As much as I wanted to like this movie, and ESPECIALLY not wanting to throw shade on Dave Bautista, I'm afraid the words of none other than Macbeth are the most fitting as far as a review of this enterprise goes:
A.O.D. is but a walking shadow, some poor players
That strut and fret their two and a half hours upon the stage
And then are heard no more: It is a tale
Told by idiots, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
That having been said, the REAL shame here is, that, with just a little bit of re jiggering, and a little less stupidity on the part of any one of the panopoly of characters, and, this could have not only been an epic movie, but, possibly a even a (2 or 3 movie) franchise!
Any movie that starts from the jump with nekkid zombie stripper ta ta's is a go for me, just on the "Hmmm, I ain't seen THAT before factor alone. Now, throw in Siegfried and Roy's zombified Manticore' , and, you're going to hold my interest. Add super quick and agile "rage zombies, and a mix of your usual suspect "shufflin' and bitin' " zombies, as well as a full auto Drax the Destroyer, and a crew of mangey former tier one operators, who served their country honorably, but per current SOP, were promptly shat upon by the country that they so dutifully served, then, give them a chance to for once not just even the score but come out ahead, and, you HAD the basis for a pretty decent horror adventure flick.
But then SOMBODY had to go and try to grow a brain, perhaps thinking they could be "edgy", and, instead of delivering a fun, intelligent live action "Walking Dead" (first few seasons only), they decided to suck all the common sense from EVERY characters brain, and then have each one of them suddenly go mute at the most inopportune times, when a word, a note, or even a cryptic whisper, could keep someone from becoming zombie snackos'. Now add to that mix, a teenaged girl with one of the most full blown cases of narcissistic personality disorder ever witnessed on film, and have her played by an actor who every time she opens her mouth you just want to backhand her and send her to her room with no dinner. But, she's also a master of either guilting her father (team leader Scott Ward) for doing something she later admits "he had to do", or, forcing him to let her accompany the squad, (to "rescue the aforementioned STUPID friend) by threatening to run off and do it alone anyway, which is a certain one way trip. So, welcome to mercenary baby sitting, Z/A style.
All is not lost though as there are some nice bonding moments between Zen "man some of the shizz I've done" Vanderohe, and newbie merc / safecracker Ludwig Dieter, especially when it is discovered he doesn't even know Zombie 101 basics. Raul Castillos' "Mickey" who at first seems to be either a You Tube poser, or just a bit crazy, then actually turns out to be an honorable guy. Samantha Joe's "Chambers" is a formidable street fighter, but, sadly , her heroic last stand is wasted when in the end, she got a case of the mutes, when she could have saved the entire crew with a shouted warning.
Nora Arnezeder is believable as Lilly, The Coyote, even if she does let little miss prissy teen smack her around a bit, for helping another of Kates IDIOT friends do something stupid, that, in the end, does not bode well for the entire team. Tig Notaro I guess is OK, especially since she was a last minute "digital" substitute for Chris D'Elia, who was unceremoniously cancelled and erased from the movie due to misconduct of the sexual kind. It's not seamless, but, it's not distracting either. But, she too, got hit with the idiot stick at the last minute, and, her indecision literally was catastrophic. In BOTH their story arcs, Snyder chose to plagiarize, er, uh, be "inspired" by ENTIRE SCENES from "Aliens", then "edgily" flip the script, by declaring opposite day at their individual conclusions.
The longest walk of shame, IMO, goes to Bautista's character Scott Ward, for being either too blind of just plain dumb, to not see through the machinations of neither his Japanese Benefactor, nor his henchman sent along to fulfill the ACTUAL goal of the "heist". But, in his defense, a couple hundred million dollars tax free, can buy a mighty dark pair of rose colored glasses, and, even though he can't see the forest for the trees, nor, apparently when the passion fires of his former flame have burst into a bonfire. Her end was so telegraphed, that even as it occurred, you weren't really shocked, just saddened. Just as his end, and the way it came about, had one waiting for the sound track to cue up Alanis Morrissette, but, perhaps they couldn't get a music clearance..
ONE final chance at redemption comes in the form of the epilogue with Vanderohe, and, it could have played out the epic revenge scenario, but, alas it was not to be, and he, along with any chance at a sequel, was D.O.A.
So, in conclusion, I don't dislike this movie for it's short comings, but, because of it's unfulfilled potential. It didn't necessarily have to be all happily ever after, but, as you watch it, and the idiocy starts leaking out of the characters, see if you can glimpse the great movie that COULD have been.
After a zombie outbreak, Las Vegas is quarantined away from the rest of the world and becomes a city of the dead. Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada), the owner of a casino, has 200 million dollars locked in his vault and hires a team of mercenaries, led by Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), to retrieve it. Things become more complicated when Scott’s daughter, Kate (Ella Purnell) tags along and they discover more than just your average zombies inside the city.
What Works:
The best part of this movie is, hands-down, the gore. We get some absolutely gnarly kills of both zombies and humans alike. The best part is, a lot of them are shocking, so you don’t even see it coming until the blood seems the splatter across the screen.
Dave Bautista is solid as the main protagonists. I was expecting him to be a comedic hero, like his portrayal of Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. That really isn’t the case. He doesn’t have many funny moments. He is the emotional core of the movie. He gets a few scenes where he gets to act in hurt and despair and he does a good job.
Matthias Schweighöfer plays the best character of the movie, Ludwig Dieter, the safecracker. Dieter is the comic relief character, and from the trailer, I was ready to bet everything that he would be extremely obnoxious. I was wrong. Schweighöfer does a great job and is both funny and charming. He was one of the only characters I was actually invested in seeing live.
