Suffice to say, Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead was one of the most keenly anticipated movies of the pandemic, publishing straight to Netflix after only a limited release in cinemas. And while some fans were disappointed that it wasn’t a sequel to his 2004 remake of George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, there was nonetheless a major hype train that buffered the film into our living rooms and onto our screens.
With a large cast featuring, amongst others, Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer and Garret Dillahunt, the film charts a crack team’s mission into a zombie-infested Las Vegas in an attempt to recover a major payday from a casino vault before the government nuke Sin City. High concept, major fun – or so you would think.
Maybe it was because most people were still stuck at home; the internet had become the only place to champion new releases; or that small wins were treated like epic milestones, but the delivery did not match the fanfare. All the Snyder excesses are working overtime in this one, including too many characters, desaturated images, overuse of slo-mo, and, above all else, a consistent, headache-inducing shallow focus. Army of the Dead is palatable, but just not really worth the time it takes to watch, especially not when compared against the wide array of other zombie flicks on offer.
