Army Of The Dead Review – Part Heist, Part Zombies, Part Emotion

To say it’s been a rough couple of years for director Zack Snyder would be an understatement. Everything that has happened with Justice League, his daughter, the Snyder Cut movement, Warner Bros and more would leave anyone gasping for air and freedom. And by his own admission, in the wake of all that happened with that time, he decided to go and write something just for him…a zombie movie…with a heist element. Fast forward a bit and Netflix has released his Army Of The Dead film and while it may not be the best action movie ever, or the best heist movie ever, and will definitely not be called the greatest zombie movie ever, it’s still a fun film with a lot of heart…and zombies…and a zombie tiger…just saying.

More than likely you know the story of Army Of The Dead by now. Or at least part of it. By a series of events (which are beautifully outlined in the beginning of the movie in both zombie-movie-style and Zack Snyder-style), Las Vegas has been turned into a major zombie center. It’s been walled off by shipping containers and the government has decided to “cut its losses” by just straight up nuking the city. Enter Tanaka, a man who knows that there is $200 million dollars under the strip and he needs a former soldier, Scott Ward, to get it. If he does? He and his crew get to pocket $50 million of it.

Now, I’ve already seen some people saying how odd the premise of this movie is by asking who would be stupid enough to go into a zombie city for money, no matter how much. But if you actually give it a chance, it explains it quite well, including why you should care about these robbers.

You might have thought via the trailers that these are just random people brought in to do a job like Ocean’s 11. But as we see, that’s not exactly the case. Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) and some of his other heist crew were actually in Las Vegas during its fall. And as we see in the opening scenes of the “Fall of Las Vegas”, they lost quite a bit of themselves in there. Friends, family, their humanity, and even their sanity.

And while they were “rewarded” for their “help”, they ended up in places like a mechanic’s shop, a burger joint, and helping the elderly. Not exactly a true hero’s reward.

That’s why Ward’s line, “What if just this once, we do something just for us?” is all the more meaningful. Because they honestly deserve the money; it’d change their lives and bring them some peace. For Ward, he wants to use it to reconnect with his daughter, Kate, who has been spending her life helping those imprisoned by the government, and when Scott re-enters her life, it’s anything but a happy reunion.

The rest of the squad are very much an Ocean’s 11/Suicide Squad-esque assortment of characters needed for the job. Like Guzman, the guy who has turned zombie killing into a social media artform. Or Dieter, the safecracker who is as European as you can get. And on it goes. Each one has their own reasons for doing the job in their own way. Like Lilly the Coyote, who is trying to atone for those she had to leave behind in Las Vegas.

Then there’s Peters, played by the one and only Tig Notaro. If you didn’t know, she wasn’t supposed to be in the film, but after an issue with another actor became public, Snyder worked overtime to green screen her in the entire movie and while it’s not 100% seamless, she 100% makes the movie better and she better get more roles after this!

Half the fun of the early parts of the movie is seeing how these characters interact with one another and grow throughout the heist. Easily the MVPs outside of Tig are the characters of Van and Dieter, who develop a beautiful bromance before our very eyes and had they survived (SPOILERS!!!!) they should’ve gotten their own spinoff.

What might surprise you the most about the movie though is the zombies. Because Zack Snyder went to great lengths in order to go and make the zombies feel like more than just monsters.

In the trailer they note that they’re “stronger, faster, organized” but that only scratches the surface. There are multiple types of zombies in the film. The ones that act like the zombies we know, the Shamblers, and then there are the Alphas, headed up by Zeus. Zeus is strangely one of the deepest characters in the movie! Snyder makes sure to show that Zeus has brains, strategic-thinking, emotion, pain, desire, and more. It’s the subtle movements that Zeus does and the other zombies do around Zeus that make him and them so compelling. Yes, they do get killed by the dozens still, but it’s much more than just “killing zombies”, you’re almost killing part of a true colony.

I also should make note quickly of Bautista as Ward. He had a chance to be in The Suicide Squad alongside friend and director James Gunn but he turned it down to be in Army Of The Dead because it was a “deeper and more emotional role” that he wanted to try. And he does well. By the end, you’re going to be sad he dies (MORE SPOILERS!!!) and the words “lobster roll” will never mean the same to you.

Ok, enough of the emotional stuff, let’s get to the action and plot twists!

The action is honestly a bit less than you might think. Zack Snyder wisely takes time to build up the story for the third act, and so the real action takes place at the beginning and end of the movie. But when it does happen? Yeah, Snyder and crew have some fun.

For example, the first major death in the heist squad literally goes out in a blaze of glory AFTER doing a John Wick style kill sequence on a whole host of zombies. I was sad she died after all of that.

Another character gets to die via Zombie Tiger Valentine…and it’s totally worth it. The various showdowns with Zeus don’t disappoint, and the fights in the casino and the climactic helicopter ride to “safety” are definitely highlights.

In terms of story, it goes about how you would expect. When you hear the mysterious Tanaka say “it should be a simple in and out” and paints you a picture of how it’s supposed to go, you KNOW that it’s not going to go that way. And in fact, the trailer helped sell that picture without us knowing and it’s a beautiful fakeout.

But of course, things go horrible wrong, and I’m starting to wonder if Zack Snyder tried to outdo James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad with the whole “don’t get attached” saying because you SHOULDN’T get attached to these characters because all of them die except for one! Even Valentine dies! Monsters.

I won’t lie, the ending is both sad and tragic, and then Snyder dangles that little bit of light and then snuffs it out with a swear word and you’ll be like, “He got us!” 

That being said, there are a few things that do hold the film back from being better.

One of the biggest things is how the film is shot. It definitely has that “Snyder-Feel” with the grand beautiful setpieces, big action scenes and so on. But, there’s a LOT of out-of-focus shots, and I’m not just talking about ones with Tig. There are shots that are out of focus all over the place and at points I wondered why Zack Snyder did that.

Another odd point filming-wise is that there are a lot of scenes that just focus on character close-ups and not showing the actors in the shot together for more effect. This includes one key scene with Ward and Kate that honestly felt out of place.

Also, there are some story elements that you see them and go, “yeah, that’ll end badly.” Like when Chambers calls out the “inside man” Martin for being shady and tells him TO HIS FACE that she was going to expose him…and yet she thinks he won’t screw her over before then? Or when Maria admits that she loves Scott and wants to try and make it work after the heist and he is happy and the elevator is about to open I literally said out loud, “Oh, she dead.”Like, come on, Zack! You didn’t give Chambers a bad death yet you give Maria one!

Plus, as you would expect from a film that is setting up a franchise, there are some small plot holes that will leave you scratching your head.

Despite those small flaws though, Army Of The Dead has a lot going for it. Some fun elements, some surprising comedy bits (Van & Dieter 4 Lyfe!), great action, a lot of depth in the characters (and zombies) and more. So if you have Netflix, go check this out.