Army Of The Dead

 This review may contain spoilers!

Army Of The Dead follows a group of mercenaries attempting to retrieve 200 million dollars from a vault under the Las Vegas strip. However, this is no Ocean's 11; the city of Las Vegas is walled off, zombie-infested and due to be nuked out of existence in a matter of hours. This is a film that sets out with highlighting a very unique type of zombie outbreak, a very tense moment in which the disease gets loose and then a highly aesthetic opening detailing the unique depiction of Vegas falling to the zombie plage. I think the very concept of this film being about a highly skilled group of fighters immediately ups the stakes somewhat; normally a zombie story has a ragtag group of everyday people adapting to becoming survivors in a hostile world. But these characters are already survivors, this is a colourful collection of some of the best possible infiltrators for an operation like this. I actually think the strongest element of the film is the visual component, the cinematography blends high octane action shots with stunning and creative special effects moments. The effects themselves compliment the visual nature of this film; with the design of the zombie animals in particular being a nice touch. The score for Army Of The Dead is nothing to really brag about but the soundtrack is exceptional, a number of setting themed or comedically timed tracks that up the tone in each of their respective scenes.

 

Theo Rossi, who played Burt Cummings, is a fantastic minor antagonist for the first and second act of this feature; Rossi plays a very sleazy military guard who abuses his power in cruel ways at every turn he gets. Nora Arnezeder, who played Lilly, is a very grim role borne of the strange creativity of this feature; Arnezeder presents a cold yet highly effective survivor who navigates through the zombie wasteland with confidence. Garret Dillahunt, who played Martin, is another minor antagonist who really made his mark felt; Dillahunt feels like he holds more cards than the rest of the characters and double crosses them at a number of ill-fated turns. Samantha Win, who played Chambers, felt like a fighting force to be reckoned with; Chambers might have only been a minor role but the way in which Win played to her survival instinct made her by far one of the coolest characters to watch onscreen.

However, the best performance came from Matthias Schweighöfer, who played Dieter. In a lot of ways I think this character represented what this film wanted to be; your classic zombie film character with a seriously heightened twist. In the case of Dieter he is an experienced safe cracker but an absolutely rubbish fighter surrounded by a team of elite fighting force. Schweighöfer has such a light charisma that you warm to him instantly, his humour can be a little crude but he has a sort of innocence about him that makes him an immediate favourite. Watching Dieter nervously navigate areas he isn't comfortable in to then commanding his field of expertise is a hilarious contrast. I also have to admit that I loved Schweighöfer's onscreen chemistry with Hardwick; te pair had a friendship that may well have been the best character interaction in the film.

Army Of The Dead is a fun concept, taking the classic zombie genre and heightening it with better survivors and better zombies. The problem is that the story doesn't rise to meet the vision, ultimately handing the viewer all the elements of a generic zombie feature with over the top elements that feel forced. The film opens with a long montage teaching us how Vegas fell to the zombie virus while also pointing out a number of key survivors and their backstories in what is undeniably a pretty messy means of introduction. We actually have to wait till quite a while later to really piece together the main cast and what really motivates them. The film quibbles in strange details such as protest groups who want the zombies to be kept alive, a President who thought it would be 'cool' to nuke Vegas on the Fourth of July and a refugee camp that has a dedicated number of people who keep trying to break into Vegas for very obscure reasons. The film really does crumple when it tries too hard to tell a story, the main character trying to patch up his relationship with his daughter while leading an excursion into hostile undead territory never really lands nor finds the heart it needs. The romantic sub-plot that weirdly blooms as the final act kicks off between Ward and Cruz only reduces a cool character to a love interest. The weird corporate guy double-crossing the team in an attempt to steal a zombie head instead is not only a predictable twist but one that never truly serves the story. The fact our heroes are fighting super zombies for a lot of the film who are intelligent, fast and rarely eat people actually takes the scare factor out of the film. Watching these very weird undead nuzzle each other, perform hand to hand combat and have some strange pregnancy subplot is perhaps some of the weirdest stuff I've seen in the zombie genre in a while. The film does inevitably what every zombie film does, tease hope for success before butchering almost all of the cast and hinting that one of the few survivors is carrying the virus in an attempt to tease an undeserved sequel.

Dave Bautista, who played Scott Ward, proved he really didn't have the ability to lead an action blockbuster in this film; Bautista really fumbled to play a convincing father figure or tactically minded mercenary fighter. Ella Purnell, who played Kate Ward, gave the most angst-driven rebellious daughter role I've seen in a while; Purnell and Bautista struggle to be a convincing father/daughter match-up. Omari Hardwick, who played Vanderohe, was pretty stereotypical action film fodder; Hardwick was built in to be a stoic guy who blasted and punched his way through problems with little character involved. Ana de la Reguera, who played Maria Cruz, is a somewhat interesting character before the film stuffs her into the love interest role; de la Reguera goes from tough ex-survivor to pining for Bautista in the blink of an eye which ruined a lot of her role. Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Bly Tanaka, is not having a good year for roles between this and Mortal Kombat; Sanada's cheesy mustache-twirling billionaire is a hard watch. Tig Notaro, who played Marianne Peters, was digitally added into the film during post-production and it kinda showed; Notaro does her level best to be a comedic power for the film but she feels out of place in her scenes and the fact none of the cast really acknowledge her is pretty apparent. Raul Castillo, who played Mikey Guzman, is some strange social media gunman who is there to be present in action scenes and little more; Castillo never actually comes across as the cool famous shooter he is playing and is swiftly eclipsed by Win's performance. Huma Qureshi, who played Geeta, is in this film to complicate the plot without ever really being a character; Qureshi's surface level portrayal of an upset Mum never matters for much and the film even forgets to show her final fate.

Zack Snyder has a brilliant manner of presenting a stunning visual feature without actually crafting a film that has any substance in terms of narrative. I would give Army Of The Dead a 5.5/10.