Army of the Dead (2021) – Hooptober Challenge #7
Requirements:
- Decades (6/8) – 2020s
- Post Apocalyptic or Natural Disaster Related Films (1/2)
Zack Snyder burst onto the scene thanks to his turn as director of the Dawn of the Dead remake, which was really good. But looking back on it, that movie being terrific owes far more to James Gunn (who has finally gotten his due as a writer, idea man, and director) and amazing source material (because who doesn’t love zombies in a mall).
Studios were quick to view Snyder as a young dynamo and threw tons of money at him, carte blanche. Snyder, from the outside looking in, bought into his own hype. Along the way, he took all the wrong lessons from his success. It has plagued every production he’s brought into the world since then.
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He is far more concerned with style over substance and leans way too hard on the whole slow-motion-fast-motion gimmick than anyone has a right to. And this is coming from a guy that desperately wanted to like Sucker Punch (and couldn’t get past its complete incoherence and lack of a soul). Snyder is, by my reckoning, the heir to the Michael Bay throne… and between The Rock and Bad Boys, Bay is still ahead by a hair.
So, what did I think about Army of the Dead? Did I hate it in all its flashiness? Did I recoil at the super long runtime and its unnecessary plot points? Did I quibble with all its gargantuan flaws? NO! I actually enjoyed the film quite a bit.
Let’s get this out of the way quick. If you spent more than two seconds rubbing your brain cells together, you’d break at all the plot holes and inconsistent logic behind the film. If you cared at all about realistic action, you’d fume at how long the team took to get out of Vegas ahead of being nuked. You’d be flabbergasted by the sheer idiocy of the characters’ survival.
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But you know what? This movie is fun! Zack Snyder did a stylish action/heist movie set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic zombie-infested Las Vegas. It could have been completely dismal and joyless. Instead, Snyder taps into the subject matter and goes ham. This film is not meant to be thought-provoking. It’s not meant to further the genre. I doubt it was even meant to be a classic. Netflix crunched some big-time algorithms and paid for Snyder to churn out heist+Bautista+zombies+post-apocalyptic.
In more skilled hands, the concept could have made something really great and cult-y. I’d love to have seen John Carpenter tackle this one, for instance. Or maybe Guy Ritchie. Or maybe Edgar Wright. But I’ll take what I can get… and getting zombies in Vegas as an action movie is still pretty good.
Snyder knew enough to make a really good heist recruiting scene (cue the Rick & Morty “I’m in, you son of a bitch” sample on the soundboard). The recruiting scenes are amazing. It might be my favorite thing in movies, all things told. And Snyder spends about 40 minutes of his 148 putting it together. I didn’t mind one bit. The characters are all interesting cardboard cut-outs. Enough of them have charisma, and enough talking points to be worthwhile. The nonsensical giant Bautista as a burger flipper-turned-apocalyptic warrior makes for a great lead. Matthias Schweighöfer’s Dieter character is wonderful comic relief. The rest are appropriately badass in their own ways.
The opening credits sequence (which was looooonnnnngggg) was really good, but marred by Snyder’s fast-slow-fast obsession. It had me fearing for the whole movie being that. But luckily, it is used sparingly as the movie goes on. The concept of (SPOILERS AHEAD) multiple kinds of zombies is a neat trick. Zombies having their own society and hierarchy is also a cool spin on the deluge of Walking Dead content we’ve had come down the pipeline. Turning them into some mutant Road Warrior tribe holing up in a knock-off Caesar’s Palace was a nice touch.
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Given the long runtime, which honestly didn’t seem all that long in the moment, I would’ve liked to have had more moments. But there is enough here to simply turn off your brain and feast on guns going bang, monsters biting, and action heroes quipping. Many of the action sequences were solid. The fighting was good. The set pieces were decent enough.
I waited 2 years to see this one. But I can say, with a smile on my face, that this kept me engaged and relatively giddy for its entirety. I’d also love a chance to remake this bad boy and turn it into what it could have been.
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