After years of agony, drama, and studio fighting with mixed results to show for it in the end (at best), if filmmaker Zack Snyder gleans one takeaway from his terrific new zombie thriller, “Army Of The Dead,” it’s that he should steer completely clear of superhero films for the rest of his career and focus on original features. And maybe just zombie ones. Snyder’s best movie since his debut, the zombie film “Dawn Of The Dead” (2004), “Army Of The Dead” is really compelling and deftly navigates a lot of different tones, even if it quickly leaves more interesting ones behind. Largely captivating, for all is gore, darkly twisted comedy, and delicious tension— surely something satisfied audiences will walk away with—there’s also a minor but palatable sense of loss and melancholy, one that echoes the hardships of the pandemic age and ruthless American capitalism that gives the film some socio-political edge. It’s not a perfect film, some of that edge isn’t super deep, and at 2.5 hours, it’s arguably 30 minutes too long. Yet, it’s still a tremendous blast of energy, by and large, and such a refreshing antidote to the self-serious and overwrought superhero movies Snyder has hopefully left behind.
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In Snyder’s post-apocalyptic zombie action horror thriller, there’s a bleak, cynical sadness that has seemingly engulfed the nation and its lead characters. A zombie outbreak has occurred in Las Vegas, and the government has walled the entire city off, something that subtly feels like a symbolic heartbreak for America. Quarantine refugee camps line the city’s outskirts like a make-shift shantytown for the displaced; an apocalyptic, lawless Wild West ecosystem filled with greed, scabs, opportunists, and those abusing whatever power they can scrape together. More importantly, Congress and the current President have decided to obliterate Vegas with a low-tactical nuclear weapon to prevent the zombie pandemic from spreading (Sean Spicer is seen on a CNN-like network, which gives it a further Trump-ian edge).
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In a darkly hilarious slow-motion opening credits and music montage to an ironic version of “Viva Las Vegas”—which might be the highlight of the movie and even outdo Snyder’s own “Watchmen” opening credits sequence, previously seen as one of the best of its kind—the filmmaker tells the backstory of the zombie outbreak. In it, a group of soldiers and militia warriors (lead by Dave Bautista) try and help civilians get out of Vegas alive. The delightful scene is campy, twisted, dark, and amusing, but it also shows some of the tragedies and costs Bautista’s legionaries face while losing beloved team members who have fought side by side trying to survive this zombie hellscape.
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‘Army’ then fast-forwards to the present. Bautista and his psychically devastated team are scattered to the wind, and despite their herculean and brave efforts to save thousands— like many soldiers in America’s history—they’ve all been discarded and forgotten; left with shit, low-wage jobs from their thankless task. But opportunity strikes in the form of a wealthy billionaire Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada). He has the ultimate job and gamble for them and seemingly sympathizes with their abandoned plight: venture into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted and get rewarded with $50 million dollars for your troubles if you survive. However, there’s the ticking clock; Vegas is scheduled for a July 4th nuking in just a matter of days, and so Bautista’s Scott Warden has to make a quick decision while also putting together a big nothing-to-lose team of DGAF lunatics to pull off this suicidal mission. This means going back to old and scarred mercenary friends played by Ana de la Reguera, Omari Hardwick (Starz‘s “Power”), and Tig Notaro while recruiting desperate new ones (Matthias Schweighöfer, Raúl Castillo, Samantha Win) to fill out the roster.
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Complications hit early, however. Kate Ward (Ella Purnell), Scott’s estranged daughter who works with the World Health Organization in the Vegas quarantine camps, has lost friends inside the zombie-infested Vegas. While presumed dead, Kate insists she’s coming to rescue them and recruits a “coyote” mercenary with a conscience (Nora Arnezeder)—one who is paid to lead the destitute into Vegas to try and make some quick but dangerous money—to help. One by one, the team seems to continue to grow (including Garret Dillahunt, who plays Tanaka’s watchful right-hand man) as they make their dangerous descent into the bowels of Vegas, looking for their prize.
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Once inside, “Army Of The Dead” arguably isn’t as interesting as its set up of desperate outsiders forgotten by their country, forced to take a grave, dangerous risk before they can even glimpse a taste of fortune (if that’s not a metaphor for late-stage American capitalism, I dunno what is). The film largely loses its comedic and political textures to become something more of a traditional ragtag team horror/thriller that even resembles James Cameron’s “Aliens,” with its ideas of cowards, manipulators, and those with hidden agendas. And to Snyder’s credit, even as the film becomes less philosophically sophisticated and less funny—though it then arguably becomes a treatise on how human nature devolves— it’s still just as intense, taut, and engaging as the Las Vengeance team try and survive this genuinely creepy and scary ordeal.
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Despite some bold but hit-and-miss casting choices in his DC Films (Ezra Miller, Jesse Eisenberg), Snyder’s ‘Army’ ensemble is aces. The film creates several breakout stars, including Arnezeder, Hardwick, and German actor Matthias Schweighöfer as the frightened but plucky safecracker who absolutely steals every one of his scenes (a second-take away from Snyder should be not to forget his ironic sense of humor, which often excels here).
While primal survival, economical and physical, are obvious themes, as is greed, so is family, fatherhood, and the great losses suffered in trying to survive this ruthless, zombie-infected America. Bautista’s family backstory is filled with heartbreak, and every flashback depicting some family tragedy is deeply felt and moving— Snyder finds some meaningful outlet to portray his own personal loss of 2017.
To many, “Army Of The Dead” will be simply seen as an entertaining, muscular, and visceral horror thriller, and that’s fine, the movie certainly works on all those levels—Snyder seemingly crafts all this visual extravagance and thrilling tension in his sleep and it’s great. But honestly, it’s the Wall built around Vegas, the plight of his broken heroes, their personal struggles, and the orchestrated cruelty of this setup—an Elon Musk type entrepreneur sending in low-wage losers to do the dirty work so they can maybe strike it rich in the end, all the while having a darker endgame—that makes “Army Of The Dead” so resonant in the end, even if much of that socio-economic-capitalistic commentary tends to evaporate in the latter half of the movie. These ideas are baked into the odyssey, and the movie’s about the disenfranchised, the lost, and the discarded. In this sense, Snyder has skillfully understood the assignment. George A. Romero would be proud that the filmmaking visualist hasn’t forgotten his zombie classics’ political and social edge.
The game is rigged, “Army Of The Dead” says, echoing so many disillusioned pessimists today who have come to understand the great lie of the American dream, the country’s absurd hypocrisies, and inherent inequities (which will appeal to both sides of the political divide, frankly). The struggle is real and may even continue in the potential sequels Snyder teases. If the franchise expands and grows in scope, hopefully, Snyder and Netflix don’t forget its biting core values: the expendables sent to dig their own ditch in the heartland of America’s grotesque excess. [B+]
“Army of the Dead” debuts in select theaters on May 14 before hitting Netflix on May 21.