Finally, I really enjoyed the unique zombies they had running around Las Vegas. I’m not used to seeing zombies on horseback or zombie-tigers. Having an actually intelligent army of the dead was something I was not expecting, but it was certainly unique and gave us a few fun moments.
What Sucks:
This movie is almost two and a half hours long and it simply doesn’t need to be. There are plenty of scenes and lines that could have been cut. This film drags at times, that’s for sure.
The biggest problem I had is the cinematography. Zack Snyder not only directed this movie, but acted as his own cinematographer. He should never do that again. He really likes to have one object or person in focus at a time and make everything else a blurry mess. It’s both distracting and ugly.
Most of the characters are really underdeveloped and not only that, they are really stupid. You can make me care about characters by making me emotionally invested in them or by making them competent. There are so many terrible decisions and most of them aren’t developed enough for me to care.
Finally, this movie has problems with its tone. I supposed I shouldn’t be that shocked when a Zack Snyder movie is dark and depressing, but this film was marketed as a fun thrill ride. It really isn’t that. Almost everyone dies and by the end of it, it all feels like a waste. Nothing much was accomplished and the character we spent a huge chunk of the movie trying to rescue dies without any acknowledgement. If Geeta (Huma Qureshi) had survived, it might have felt somewhat worth it.
Verdict:
Army of the Dead has solid performances from Dave Bautista and Matthias Schweighöfer, a very unique batch of zombies, and some amazing gore. However, the tone and cinematography are a mess, the characters are stupid and underdeveloped, and the runtime is too long. It’s a decent enough watch, but don’t spend any money on it.
One of the worst movies I've ever seen, if I can even call this pile of garbage a movie. Absolutely nothing made sense, The characters were super unlikeable and trying too hard to be cool.
Did the director or anyone else even watch the movie when they finished it?
Like most others, I was looking forward to this one. Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake took zombies to a whole new level, so I had hopes he would push the genre again with this one. Sadly, everything here is unoriginal and mediocre. Snyder really needs some new writers. This story contained every cliché and trope imaginable. It was predictable and tedious. The obvious bad guy in the team, the annoying, selfish character that gets others killed, the predictable ending, etc. We even started pointing out exactly who was going to die next because it was apparent. We literally said aloud, "Oh look they're only bringing that guy for bait." and "Uh oh she pissed off the bad guy, she's going to die next." Sigh... Oh and before you try to convince me that "smart zombies" or "tiger zombie" are original, please go watch some other zombie movies. We've already seen both of those things. We've even seen pregnant zombies.
Frankly, even with all that, the part I hated the most was the whole Kate storyline. It really should have been removed. It added nothing to the story, except time... lots and lots of time. They could have spent all that time developing the other characters so we actually cared about them and working on their frights, of which there were zero. It's hard to find something scary when you know exactly what's going to happen.
The acting was so, so bad. I'm not sure if it's because the cast had 1-dimensional characters to work with or not but they were all subpar. It was like someone took a pile of firewood and dressed each log up as a different character and then filmed this movie. None of them had any chemistry with each other. The worst, though, was Ella Purnell who played Kate. I know I'm harping on that character but, man, everything about her was just dreadful. A 20-something who acted like a petulant child screaming and throwing fits and misbehaving throughout the whole movie. The actress gave the character no subtly or likeability. She was just obnoxious and annoying from the moment you first saw her to the end. We spent the whole movie begging the zombies to eat her so we wouldn't have to see her any longer. Sadly, she gets the final girl treatment even though she wasn't even one of the main characters. Why not Lilly instead? She was at least trying to redeem herself.
The effects were the best part, but Snyder does love his effects. The best one is the fact that Tig Notaro was inserted into all her scenes after the fact because she replaced someone else who had filmed all his scenes already. You only really notice it because the pronouns weren't completely updated in the audio so one minute the character is a she and the next a he. But effects do not make up for a terrible movie.
If you just love zombie movies and have 2 hours to kill then give it a go, otherwise, just go rewatch the Dawn of the Dead remake and pretend you've never heard of this one.
Just a bad movie. would have been better if it was 75 minutes long
Its a zombie movie, what did you except? Spielberg? I enjoyed it. Sure its not really good, but not bad either. Especially not as bad as everyone says. Just a fun watch, with much gore and action, don’t overthink it.
And Dieter is just so cute :joy:
(ok Im german too so maybe its just me:woman_shrugging_tone1::joy:)
So Kate is just a petulant brat with no logical thought processes or any regard for anyone’s agenda but her own.
She knew how long left they had. She could easily work out that there’d be no escape if she went after her friends who she didn’t even know were still alive. Without a single uttered word, Kate knew to go up the stairs to the roof.
And then “wait, you guys hear that?” What, the incredibly loud helicopter only a few metres away?
Well done, Kate. You singlehandedly became less likeable than Martin and he screwed the entire team over.
The tiger and horse concepts were cool. As was the pregnancy thing. Never seen zombies continue their legacy until now (with the exception of biting and scratching).
The increased speed and intelligence was interesting. I need to know more about this evolution.
The stuck in a time loop thing was utterly ridiculous. Especially as such a massive emphasis was put upon it for a whole 20 seconds and then never revisited it again. Ever.
The movie was full of an outrageous cast of characters that were both amusing and likeable for their own reasons. Except Kate. A good selection of gore, action, humour and overall ridiculousness made for a fun movie.
All in all, an entire team of trained mercenaries and elite killers die. But Kate, the reckless volunteer with nothing a go-get-it attitude, against all odds, survives. Even her pointless mate died.
