Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different movie from the Nerdosphere.  This week Dave and Patrick review the Zack Snyder’s Newest Film Army of the Dead!

The Flick:  Army of the Dead (2021)

What’s it About:  Las Vegas has been overrun by zombies.  As the government prepares to nuke the city, a group of mercenaries are hired by a casino tycoon to enter Las Vegas to recover his casino’s money before the city is destroyed.

Metacritic Score: 57

The Nerds’ Take on Army of the Dead (2021):

Dave What do you get when you combine The Walking Dead, World War Z, 300, the Oceans franchise and a little bit of Rambo? You get Army of the Dead, the latest offering from Zack Snyder. As you might expect from a Zack Snyder film, this one is over the top in many different ways but it is still an enjoyable romp, for the most part.

Zombie outbreaks are nothing new. They have been around for decades and have led to a slew of iconic movies, TV series, and video games. Army of the Dead, however, does some unique things with the zombie genre. Here, the zombie outbreak originates from what appears to be a military experiment gone wrong. An alpha zombie escapes and causes an outbreak in Las Vegas. Unable to retake Sin City, the government declares it a lost cause and puts a wall around it. As we get settled into the movie, the plan is to nuke Vegas and eliminate the problem once and for all. But we soon discover there are two types of zombies in Las Vegas. One type is similar to the zombies in World War Z. They are fast and overwhelm you with sheer numbers, speed, and savagery. Then there is the other group, headed up by a King (the original zombie) and his Queen. These zombies are self-aware and organized. It is similar to when The Hulk turns into Smart Hulk. Not only do they know they are zombies, they are able to control their impulses and, apparently, can even breed to make baby zombies. They are very dangerous because they are smart zombies and that is something not seen too often. And, let us not forget……a zombie white tiger.

Then there is the human element and this is where this movie struggles. Several people survived the outbreak in Las Vegas, but at great personal cost. Scott Ward, played by Dave Bautista, knew this all too well as he had to kill his wife, who had been bitten and turned. This act had a serious impact on his relationship with his daughter, Kate. Kate, meanwhile, works as a volunteer in a refugee camp right outside the wall of Las Vegas. Scott gets approached by Mr. Tanaka for a heist that seems like a suicide mission: Get into Vegas, get into his casino vault, and recover $200 million before a tactical nuke destroys Las Vegas. Scott agrees and recruits an assortment of interesting and quirky characters to help him with the job. Kate ends up going on the mission when she learns her friend, Geeta, went into Vegas with Lily and never came back out.

A couple of months back, I mentioned to Greg Demarco that this movie seemed like Oceans 11 with zombies. In some ways, that was a very accurate description. Don’t get me wrong though. Army of the Dead is nowhere close to the movie that Oceans 11 is. Still, the movie gets the tension of a seemingly impossible heist right. Then you add in zombies and a very pissed off King Zombie who will stop at nothing to avenge the beheading of his Queen, and you have things going on that even Danny Ocean might have trouble working around. The action sequences are all excellent. It has all the Zack Snyder earmarks, although he does not seem to go overboard with slow motion in this one. There is tension, drama, betrayal, close calls, shocking moments, and lots of humor to be found. I have no complaints with the things this movie does well, namely the set pieces, the zombies, and the special effects.

It is the people that are the problem, which was a familiar refrain from our review of the MosterVerse not so long ago. The people here make dumb decision after bad decision after worse decision. For instance, Kate leaving her father and the group behind to skulk off to the Zombie HQ to find her friend, with no hint as to whether she was alive or undead, was just dumb. That is just one example. While I am a much bigger fan of Zack Snyder than Patrick, he does not do emotions well. Every time he tries to inject emotion into a scene where there should not be any, it feels so forced that it is uncomfortable. One of the final scenes, where Scott and his daughter have survived a helicopter crash and are trying to reconcile various things with each other, is one of those moments. It felt forced and awkward and it was heavily telegraphed what was going to happen there. Ironically enough, the best emotion in the movies comes from the King Zombie as you can tangibly feel his heartbreak and rage at the loss of his Queen. I do not think Zack was trying to make the zombies sympathetic…. but that was kind of how they ended up to me.

As I always say, the most important question for me is this: Was I entertained? Yes, I was. The movie is a lot of fun and my longing for proper character development might be grossly misplaced with a movie like this one. It is supposed to be fun and not too heavy. It succeeds there. But, on the other hand, it is too damn long. Two and a half hours for a zombie outbreak movie? I don’t care how novel some of the ideas and concepts were, two and a half hours is just too much for a movie like this.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: If you like zombie movies or shows, you will like this. If you like lots of action with big explosions and excellent set pieces, you will probably like this movie. If you like Zack Snyder movies, this will be right up your alley (mostly). If you don’t care so much about character development and depth, you will likely enjoy this movie. If, however, you answer no to any of those qualifiers, this might not be the best movie for you. If you have two and a half hours to kill and are interested in a somewhat different take on a genre that has been beaten to death the past few years, then I say give Army of the Dead a try. It is good enough for me to comfortably recommend to most any adventure, action, or horror fan.

