Army of the Dead – Excellent Action Horror
Director: Zack Snyder
Writer: Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, Joby Harold (Screenplay)
Starring: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Mattias Schweighofer
Plot: Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.
Tagline – Survivors Take All
Runtime: 2 Hours 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Army of the Dead starts in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, which will see the city walled off and the survivors living in refugee camp conditions around the city. With the city about to be nuked to finally clean out the remaining zombies, Scott Ward (Bautista) is approached by Bly Tanaka (Sanada) to break into the city and his vault to reclaim the money that will be lost.
Scott must put together a team, which includes Maria (Reguera) his right-hand woman, Vanderohe (Hardwick) who escaped with them, along with safe cracker Dieter (Schweighofer), pilot Marianne (Notaro), social media star Mikey Guzman (Castillo), head of security Martin (Dillahunt) and person everyone turns to, to get in, Lilly (Arnezeder) the Coyote.
Once inside the walls, the dangers they find are different than expected, as they look to race against time to get the job done.
Thoughts on Army of the Dead
Characters & Performances – Scott Ward was one of the men that escaped the city during the outbreak, needing to make the difficult decision with his wife, while saving his daughter. Now he is a chef in a diner, distant from his daughter. Scott gets a chance to make enough money to start a new life, which will see him take a job breaking back into the city to open a bank safe, where he will put together his connections to make this happen, showing his determination to make this happen. Dave Bautista continues to show he is one of the new modern great action stars out there, bringing a serious side to his performance and character. Kate is the daughter of Scott who has been volunteering in the refugee camps, looking to create the best for the people stranded there, she ends up joining the crew because one of her closest friends ends up going on a desperation mission. Vanderohe and Maria Cruz are the two closest friends to Scott, he turns to them for help in the mission, knowing he can trust them to get the job done. They both have their unique abilities in the battles they find themselves in. the rest of the team all add plenty to the film, with Dieter not being prepared for the fighting, Lilly ultra-cool figure, along with Marianne the sarcastic pilot who is filled with laughs along the way. The performances from the whole cast are great, with each one getting their moment to shine in the film.
Story – The story here follows a group of people that became soldiers in a zombie outbreak who are given one last mission to go back into a dead infected Las Vegas to break into a safe to give them enough money to make it through the rest of the world, before the nuclear bomb is dropped on the city. To breakdown this story, we have a heist movie which includes battle against the undead, it will follow the traditions of a heist needing to battle different problems along with the battle against the undead, which will see the traditions of each character have their own quirky to make their part in the fight very different than a simple idea. We do have plenty of side stories going on, only certain ones can find themselves not getting as much time as they could have had.
Themes – Army of the Dead is an all-out action horror that will give us an endless amounts of different undead to fight, which while entertaining to watch, it can be confusing, why some zombies are slow, some are fat and others are different again. The Vegas setting is always going to be a great addition, using the different hotels to create new ideas for each environment the characters find themselves in and add in the music, which adds to different scenes through the film.
Army of the Dead is an all-out action horror that is brilliant to watch, highly entertaining that just doesn’t stop.
