Army of the Dead is a new take on zombie films by Zach Snyder. Okay, maybe it is not all that new of a take, but it is his new take. The zeds are fast and smart- the film however is not. 

I am a big fan of Dave Bautista (my 2008 interview with him) and he does a serviceable job but he doesn’t have a lot to work with in terms of script. Yeah, the story itself is decent, albeit somewhat pedantic, but not at all original. The dialogue was pretty subpar – no awards to the writing staff. 

I know a suspension of disbelief is required (it IS a zombie movie) but some of the leaps in logic would have destroyed Stretch Armstrong.  Also, the gratuitous gore was just way over the top often.  Yes, everyone likes it when the ‘bad guy’ gets what’s coming, but this film was just unnecessarily graphic in some of the death scenes. 

As I big fam of the zombie genre, I had hoped for so much more. Perhaps that wishful thinking doomed it to fall short in my ratings? Regardless, this shouldn’t make anyone’s Top Ten undead movies. 

by Chris Doelle

Rating 4 of 10