Army of the Dead: Hollywood’s Most Polarizing Director Is Back.
We’re not sure what it is, but there’s just something about a good zombie movie that gets us all fired up. Maybe it’s the longing for a reason to band together against a common enemy. Maybe it’s the desire to project ourselves into the film (could we survive this zombie apocalypse?). Or maybe we just love a good montage of badass movie stars with weapons scoring some creative zombie kills. Yeah OK, it’s probably just that last one. Fortunately, we get a brand new dose of high octane zombie-bashing action on Netflix now with the release of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, the prolific Snyder’s second effort at the zombie subgenre.
His first swing was all the way back in 2004 and was Snyder’s directorial debut, a remake of the groundbreaking George A. Romero classic, Dawn of the Dead. Snyder’s remake predictably didn’t live up to the almost impossibly high bar set by Romero’s iconic work, but as far as remake’s go (most of which are truly awful), Snyder’s take on the classic Army of the Dead was a damn good effort.
That ballsy first swing set the tone for what has become a remarkable 17-year career for Snyder, who has built a reputation as a one of Hollywood’s most ambitious (and polarizing) directors, and he has taken on some of this century’s biggest projects. From the epic blood-splatting romp 300 to adapting the “unadaptable” Watchmen, to rebooting and helming many of the recent mega-budget DC Extended Universe films, it’s safe to say Snyder has never been intimidated by a big budget, or big expectations. There is no greater example of this than Snyder’s most recent work, his monstrous four-hour re-edit of his previously panned effort, Justice League (for which he shouldn’t really be attributed blame, as he was forced to leave the project mid-way through post-production for personal reasons). The fan labelled “Snyder cut” was arguably the most anticipated release of 2021 so far and after much fanfare, consensus has been that it blows the original out of the water and it has been a surprise success with critics as well as diehard DC fans.
Snyder will be hoping to keep the momentum going with Army of the Dead which is pure madness. Our heroes assemble outside the once fabulous city of Las Vegas, armed up and ready to pull off an epic casino heist. The only problem being that the city has been overrun by, you guessed it, thousands of nasty-looking zombies. Our guide through the infested Sin City is none other than rising action star Dave Bautista, who has seamlessly transitioned from the professional wrestling ring to the big screen. Bautista is probably best known for playing the fan favourite Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy and the final two Avengers films and is beginning to stake his claim as one of the decade’s most exciting action stars. Other than that, all the trailer provides is a wild supercut montage of armed-to-the-gills action stars and some pretty terrifying looking flesh-eaters going to war with dollar bills flying everywhere and Kenny Rogers “The Gambler” blaring in the background. Also, a zombie Sumatran tiger. And just like that, we’re all the way in. Say what you want about Snyder; the man has many critics and certainly not all of his movies hit the mark (we’re looking at you, Batman v. Superman), but at the very least the man knows how to put on a show.
