‘Army of the Dead’ is written and directed by Zack Snyder and centers around a Zombie containment area that used to be known as Las Vegas. Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) is tasked with putting together a heist team to go into this zone before it’s nuked by the government, to take the millions of insured cash sitting in the vault of a casino, but will they be able to get in and out alive?
Zack Snyder returns to his grassroots filmmaking, with blood and gore that you remember and love from the remake that got helped build him to where he is today. Coming in at about 2 and 1/2 hrs, Netflix gave no restraint to Snyders creativity and storytelling, which both helps and hinders the movie overall.
First, the action, the Zombies, and the fun are all there and in full force with ‘Army of the Dead’. I liked that this film took the opportunity to expand on the Zombie lore and even add new elements that surprised me when watching it. The main character Scott has a compelling backstory, and Bautista has continued to show that he has impressive acting abilities far beyond his Marvel character.
Each supporting character has their own backstory, the standouts being the badass Tig Notaro as a helicopter pilot as well as the safe cracker and comedic relief of the film. A lot of the jokes will work for some but for me the comedy wasn’t really good, aside for a couple great scenes involving zombies and the safe.
Also the runtime with most Snyder films could be trimmed to be more cohesive and tighter of a story. This is still one of his shorter films however some storylines could be omitted for the sake of progressing into the amazing third act.
Overall, ‘Army of the Dead’ is a win for Snyder. With impressive zombie action, lore building, and heart throughout, I would check this out on the biggest screen you can.
