Although this is far from Zack Snyder’s best work, Army of the Dead is a joyful amalgamation of his strengths and weaknesses as a storyteller.
Two months after Zack Snyder surged back onto the social media airwaves with his completed vision of Justice League, he has returned to the big screen with Army of the Dead. A heist film placing burly, memorable caricatures face to face with zombies. A truly tired prospect at first glance, but with prefacing that this is a Zack Snyder film, this is his way of doing zombies, and it is all guts, all glory, and all Snyder. Wearing his influences on his sleeve and flexing his muscles to the tune of firearms unloading on the undead, Army of the Dead is the type of movie to resurrect movie theaters from going under.
Serving as director, writer, and (for the first time) cinematographer, Zack Snyder takes to an overrun Las Vegas to deliver the flash, pop, and groans that no zombie film has done before. Snyder’s shallow focus approach to the film’s look, follows Dave Bautista in a star turning role as Scott Ward. A military dude tasked with assembling a team to retrieve 200 million dollars from a vault. In typical heist film fashion, an assembling montage ensues with silly vignettes for each task member, and the bloodshed is right around the bend. It takes a while to get there, and in a runtime Snyder-fied for folks who love a good 2.5 hour movie, some trimming would have worked wonders in the first act. Considering this is a Netflix film, a production company known for hiring film-makers and letting them go wild with their ideas (and subsequently, their budgets), some reigning in could have benefitted the film in its entirety.
I previously mentioned that this was Snyder’s first time shooting his own movie, as well as his choice of using shallow focus, and unfortunately, a different cinematographer would have been a better decision. As much as Snyder is a visual lyricist, collaborating with cinematographers who can breathe life into his extraordinary images has made him one of the most exciting directors to watch. With Army of the Dead, it doesn’t look as sharp, grand, or flashy as it should. That isn’t to say it isn’t without moments of genuine awe, and the action set pieces are stunning, but the look, the lighting of the film needed a different eye. There’s an unsubtle nod to Larry Fong on a billboard, and the idea of him tackling this material invites the “what could have been” narrative. That’s not to say Army of the Dead is an indecipherable mess like most contemporary blockbusters, let alone what’s shoveled onto Netflix, but when compared to the rest of his filmography it sits at the bottom and it isn’t even close.
On a positive note, Army of the Dead is a roaring good time. Although it posts a 2.5 hour runtime, and it runs a bit too long, it is never uninteresting or without a genuine thrill. Although action sequences aren’t completely developed, the energy is still present. Whether it’s a hallway brawl or a “zombie maze”, Snyder finds new and interesting ways to create tension and excitement that takes the tropes the genre has seen before, and allows it to exist in his sandbox. His sandbox (if you’re even vaguely familiar with his work), is full of macho figures, not without a heart of gold. Casts culturally, physically, and wonderfully diverse engaging in action sequences and that signature slo-motion set to the sound of any and whatever needledrop he sees fit to explore the world beyond the immediate images. This time he harkens back to the film that started his career with the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and Snyder has always been vocal about his biggest inspirations. Sometimes it’s too obvious, blunt, and kind of annoying, but it wouldn’t be a Snyder film without his ability to channel all of that in new and exciting ways that continue to reforge his image as a storyteller. Whether it’s George Romero, Frank Miller, or (his favorite film) Excalibur, Snyder continues to harness his inspirations and apply them in a way that only he knows how to. Even if the shallow focus approach and writing isn’t something worthy of being absolutely enamored by, the fact that he continues to not care less what many people think about him is extremely admirable.
Zombies wear capes and helmets. There’s a culture, creed, and assembly of undead formerly known as people grumbling and stumbling into one another before bullets rip them in half. It takes a genuine storyteller to make the audience at least mildly interested in the potential of zombie offspring. How he frames that in relation to the protagonist of the story and how each of these masculine figures, living in this world, will go above and beyond to protect the people they love is resoundingly genuine. Army of the Dead isn’t some Oscar contender, but with the potential for sequel/prequel entries, this could pave the way for the future of Zombie films. With The Walking Dead and World War Z running headfirst into a wall for very different reasons, a revitalization of the zombie sub-genre was sorely needed. Is this the unconventional, daring movie we thought it could have been? Not always, but it approaches a tired form of storytelling and Snyder-fies it. For better or worse, this could be a good thing for the future of Netflix’s service as well as zombie movies.
With Justice League coming back from the dead and roaring with life that no superhero movie ever has, Army of the Dead is the type of zombie movie that should inject this dormant sub-genre with lit up eyes, incredible effects, and a great cast of characters. Proving that the more Zack Snyder touches, the more exciting movies can be whether you love him or don’t.
My Patrons:
Rakesh Raja
Manny Magallon
Jacob Baker
Roger M. Arbisi
Louisa Payden
James Rivera
Markus Harlan
Caleb Robinson
Orly Macias
Sydney Uphouse
Sasa Bratic
Brice Watts
Tyler Born
Nick Talan
Tristan Mayer
Mike Calkins