Review by Brad Balfour
Army of the Dead
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, Garret Dillahunt
Despite some inconsistencies, illogical moves and just general bullshit, Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead is one hell of a ride. If any director — besides the late master George Romero — has established an aesthetic for Zombism, it’s been Snyder. For his debut feature, Snyder did a stylish remake in 2004 of Romero’s classic Dawn of The Dead.
The 55-year-old director is no stranger to delineating his own unique aesthetic. Just take a look at his landmark film 300 or the stamp he placed on the DC Superhero Universe through his takes on Superman, Batman and Justice League. Like them or not, they are stylishly clever.
Veteran director Snyder and his producer wife Deborah have had their ups and downs working with big studios such as Warner Brothers. After he had made a string of DC Superhero films (with such mythic characters as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and other Justice League members), Snyder got a chance to share his ideal vision of the DC Universe’s characters when the studio released his four-hour director’s cut of Justice League.
In the background to all this, was Snyder’s wacked-out Zombie Apocalypse epic, “Army of The Dead.” Though WB held the reins to the film, they weren’t giving it their support, Then, thanks to the pandemic-prompted production freeze, Netflix came to the rescue and greenlit his film.
In Snyder’s unmistakable fashion, he came up with a new zombie film that re-fashioned its mythology while really camping it up. He’s included in this flashy feature, a blow job, Area 51, extraterrestrial DNA, and Zeus —an intelligent and commanding zombie king. There’s also a zombie queen who gets pregnant and a zombie tiger named Valentine — which was once part of Siegfried & Roy’s troupe.
With a twist upon a twist, an Elvis imitator and numerous topless strippers all become zombies and Vegas casinos get overrun with the undead. Survivors who escape the zombie hordes get placed in refugee camps which are getting bussed away from the devastation before Vegas gets nuked.
Into all this chaos, Casino owner Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his associate Martin (Garret Dillahunt) send former mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) and his crew to recover $200 million from the casino vault before the military destroys the city with a tactical nuclear strike.
Ward recruits former teammates Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera) and Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), along with helicopter pilot Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro — who replaced Chris D’Elia after accusations of bad behavior surfaced), German safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer), and Latino sharpshooter Mikey Guzman (Raúl Castillo — who brings along his beautiful-but-tough associate Chambers. Ward’s estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), who works at a quarantine camp, directs them to Lily (Nora Arnezeder), a smuggler familiar with the city. Lily seemingly recruits Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi), a nasty camp security guard. When Kate learns Lily escorted her friend Geeta into Vegas, Kate insists on joining the team over Ward’s objections. Into to all this, Martin joins the team claiming to be observing them — but he obviously has more nefarious interests.
Lily leads them into a building full of hibernating, standard zombies. As Ward carefully carves a path through them with glow sticks, Chambers accuses Martin of ulterior motives; he diverts her off the path, waking the undead who overpower her so Guzman shoots her gas tank, blowing her and the zombies up.
At Bly’s casino, Ward and Kate turn on the power, Peters prepares a helicopter on the roof and Dieter works on the vault. Martin and Lily stay outside under the pretense of keeping watch, but instead lure the Queen into the open where Martin beheads her and stashes it in a bag.
When Zeus discovers her body and carries it to the Olympus casino, it’s revealed that the Queen was pregnant with a zombie fetus. Enraged, Zeus directs the Alphas to Bly’s casino. Meanwhile, the government has rushed the nuclear strike, giving the team approximately one hour to get done and get out. And then all hell breaks loose.
Without revealing the final plot twists, it should be noted that nothing turns out the way anyone had hoped. Yes, there are tragedies but there are survivors as well.
Given that Snyder had made that debut re-imagining Romero’s Dawn of The Dead, he has again made a pretty impressive zombie film without really retreading old ground. And given that Snyder had been under scrutiny for how he had developed the DC Cinematic Universe, he has handily redeemed himself with this fully satisfying piece of total escapism. This a movie is perfect for viewing in an actual cinema this summer.