If you like zombie movies, chances are you’ve seen Zack Snyder’s infamous Dawn of the Dead. And if that film wasn’t enough to win you over to the Snyder cult, Army of the Dead surely will. However, there are some things that I would like for Snyder to apologize for, the zombie baby, and Ana de la Reguera’s character's last scene. They still haunt me.
As always you can’t expect to get a straightforward film from Snyder, the film has hidden depths that kept unraveling even after the credits rolled. Let’s start with the zombies, they’re not the typical mindless monsters roaming around. They have their kingdom, hierarchy, and even zombie babies. They are willing to bargain with the humans and kill them as well. OH! And they might be aliens/robots too. Just like the zombie queen managed to outshine her king, even as a head in a bag, the female characters managed to do that to their male counterparts too. Ana de la Reguera and Nora Arnezeder gave a strong performance, but it was Samantha Win who took the cake. Despite her character’s short arc, she left a huge lasting impression. Tig Notaro was surprisingly good, her lines were funny and personality endearing. Ella Purnell's performance didn’t stand out much, which was a shame since her character needed all the emotional expressions she could have given. Matthias Schweighöfer and Omari Hardwick had great chemistry, I’m really hoping we could see them together again. Dave Bautista just keeps adding great performances to his resume, and this one is no exception. Over the years he really showed us that he could be more than just a strong action star, he could carry his own dramatic scene like a champ. Garret Dillahunt was a great villain, even if he was a little undeveloped. Overall, the cast was great together. I loved their chemistry and fight scenes, and if some of the theories going around about alternate timelines ended up being true, I wouldn't mind seeing them assembled again.
Since it was virtually impossible to dodge any Snyder content on the web, I discovered a while ago that Tig Notaro replaced Chris D'Elia as Peters, so it was a fun game to make the people watching with me guess the replaced cast member. What was truly impressive about this, is that no one guessed right. Notaro’s addition to the cast was as seamless as possible, the editing, the lightning, the CGI was truly phenomenal. Snyder as a DOP is just as breathtaking as a filmmaker.
What makes this film impressive is Zack Snyder’s astounding ability at universe making. There is not one dull moment, no wasted scenes, no mindless chatter. Everything had a purpose. Everything made sense. And what wasn’t purposely clear, left a door wide open for theories to flourish. Netflix does not only have a hit on their hands, they have a goldmine.
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