It’s your fault you had to kill your own dad. Good job, Kate.
Dawn of the dead is one of my favorite zombie movies so I was really excited for this!
I'm so disappointed... A stupid story where nothing made sense! If that boss only needed that head why did the others needed to die? They could just take the money and the head! Everyone happy... And why did those 3 chicks stay in that room?! They could try to escape... It's not like they were chained or in a locked room!
you would think a zombie movie where literally every character just starts to die out throughout the plot would maybe TRY to make you like the characters. but i guess that's just to much to ask! silly me, i guess i did just have to hate almost every single one of them. also, it seems that every bit of common sense was thrown out just for the sake of absolutely unbelievable fight scenes.
ALSO was the bomb not a NUCLEAR bomb?? literally no matter if they all wouldve gotten out or not, THEY WOULDVE ALL DIED OF RADIATION POISONING! why is the dad giving his daughter money to go save the children in the camp, when the camp got fucking obliterated by radiation anyway?? and the ending with the dude stuck in the safe was also incredibly unsatisfying. how did the dad turn in 10 minutes but that dude almost went a day without turning. at least follow your own fucking rules set in the universe.
Not a good movie, by far. Very predictable as the plot really is quite simple and many times makes no sense at all. Very cheesy and the ending is really a downer, quite depressive indeed. However, it has excellent shoot-them-up action sequences and it looks amazing on the screen. Really nice photography, make up and VFX. The moral of the story is - at least for me-, don't you dare to care for any of the characters. None of them. The documentary of the movie is way better than the movie itself.
Snyder should have stayed within the dawn of the dead (2004) universe. This movie is a step back in quality and originality.
there is always that guy that suddenly notices that he was bitten...really???
How do you spend money in a 2h30 movie that bad? Its Netflix.
We have money, we have skills, we have story and then:
Bad education, when your father say no, its no or a slap.
Endless ammo guns, but it end when needed.
Guys with guns that shoot everything except to save friends.
Netflix ideology, a lot of content with no content.
Glad i dont pay it.
Starts out an 8 and devolves into a meh ppphhhfffrrrttt
Mediocre at best, unintelligent at worst.
If it wasn't for the production value, I probably would have disliked this. I really don't like zombies, and I didn't like this for two reasons. One because some of the visuals were scary in terms of apocalypse and two because it was almost nothing like zombies. Also, I didn't know Synder was such a Wanda stan. Can't tell me that 'queen' isn't a variant of the scarlet witch. The comedy or dialogue doesn't age well at all. It made me root for the zombies. Majority of the characters are unlikeable, but the cgi, sfx, makeup, design, and action sequences were very likeable.
Stupid illogical plot hole riddled nonsensical bullshit.
But fun.
Never seen a zombie movie where the apocalypse starts because someone was getting road head.
Zack Snyder should not be doing his own cinematography.
It is at the same time too long and slow (first half) and too short and rushed (second half) to correctly exploit all the good ideas it tries to use.
The initial setup, with Las Vegas being an abandoned zombie zone, is good. An original take on zombie movies, where the threat is basically in the past and has been restrained.
Zombies. But also super zombies. That actually seem to have intelligence and emotions.
Mix that with a big robbery. An almost mythical safe to open. Hidden objectives. Betrayal.
Time limit with an atomic bomb.
Mandatory love/family drama. The daughter trying humanitarian rescue in the middle.
That really is a lot to pack in, and it's a bit of a mess:
I hoped the opening of the safe would be more interesting too, but ultimately there is nothing there.
Kate being a pain in the ass to rescue some people that magically are still alive, that she can magically find without any trouble while magically traversing the whole city alone safely about as fast as the helicopter given the time she had.
There are some gory moments, lots of splashing of internal organs flying around. Maria's death is a very good scene. And Martin's very satisfying, almost fan service to end the bad guy this way.
The no one survives except the useless daughter ending is a bit cliché, there could have been more interesting things to do.
The constant bad one liners of the pilot totally didn't work for me, it was pretty annoying.
In the end it's a good action flick despite its slow start. But it really had the potential to become a classic if better exploited.
First things first that crash at the beginning probably wouldn’t cause an explosion like that so…wtf. Weird to me seeing Dave Bautista as anything but Drax. Whyyyyyy is this so blurry??? Very apt song for the ending lmao
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Army of the Dead’:
That ending was quite unsatisfying.
It was difficult for me to get invested in this movie. The plot felt thrown together, just to make a seemingly-cool zombie action flick. If Tanaka only wanted blood from a zombie, recruiting an entire team was overkill. He only needed the blonde. The driving plot of a heist was ultimately a waste for us all. And why would Kate not STAY WITH THE CHILDREN? Leaving them completely alone to find a presumably-dead mother (who dies anyway) doesn’t make much sense. In the end, I just didn’t care about any of this.
Zombie evolution, for me, stops at them being fast. It worked really well in Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. But pregnant zombie queens and their super-strong, super-intelligent zombie boyfriend overlords? Ritualistic style zombifications? Yeah, ya lost me.
Horrible horrible movie. I like zombie movies and the post apocalyptic genre but this was just a lame and predictable movie for the entirely wasted 2.5 hours I sat for it. And the entire secondary plot was for pointless.
Some ace visuals and really scratches that zombie film itch. Definitely worth a watch if you have that itch.
