Army of the Dead (2021) dropped on Netflix on May 21, 2021. With Zack Snyder being not only the director but also part of the writing staff, given that his “Synder Cut” of Justice League received great reviews from fans, Army of the Dead should be winner… right?
Well, that depends. If you are looking for a heist film in the vein of The Italian Job or Oceans 8, 11, 12, 13, it’s not that. If you are looking for a 24 Days Later, or a Resident Evil-esque fun Zombie film, it’s not quite that either. It feels like the film smashed two things together and tried to make them blend. Sadly, neither one is fully developed to be truly successful.
The rundown of the film seems simple enough. The military envoy is transporting a secret package. After an accident the package, an alpha zombie, breaks free, slaughters everyone and walks over a hill to see the bright lights of Las Vegas. The city becomes overrun and the government seals it off with shipping containers. Scott Ward (Dave Bautistsa) creates a team to go into Vegas, empty a casino vault and split the money with the owner and his party.
But we all know it isn’t that simple. There’s a lot of betrayal, lies, and senseless death. It’s a zombie film but we’ve all seen this before. The characters are thin; the story has plot holes that looks like Swiss cheese. Zombie bites affect different people in different ways with no explanation.
Basically, the film is fun if you just don’t think about it. Sit back on your couch, have a bowl of popcorn and just laugh at the absurdity of it all. There’s no genuine connection to any of the characters. When one dies, it more about the fantastic slow motion or the blood splatter. If that was the whole point, then Snyder and his team score much higher than our rating.
After watching the trailer, marketing once again led us astray. We wanted… we expected more from this film. There were so many excellent plot points the film could have explored further, but seemed to just let the opportunity slip away. If there is a sequel, maybe they will circle back to all of that.
In the end, the film is okay even if it is a bit too long for what they’re presenting. Like we said earlier, if you want a mindless film to laugh at while stuffing popcorn in your mouth, go for it. Otherwise, skip it.