into with expectations of seeing a zombie movie, that much is plain, but apart from that, it starts to feel rather predictable since one can easily guess who’s going to die and in some cases, when. That doesn’t necessarily take away from the movie, but it does make things appear kind of hopeless since one by one the group of mercenaries and oddballs starts to dwindle until the end when two people are left, and of those, one reveals that he’s been bit as the private plane he’s rented starts to take off. Perhaps there’s a sequel in the works?
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