I had a feeling this movie would be so so, it was worse. In all honesty I don't really rate Dave Bautista as a lead, or even an as an actor, I tend to put him in the box labelled 'Straight to DVD' that includes Bruce Willis, Dwayne Johnson, Sylvester Stallone and several others (the difference being some of them were good "enough" before, Johnson and Bautista never have been IMO). The rest of the cast was pretty 3rd rate which, along with a stupid story line an a really dismal script, made for a pretty bleak offering. There were several pretty decent actions scenes which stopped the movie from being a complete failure but these were interspersed with way too many "deep and meaningful" conversations between chacaters that really added nothing, that it was hard to give a damn about any of them made it worse. Terrible soundtrack and a predictable ending that was telepgraphed so many times are the icing on the cake that make this one to avoid unless you have nothing better to watch and fancy some zombie blasting, so many movies just do it better though.
This was not a well-made movie. It had major plot holes, poor story development, undiscovered character arcs, bad CGI, and a bland storyline. It was also way too long for what transpired and incredibly predictable. Given the cast, it really could've been so much more. I'm not a zombie fan, as I find them to be terribly boring movie monsters. I only watched this, b/c Zack Snyder directed it, but I have to say, this was not his best effort. I'm only giving this the rating I have, b/c the cast was solid, and I'm choosing to look at this movie for what it was: Mindless, but not all that interesting, fun.
Zack Snyder returns to zombies in the Netflix film Army of the Dead. In the last days of the Zombie War as the government prepares to nuke the remaining zombies quarantined in Las Vegas, one of the casino owners contracts a team to go in covertly and get his money out of the vault before it’s destroyed. Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, and Garret Dillahunt lead the cast and give solid performances. The writing however, is really poor with a lot of underdeveloped ideas and half-ass social commentary. There’s also a certain nihilism to the story that kind of negates some of the heroism and sacrifice. Still, the action and fight scenes are incredibly well-done and are full of tension and suspense. And the soundtrack is quite good; setting a dystopian mood. It’s entertaining and delivers some thrillers, but overall Army of the Dead is a mess that’s unable to mix the heist and zombie genres in a satisfying way.
Another sort of pointless, gory zombie flick with a couple of fun twists. (I love zombie animals!) It's long, which seemed to bother some, but not me. I was entertained the whole time. Haven't watched the prequel about the bank robber yet. Doesn't look that interesting, but maybe some day.
Loads of gore. A bit too much for my taste. Some funny parts in there, but overall the movie just made no sense at all. Huge plot holes, for as far as there was a plot. The whole story around Kate having the need to save Geeta was nonsense, with all the facts around that... Especially Kate walking around alone in between hordes of zombies, going into a huge building and just by pure luck (?) finding what she is looking for, etc etc. Probably the worst part of this movie from a plot point of view. But it was so nonsense that it brings down the rest of the story also, even further. Too bad and not needed. Everything else was extremely predictable. Too predictable.
Overall maybe it's an enjoyable zombie movie if that's really your thing.
But for me, the movie made me feel sad and perhaps even a bit depressed. Too negative and pointless.
this is really bad.....i give it 3/10 . what a waste of time.
Just another zombie movie. It would have been a 4 but the soundtrack was worth the extra 1 mark.
Actually not a bad movie. Not the greatest either. Some effects was really poor and som dialogue was really boring. Fortunately it wasn't that much of that
Valentine was my favourite
Zombies in Las Vegas. From this premise of delirium.
a lot worse than army of thieves, i saw army of thieves first since it was the prequel, and i gotta be honest, army of thieves could have been better if it didnt have the bullshit needed to tie it in with this mess of a movie.
my main problem with this movie is: no character is actually important and likeable, even matthias character that was the best part of army of thieves is just not that great here, he still has the same "personality", but without any of the development, no one has any development here.
also, the plot is so full of holes that it actually hurts, here are some of my problems with it(spoilers)
if coyote has to sacrifice someone everytime she enters, how didnt anybody notice the guards missing? or does she use the people that want in and just select one of them to die as an offering?
the guy that was sent by tanaka makes less sense every second he is alive, any band of criminals would have killed him the minute they were out of tanakas reach, its one of the weakest "plans" i have ever seen from a "villain"
still on the topic of tanaka's guy, when the girl that he locks get out and is dying, instead of telling them that the dude sabotaged and killed her, she just says "run", and of course, no one runs, there is no real reason to run, the zombies are occupied eating her for a while, she could have solved the whole problem introduced by tanaka by just telling them he is a traitor.
the dad and daughter drama is kinda... forced, it looks like they felt the movie didnt have "feels" enough and just shoehorned it in the laziest way possible
the part about how they are in a "loop" is actually pretty cool and i love matthias reaction, but... why were there skeletons with clothes that exactly match up to the clothes of the crew? a bit too much of a coincidence...
i actually quite like the idea of a zombie society with ranks and all, but i really need and explanation and a reasoning why the zombies keep people as kinda of hostages to turn them later, it makes no sense, just turn them at the moment you get them and be done with it, it only happens so the mother can be alive for the daughter of the strong guy to find her, is literally a nonsensical behavior that only exists to facilitate a plot point.
the "the united states want to get a specimen to develop them as weapons and doesn't care about the main mission or the crew" plot was stolen straight from alien, and done so much worse and with absolutely no emotional impact for the audience, its again, just another useless plot point to make the movie feel like something is happening when nothing is.
the traps in the safe are very comical in nature and kinda dont fit the mood of the movie, but i am willing to let it pass cause i actually laughed, and again, matthias reaction saves it
while writing i noticed that most of what i like about this movie is related to matthias, and that is only true cause i watched army of thieves before this and i already know a developed matthias with his motivations and quirks... if i watched the movies the order they came out, i would enjoy these little moments a LOT less
the "our deadline got closer" plotline is so overused in the media already and feels so forced that it clearly was done to give us a sense of urgency in a desperate try to make the movie seem more active and the actions of the crew more meaningful... it seems like it was done because the movie lacked plot to fill the time.
