ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021): FILM REVIEW

Army of the Dead (R18+)

Directed by Zack Snyder

Written by Shay Hatten and Joby Harold

Starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell and Ana de la Reguera

Duration: 148 minutes

I've never been a huge fan of Zack Snyder, but even I can acknowledge when someone has a hot year. Especially in a time like the one we're living in currently, to release two different films at the scale of Army of the Dead and Zack Snyder's Justice League within a few months of each other is a big achievement, and that's even before you take into account just what it took for Snyder to release his cut of Justice League. 

The idea at the heart of this film is a cool one; a zombie apocalypse adventure blended into the Ocean's formula of an ensemble heist movie is interesting, and novel as far as I am aware. One of this film's many problems, though, is that it never actually commits to that concept and executes it to fruition. There is one sequence that makes the most of the premise, which sees the group send a zombie down a booby-trapped corridor to set off all the traps, but beyond that the film feels largely derivative and boring, something a zombie heist film should not be. 

The biggest issues I have with this film are technical, however. There were little things that annoyed me while watching, like a single dead pixel in the footage from one of the cameras they used on set or Dave Bautista turning his flashlight off and on again, but the technical issues are much larger than just minor nitpicks. The biggest one for me was the cinematography - the focus and depth of field is so distracting throughout the entirety of the film that it was almost impossible to focus on anything else. I know that I have said in the past that Snyder should stick to directing and leave the writing to other more talented individuals, but I've got to throw cinematography into that list as well. It all made sense to me when I realised Snyder himself is credited as the film's cinematographer for the first time in his career. The camerawork is so incredibly distracting and amateurish it was honestly kind of shocking. 

In terms of the narrative itself, I won't go into a beat-by-beat description of everywhere it stumbles because I just can't be bothered, but if you're interested you can go and watch Red Letter Media's review of the film here, because they do an great in-depth job of pinpointing the creakiness of the narrative. Needless to say, like I already pointed out, Zack Snyder excels as a visual director, not a writer or storyteller. This is another fantastic example of this that should put Snyder's ineptness as a storyteller beyond repute. 

Maybe the biggest and most troubling thing I wanted to bring up, however, is the way that Army of the Dead pretty blatantly rips of other - frankly, better - movies, in particular the James Cameron classic Aliens. From a narrative viewpoint the film borrows just about every plot beat from Aliens, to the point where it almost might as well just be a remake of Aliens. Not only that, there are a number of set-pieces and gags that seems to be taken directly from other films. One that really stuck out to me was a moment towards the beginning of the film when the first zombie escapes from the military escort that mirrors almost identically a scene from An American Werewolf In London. I really don't know what to say about this other than pointing it out, because some of it was so incredibly blatant that I was kind of surprised the media hadn't already picked up on it and blasted it all over the internet. 

So to wrap up, I don't love this film at all. In fact, it feels amateurish and sloppy for most of the time. And it's a shame, because there is some good stuff buried in amongst there, but it is completely overwhelmed by scenes that just drag on for far too long - I mean, the fact that it is two and a half hours long speaks for itself. It's got an interesting concept at its heart, and there are some good moments, but it really falls flat on its face, and far too often for me to consider recommending it to anyone. If you're a Zack Snyder fan I'm sure you'll already have seen it, but other than that I can't recommend Army of the Dead to you at all. 

Army of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix.