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Rating: 4 out of 5
Zombies have been at the forefront for a while now. Shows like the Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead have become beyond popular. If you need a good zombie movie, there are tons of them out in the world. Films like Shaun of the Dead to Zombieland and others have made zombies exciting If you played Call of Duty, you know all about zombie survival mode or even Resident Evil. Such a great way to spend your time.
Now, if you are looking for one of the most over-the-top zombie movies ever, then look no further than Army of the Dead. Director Zack Snyder took some time away from doing his Justice League thing to make a zombie heist film filled with more blood and gore that would make any zombie fan blush. Now is Army of the Dead an all-time great zombie movie? Hell Naw! Is it an all-time awful zombie movie? Not even close. It is one of those movies that you will be surely entertained and get a few laughs out of it.
First off, Army of the Dead’s opening credits sequence is entirely hilarious. Something that looks like it was taken straight out of Duke Nukem game or one of those games where you half a full mini montage dedicated to each character. After a United States’ military convoy traveling from Area 51 collides with a car on the highway outside Las Vegas. The convoy’s cargo escapes and is like a super-powerful zombie that kills and infects several soldiers before heading into Sin City, Las Vegas. This is when the movie gets crazy of a sequence of a lifetime. Set to “Viva Las Vegas,” we see zombies going to town on everyone in Vegas. If you can think of it, the montage probably has it from Elvis impersonator to pageant queens and showgirls devouring tourists. Here we see many of the main characters who fight in the “Battle of Las Vegas.” The sequence is one of the most entertaining sequences you can think of for a crazy zombie movie. It ends with military intervention failing and the government deciding to quarantine the city with large tankers around the city. As the saying goes, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
After the high-paced montage, we are introduced to the plot of this crazy film. Starting off six years later, Billionaire casino magnate Bly Tanaka (Sanada) and his associate Martin (Dillahunt) approach Medal of Honor winner mercenary and now burger flipper Scott Ward (Bautista) about a job to recover $200 million from his casino vault in Las Vegas before the military deploys a tactical nuclear strike on the city. Ward agrees and recruits his former teammates Maria Cruz (Reguera) and saw wielding Vanderohe (Hardwick) along with helicopter pilot Marianne Peters (Notaro), German safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Schweighöfer), and Chicano sharpshooter Mikey Guzman (Castillo), who brings along his associate Chambers (Win). As the team enters the city, they soon find out that they are not up against brainless zombies, but a horde of the walking undead seems to be more organized than they might have expected.
Despite being a “heist” film, this is more of a run-and-gun shooting zombie film, and it is as entertaining as hell. The whole heist scene is honestly like a good 15 minutes of the entire movie. It’s primarily Vanderohe, Dieter, and Mikey trying to break into the safe. First, the traps to the safe are like Indiana Jones style. Then we see how Bly sent another group with Vanderohe giving some theory that they are in some strange time loop as the dead team looks identical to them until he laughs it off. Finally, we see Dieter get agitated with trying to open up the safe. This just seemed like a way to give some reason to enter the city but nothing to hold water.
Now for the best part. This film is a run-and-gun type movie, and the zombies are all unique. When the group enters Las Vegas with coyote Lily (Arnezeder), who is a badass in her own right. She explains that some of the zombies sleep during the day, but there are alphas who control the other zombies. Here were are introduced to a freakin zombie tiger and the zombie queen. The group funnily gives up one of their own for safe passage through the city. Things seem normal until Martin kills the zombie queen. Here is when shit hits the literal fan. It is literally like Call of Duty Zombie mode, and people DIE. I’m talking about heads being broken, explosions, headshots, and the works all for them to save Ward’s daughter. The movie gets stale during this point because we have seen it before and almost know what the ending will be.
I will admit that the make-up design for the zombies is top-notch. Zeus and the Queen are freaking weird and terrifying. Rather than that decaying look, they had that grey or white type of patchy skin look like they needed to dip in some massive lotion.
Now where the film lacks is character development. I would say this is a bad thing because you really don’t feel too much for any of the main characters. It’s pretty quick, and you really don’t get to know them at all. What the movie does is has some supporting cast steal the whole film. Matthias Schweighöfer as Dieter is one of the highlights as he seems so naïve and is just a safecracker. It’s funny how they have to explain everything to him and even use a gun. In the end, he shows his worth. Now the one who steals the movie and makes it BEYOND entertaining is Tig Notaro as Marianne Peters. Holy shit, was Notaro great as Peters. I freakin love this character because she was just so real and straight to the point. When they go to recruit, she doesn’t care about the mission. All she heard was $2 million, and she was in. I love how she explains to Ward about Martin and how they should straight up give him up. She is honestly the best character in the whole movie.
Overall, if you are looking for a run-and-gun-type zombie film that has an okay storyline, then this is the movie for you. The story is okay, but it is like a micro of the whole film. Several characters like Dieter and Peters stand out, but all the other characters are quickly forgotten after that. Most of the entertainment comes from how the characters die and the opening sequence. This is a fun movie to watch if you need some mindless entertainment and gore.