i fucking love matthias, he is the only reason these movies dont have a worse score from me
the zombie sad for the other zombie dying actually made me feel like the zombies are more human and have more feelings than the crew, i sympathize with the zombies far more, this is not me saying the zombies had too much feelings, its me saying the crew had too little.
why the fuck the daughter of the strong guy is approving of him after they get the money? he was still a shit father and he still didnt help her look for her friend, that smile and approval is absolutely undeserved and out of place
the feelings the strong girl has for the strong guy at the end were so not developed on the rest of the movie that it completely missed me, i felt nothing for her (very small) confession
the daughter running away to look for her friend is just dumb as all fuck and not a course of action a normal human would take, its again just to make another plot point.
"i am not letting you go out there alone" and instantly dies, wow... i really didnt expect that when she said it(sarcasm) also, again, the character development is so bad that i dont feel anything from her, her death is almost comical in nature with the way and context that she died
now a whole treason from the tanaka dude fucking over our crew... a whole treason that could have been avoided if the first girl had said something useful before dying... everything just feels so fabricated and unnatural...
frag grenades dont explode in a big ball of infinite flames a la michael bay, they are what the name says, frag grenades, a relatively small explosion that throws fragments everywhere at really high velocities, if they wanted the big mofo fireball that fries every zombie they should have gone for incendiary grenades, not the frags just for the looks
coyote kinda died for nothing since she died because she kept looking away from her opponent for no reason, also, why kill the queen and just make the zombies angrier? why not return her head as a show of good will?
why did the helicopter girl actually agree to risk her life with no money on the line just so our strong guy could rescue some girls? she was in just for the 2 million as we saw in the start, with no money, why would she care? also, 9 minutes are infinite, holy fuck
the fuck are bullets made of in this movie? shooting the zombie king head with a pistol literally split it in half, a 50bmg wouldn't do that, wtf
in the end, it is a snyder movie written by snyder... so i dont know what i expected, every snyder movie is an gratuitous action fest with the shittiest excuse for a plot possible, he did one good movie in his life and then... well, the rest of his career happened and the most i can expect from him is "mediocre" or "ok", but most of his works are just... bad
Cracking entertainment! A cross between John Wick, Zombieland and I Am Legend. The director shows us once again he can do action very well. I am looking forward to Army of Thieves - 7.5/10
I've really been glad to see this safe cracker again in this movie, but everything further was just worser and worser. I mean the guy gathered a perfect team, then because of his daughter emotions the whole teams mainly got nothing because everyone had to rescue her. I mean what is this..? There's nothing worser than a team mate who brings a person who thinks only within the range of emotion boundaries and spoils everything. I just can't stand such characters, it makes me wanna shot that character in a head that the story would go on as it should. And I see this more often on Netflix, one character which spoils everything with storm of emotions.. and I don't see any reason watching such movie any further because of such character. They make me wanna kill someone, waste of my time. Story is usually is about sequence of events which leads to something, in this case it's a stupid teen who destroyed the whole point of everything that's happening in the movie. I want to see a happy end how whole team takes money and goes to celebrate life, what we have instead? a psycho teen which destroyed everyone's dream. She should've been the one who got fed to the Queen instead of that cop, she totally deserved that. You've got such a nice actors, color editing, pretty much all shootings and stuff are quire good, I can't imagine it's better, but the whole scenario is just about nothing, everyone being a nanny to some teen who spoiled everything for everyone. And even more, after such nuclear explosion, everyone are already dead basically, in year or even faster. This movie script is absolute tragedy and spoiled my nice evening, I'm angry asf that I've spent 2 hours on this crap.
And a separate compliments to the director: maybe you should finish some video shooting school first? why half of frames are unfocused or left unfocused when a character leaves a scene? This is so amateur, even if you're using this as an effect it's highly disturbing to watch, you're basically made me stop watching film 5 times because of this effect.
Didn't enjoy the high aperture shots. Half of the people's faces were out of focus and it was bothering me.
Really cool characters. Unfortunately, they died in very dumb ways sometimes. Chambers was unexpectedly bad ass an died for no reason, while everyone watched and decided that "she was gone" while she was meters away, clearly not even overwhelmed by zombies. Same for Lilly: interesting character whose death could have been avoided. What tf was her strategy ? She could have gone with Bautista. I liked the dynamic between Dieter and Vanderohe, too bad Dieter died. Also, sure, Vanderohe managed to get out of there after the nuclear bombing... Pilote lady was really fun too.
Regarding the f daughter : did not make sense for her to come. Her dad wouldn't have agreed, her friend is barely introduced, and we don't even have updates about the kids she is doing this for. Useless the whole movie, she managed to kill (among others) her dad as well as the MacGuffin friend. Her being there just doesn't make sense.
Otherwise, it did look good in my opinion. I enjoyed the first 1h30, but the ending felt pretty long. Especially with the dumb decisions the movie took every time.
Also, the zombie alpha girl moved like a classical dancer for some reason.
Let’s go to zombieland without any walkie talkie… Lol
Too long and slow for an action zombie movie.
So disappointing. I wish I never watched it.
Cheesy plot, where one dumb girl make a dumb decision to save someone that's not important, which sacrificing the whole team including her dad. And the stupid dumb girl lives - she doesn't worth it.
The end.
There were a lot of interesting...choices...made in Army of the Dead, some just annoying, others head-scratching, and a few actually intriguing. First, the good. Dave Bautista has really blossomed as an action star and I genuinely enjoy him. The rest of the cast (barring Tig Notaro, who is always great) was meh, but passable. The action was solid when mowing down zombies, but some of the creature work (the zombie animals looked fine when not involved in the action, but didn't fare well when the action focused on them) was spotty. The rest of the film was an overlong, oddly shot, weirdly plotted haphazard mess. It felt like Snyder went through his notes on cool film ideas and randomly tossed them into a zombie flick. I didn't hate it, but left it feeling like there could have been so much more done with this idea.
Wasn’t the best and it wasn’t bad…just your typical zombie film
Hostage videos have better production. Dont waste your time watching this "media" thingy
So many 1 and 2 in ratings and so many bad reviews. Stupid characters, dull and pointless plot with holes! Are you people serious, is a zack snyder film , in Netflix, about zombies! You need some Oscar performances and fantastic writing, go to the OSCAR channel or something (don't know if that exists)
Totally fun pop-corn movie, gore, a lot of blood, nothing made sense but you can expect that. My only bad in the entertaining was the duration, waaaaay too long. waiting for the sequel or prequel or whatever will be the army of thieves.
What an utter waste of time! :rolling_eyes:
The camera's focus is so constantly out of whack and shifting that I feel like I'm going through SSRI withdrawal.
If you wondered what could possibly go wrong with an Ocean's 11 film with zombies, watch this film It will show you how you can screw up this story.
A zombie movie without any logic, and not that great action. The worst thing though was the very shallow DOF with most of the shots. Makes it hard to watch.
Zack Snyder seems to have the unique talent to make things that sound great on paper, no fun at all in execution.
I was left thinking wow, what this could have been
Dont get ne wrong it's a good movie, explaining the situation in a montage at the beginning was a great idea to get straight into the action. The characters were just bits and pieces all over the place
and the end zombie fight Meh I also thought the ending was so obvious how about if Scott had hid his bite, then after biting his daughter they walk off into the sunset to start a new army of the dead . I like the idea of that 6/10
it's kind of a much uglier version of suicide squad xd
dont get me wrong, the thrill was definitely there but the plot was full of holes n smtimes made 0 sense, n even there was some cringy irritating moments ugh, and the gore scene XDDDDD they were pathetic sorry, also the acting set was below average but they did their best ig.
so yeah it is watchable but not that enjoyable.
By far the most irritating intro song I've ever sat through in my life. Fucking hell it never ends either. It's still going now. Just give up already!
Army of the Dead is a zombie action movie directed by Zack Snyder. The story follows a group of survivors led by Dave Bautista, who are offered a chance to break into the quarantined Las Vegas and steal millions of dollars from a casino vault before the government incinerates the entire area. The film is a loud and bloody combination of Ocean's 11 and Escape from New York with zombies. Snyder's flair for comic book action is evident, but the movie lacks subtlety and the heroes are less developed than the zombies. The performances of Dave Bautista and Nora Arnezeder stand out, but the rest of the cast struggle to convince. The film is a visually stunning and violent, but the emphasis on action over character development makes it hard to care about the outcome. The zombies, however, are well-designed and add an interesting dynamic to the lore of zombie movies.
Army of the Dead es una película de acción de zombis dirigida por Zack Snyder. La historia sigue a un grupo de sobrevivientes liderados por Dave Bautista, a quienes se les ofrece la oportunidad de irrumpir en Las Vegas en cuarentena y robar millones de dólares de la bóveda de un casino antes de que el gobierno incinere toda el área. La película es una combinación ruidosa y sangrienta de Ocean's 11 y Escape from New York con zombis. El estilo de Snyder para la acción de los cómics es evidente, pero la película carece de sutileza y los héroes están menos desarrollados que los zombis. Destacan las actuaciones de Dave Bautista y Nora Arnezeder, pero al resto del reparto le cuesta convencer. La película es visualmente deslumbrante y violenta, pero el énfasis en la acción sobre el desarrollo del personaje hace que sea difícil preocuparse por el resultado. Los zombis, sin embargo, están bien diseñados y añaden una dinámica interesante a la tradición de las películas de zombis.
Too much bloat as usual. The man needs an editor that can make the hard decisions. 148 minutes, get real.
Dave Bautista was absolutely awesome as a professional wrestler; like so many others before him (Dwayne Johnson being the sole anomaly) he fails miserably on the big screen however. This movie had potential but the acting was listless, lifeless, spiritless and meaningless. The story was COMPLETELY predictable to any fan of zombie flicks, but so far removed from any decent undead movie that I found myself regretting I had wasted my time. News flash, people: Zombies are DEAD people; ergo, they are incapable of reproducing. That should have been reason alone to turn this off, but I'm a slow learner and kept hoping.
In the end, it was an enormous disappointment, and I would be remiss if I didn't warn others to avoid this idiocy. A complete - COMPLETE! - waste of time, and certainly at 2.5 hours in runtime it's not worth sitting through. I really wanted to like it...I really EXPECTED to like it...but alas, 'twas not to be.
Avoid this one unless you've got absolutely NOTHING else....
On second thought, just avoid this one. Period. It reeks.
This is the only Zack Snyder film I've made it through in years without groaning. Not amazing, but not the worst movie. plus, Zombie Tiger! Awww.....
Dave Bautista Sucked and after seeing what Zack Snyder did with the justice league I had very high expectations but this movie was just blah
If Zack Snyder only directs, well, if he does everything like this one, his head goes crazy, entertaining but predictable, the final scene is less credible than the stunts of fast & furious 8
This is the worst movie I have seen in a long, long time.
Zack Snyder is almost as bad as Michael Bay. Where he enjoys his own work so much that he doesn’t edit enough out. The story is 2 hour worthy and he drags it out to 2 hrs and 27 minutes.
With that said the action is great and I loved the cast. The movie just isn’t epic enough be so long and just have the ending that it does. Though it is way better than a Bay Transormers sequel.
Really pointless movie. Very amateur stuff.
Dave Batista can do better.
Rather watch Zombieland.
There are many plot holes. This is a B grade movie. If you switched off your brain before hitting play, you might enjoy it.
I would’ve liked this movie more had more than one person survived. Kate went off for her friends but didn’t show if they survived at the end?
There was literally no reason to kill everyone off, they could’ve easily made this into two or three movies but instead rushed it and made it another boring pointless zombie movie.
Lots of fun references, didn't take itself too seriously. Nice take on zombies.
Themes (tone, impact) 0.5
Acting and characters 0.5
Story (writing, direction, pacing) 0.5
Aesthetic (sets, special effects, score) 1
Enjoyment 1
3.5/5
Just watch the opening credits. It is the best part of the movie.
Looking for zombies getting shot-up in slow-mo? Got it.
Need guns and a very zoned-out main actor? Here you are.
Need some old-school views on what male and female is in both the human and zombie realms? Served.
All in all, this film is a bunch of shoot-'em-up scenes patched together with fairly little love. I miss what made George A. Romero's zombie films scary and funny. Sure, there are a few jump-scares throughout this film, but the main zombies grow old and stale after a very short while.
This film should have been edited. Also, what's up with the super-bokeh everywhere? I thought that kind of filming died in 2003.
i mean, they couldn't expect me to take these cheesy dialogues seriously right??
While not quite in the fetid pile of steaming crap category, this movie was far from entertaining or engaging. The combination of long action sequences, eye catching visual effects, and too many overly complex internal conflicts leaves a movie that doesn't know when enough is enough and wears the viewer down.
Wtf was that
like
shit i regret watching it for real!
Two hours of my life wasted watching this movie.
This movie was average at most. Wanted it to be more. So predictable in every turn. CGI and action was good though.
Stupid characters, stupid story, stupid movie. I am giving 2 points only for ending music.
Special effects are well made, but the acting is really poor.
Not the best zombie movie, but it's not everyday you get something like this. I gave an 8 for being quite different. And it's quite entertaining too.
Batista my boy in the main role! Fun movie that dies off quickly
Meh!! Zac Snyder is the new Michael Bay!!!
I wish they explored more about the robot zombies and the time travelling element. That would have made for an interesting twist for what was a pretty straight forward film
Zack Snyder cannot even do a mindless, fun movie right. For some godforsaken reason he is the film director I've watched the most this year, and I can't qualify any of the five films as a 'good time'. A zombie heist movie is an inspired idea! Sadly, this is neither a good zombie movie or a good heist movie. Minus one great action scene with perennial Snyder standout Samantha Win, the action is pretty rote with the standard aim for the head gunplay. Even a hand to hand sequence with a boss zombie- a sequence of words that sounds fun as heck- is just fine.
And heist wise, there's no moment when the plan gloriously comes together. No big creative flourish to any of it. It's get in, get out. And the plot is just as predictable. The guy you think is a traitor? He's a traitor. The love interest? Fridged in one of the most blatant examples in a long time, one so gratuitous I cracked up laughing. The daughter? Oh, you just _know_she's gonna be a burden. And oh, what has every daughter had to do to her father in every zombie story these days? None of these can really be called spoilers, even with my generous tagging of such.
The zombies may be more intelligent, but that doesn't mean anything. They get shot in the head all the same. There's no rumination on their state of existence, nothing to ponder. And the boss zombie being smart enough to wear plating on his head is a good idea on paper, but in execution it's either just 'Let's keep shooting him there anyway' or 'Shoot him somewhere else'. The cast do their best- Bautista, Hardwick, Notaro, and the aforementioned Win are standouts- but it hardly matters when every last character you could get attached to die for Snyder's hamfisted 'ironic twists'. He very notably bends the rules of his infection for the sake of it, compounding once again the- at this point- just dull nihilism of his films, once again delivered without deep thought or nuance. Let's have the love interest's neck snapped in double speed right after she confesses! The person the daughter goes out for, dooming her father and the standout pilot for? She's dead. The charming guy you obviously knew was going to live because he was in the vault? Well, he was bit, but only turns hours later.
I'm so bored of this man, after giving him shot after shot after shot. People see something in his work, but all I see is a hollow emptiness that no amount of stylization can mask. But his career will shamble on, regardless, getting far more attention than it ever deserved. The Army of the Dead cinematic universe is already planned out, and no one will ever shut up about the Snyderverse. The Army of the Dead describes his deluge of films and hardcore stans just as accurately.
Now can we please give Hiroyuki Sanada a real Hollywood role to sink his teeth in, for the love of god?
EDIT: AND HE CAST FUCKING SEAN SPICER TOO
When I heard Batista was leaving the MCU I thought wow his upcoming movie must be something. Well it's something, alright. Trash.
This movie was just full on fun! Of course the plot was predictable. Of course the dialogue was simple and cheesy. Of course the characters do simple, stupid things. It's a horror movie.
I traditionally pause movies about a thousand times to do miscellaneous things in the house. With the length being 2.5 hrs I figured I'd be watching this over two days. Not so. It's the 1st movie in a very long time that held my interest throughout.
After all is said and done, I think my favorite character was Marianne (the pilot). Even though she wasn't in it long and her lines were short, I just loved her salty demeanor.
Oh, and we can't forget Valentine. :tiger2:
If you want perfect dialogue and award winning acting with fully fleshed out characters, I suggest you skip the action and horror genres. If you just want a mindless fun romp with cheesy lines, posturing, crazy kill scenes, and non-stop fun, watch this movie.
What a waste of time this is.
Can’t wait to see the sequel in Mexico and y’all know that there’s a lot of them them there! They might take over the world and Trump will be their first kill! Lol
Zack Snyder should stop making movies. He's really bad at this.
Unfortunately, it seems in editing things got missed and the end piece just wasn’t good. The walking dead did better zombies I thought. Too much fake blood. It was hard to finish this movie. Dave was the wrong pick for the main lead.
Man what a selfish bitch Kate (Ella Purnell) was.. makes me remember why I dislike Snyder, stick to super hero movies in the future PLEASE!
mediocre acting, weak script. some of the SFX were cool. this Snyder fella made some weird creative decisions when it comes to how some of the scenes were filmed. I don't mind a little blurr now and then , but I swear this fella put all of nana's vaseline on the lens for an emotional dramatic scene.
best enjoyed with some inebriation.
I dont understand all the hate. All i know for sure is I watched it and i was intrigued all the way through, even if I was playing games at the same time. I did not come into this expecting anything special, its a gdamn zombie movie -- I only hoped to not be bored, and that's exactly what I got.
I kinda love Batista :) Also JUICE!!!!!! <3
A movie with great actors, a different take on a over done concept, and so much potential. In the end all this movie proceeds to do is bore and annoy you with it's plot holes, sudden deaths, and plot twisting revelations which come far to late into the movie. It falls into the category of not bad, but not good.
I know it's just a movie but the bitch should have died:face_with_symbols_over_mouth:, all the people she disobeyed for died and that sec guy got what he deserved:rofl:
Wow just finished watching Army of the Dead by Zack Snyder.
And I loved it, awesome movie.
Good plot. Good soundtrack. Good effects. Good make-up. Interesting script. The performances are also a big highlight, each character with their own style and their own style of story. It's quite entertaining from my point of view.
Snyder is making it clear that he can direct absolutely anything (even if there are some things in the movie that are weak). I think this universe has potential for many more movies like what we got used to with "Dawn of the Dead", but still good job Zack.
Boring plot with no sense at all, characters with zero developtment or background, just a bunch of bullets, blood; this movie could be only 45 min long but instead is 2 hours of a boring history about a team like Ocean Eleven, but with bad taste.
Watch it for entertainment value but turn off your brain and don’t question the stupidity of the movie because it will drive you nuts.
Stupid doesn’t even start the describe this film. There are so many things that make no sense. I’m shocked that all the actors that read the script didn’t say “what the fuck is this garbage”. Maybe they all needed jobs?
Maybe this film requires the Snyder Cut. Oh wait it’s made by Zack Snyder. Maybe he needs to go back in time & hire himself to remake this movie.
I can’t believe Zack Snyder suckered investors out of $70 million. I guess what they say is true; there’s a sucker born every minute.
Anyway watch at your own risk.
I cannot dignify this movie by giving it a rating. it is that bad!
oh hell no! what a load of crap! I waited anxiously for this!?!!! If you value your life do not watch.
A fine, entertaining zombie movie. The CGI is good, casting is ok, action over action. Maybe there could be less long talks but in general, thinking that it is a zombie movie, not telling you the meaning of life, I liked the movie. 7/10
:heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart:
Sooo - sadly I found this to be sub-par. Definitely not one of Snyder's best. The movie was certainly hyped up very well, but the movie itself doesn't live up to the hype.
Sure there are some good fight scenes. Sure there is some humor. And there are Zombie aminals. But overall the plot itself just wasn't that great.
I rated this as 6-Fair as I know more people are going top like this than I did.
How I rate:
1-3 :heart: = seriously! don't waste your time
4-6 :heart: = you may or may not enjoy this
7-8 :heart: = I expect you will like this too
9-10 :heart: = movies and TV shows I really love!
disgusting don't waste your time
God awful waste of 2 and a half hours.
Review by Lars SievalVIPEP 8BlockedParent2021-05-21T15:15:28Z
"Think about it. Everything we did. All those people we saved. Look what it got us. But what if, just once, we did something for us?"
A freaking zombie Tiger? A ZOMBIE TIGER. That might be one of the best things I've seen in awhile! And did I even spot a robot zombie? Snyder went all out!
Anyway lets get this out first, the runtime is way too long. Some scenes feel like they are going nowhere and are just dragging on and on and on and on and on and on and on. But other than that, I had a good time.
I had the most fun with the gorey opening. All that gore to Elvis's Viva Las Vegas, great stuff. I liked the simple story, I liked how the zombies lived with like a king and queen. Always fun to see something else. The cast was fun. Loved seeing Theo Rossi in something besides in my rewatches of Sons of Anarchy, Bautista missed the chance to Batista bomb the shit out of some zombies but that's okay, he did a good job as the lead. Best parts were his scenes with Ella Purnell who played Kate, his daughter in the film. Enjoyed the boobytrap scene and I wasn't even bothered by the predictable twists.
I just enjoyed watching a Zack Snyder film being the type of Snyder films I enjoy. Not really interested in the "anime" or prequel about Dieter, my least favorite character of the bunch. Won't revisit this any time soon but glad I watched it. So if you have a spare 148 minutes laying around and you enjoy Heist movies and Zombies, this might be one for you.
FREAKING TIGER ZOMBIE!!!!!!
Ps. loved the soundtrack.