Dave’s Rating: 3.25/5

Patrick:  BREAKING NEWS:  This is a Zack Snyder movie I didn’t absolutely loathe!  That’s right, dear reader I can say that my viewing experience of Army of the Dead did not result in a desire to throw my television out of the window.  Now, before people raise their eyebrows any higher, let me clear that while I didn’t hate Army of the Dead, I didn’t exactly like it either.  What did happen was Zack Snyder made a perfectly fine zombie action film.  It’s loaded with dynamic action sequences and a cast that is a lot of fun on the screen.  However, Snyder’s film also trips over its own mythology, takes itself a bit to seriously and overstays its welcome.

Army of the Dead begins like so many other zombie films: with the release of some sort of catalyst that spreads the zombie infection.  In this case it’s a zombie being held by the military, presumably as a potential weapon, that escapes while being transported near Vegas.  The zombie proves to be of the fast variety and of course promptly bites two soldiers.  What follows is a classic Zack Snyder slow motion montage depicting zombies running rampant through Las Vegas, biting all in their path.  The audience is also introduced to the core characters of the film as they are shown fighting off zombies in various scenes.  Thankfully, this is the extent of the Snyder slow -mo.  Zack tends to over rely on the technique in many of his films, bogging the action down.  Here though, it is effective in catching the audience up to the state of the city and introducing the view to the cast.

Anyway, after seeing Vegas fall to the zombie apocalypse, we learn the government has sealed the city and is planning to destroy it via nuclear blast.  A casino owner hires Scott Ward, the lead soldier from the opening montage, to infiltrate the city before it is destroyed, break into his casino vault and recover the money kept there.  Ward then recruits some former members of his crew, along with some new faces to pull off the job.

Speaking of cast, wrestling fans likely flocked to this film due to Dave Bautista getting a true lead turn as Scott Ward.  Scott is one of the characters from the open and the main protagonist.  Ward was the leader of what appears to be an elite team of soldiers disbanded when the government isolated Vegas from the world.  He is estranged from his daughter Kate, played by Ella Purnell, who spends her time volunteering at a refugee camp outside the city.  Rounding out the core members of the team are Ward’s co-commander and love interest Maria Cruz, played by Ana de la Requera and Vanderhoe, played by Omari Hardwick.  Again, these characters are all introduced to the audience in the opening credits/montage but they are brought in quickly when Batista’s Ward brings the team together for one final job.  These three are the core of the film as their relationships is vital to making the team go and Bautista, Hardwick and Reguera have some really strong chemistry.  The three come off as more than comrades in arms.  There is a sense of friendship, even a familial bond that makes them interesting and characters you pull for to survive.

In addition to the core four characters, most audience members probably fell in love with Dieter, a safe cracker needed to open the “most secure safe in Vegas”.  Dieter is brilliantly played by Matthias Shweighofer by giving Dieter a combination of boundless confidence in his safe-cracking skills with infinite levels of terror and ineptitude for the environment he is entering.  It leads to some of the funnier bits of dialogue in the film and was the only other cast member to really, truly stand out.  Another notable cast member Tig Notaro as pilot Marianne Peters.  Notaro was a late addition to the cast and was digitally added to the film after production.  Notaro’s dry sense of humor pays off well, though there are some moments where you can see the dialogue not completely mesh with the rest of the cast.  There’s really only so much that can be done, yet Notaro performed admirably.

The other big highlight of Army of the Dead for me are the action pieces.  I don’t love Zack Snyder’s style of filmmaking, everyone knows that, but his action pieces in this movie really do pay off well.  Snyder’s affinity for the fast zombie dates back to his remake of Dawn of the Dead and it shows.  Once the action starts it is intense, fast, and of course every bit as gory as you could want from a zombie flick.  There are explosions galore and frankly, just not a ton of tension building like you see in other zombie flicks (more on that in a minute).  These action sequences effectively keep the film moving along through its two and a half hour runtime.

So why do I think this movie is fine?  Well, while I enjoyed the action, much of the plot just didn’t work for me.  Beginning with Ward’s relationships.  First there is his estrangement with his daughter.  It is played as this beg source of tension between the two, but the conflict resolves itself in one five minute conversation.  Poof! All better!  I didn’t need the problem to take the entirety of the film to resolve itself, but I am certain there is a happy medium in there somewhere.

Another problem with Army of the Dead is its own mythology.  It never explains itself.  It just is or is explained in such a throw away manner that it is clear this wasn’t Snyder’s primary focus in making the film.  For example, there are fast zombies and there are slow zombies.  Why?  Well, we get an explanation in on sentence and that’s that.  As someone who is a proponent of world building, I was left wanting more.  We also learn that this particular brand of zombie is evolving and has intelligence in ways not really imagined.  But the concept is explored at a rudimentary level and is clearly a vehicle to drive the action.  Again, I suppose that’s fine, but I do think there was a missed opportunity for a more compelling story that would have truly moved the needle for me.  Finally, like many zombie films, the rules for turning into a zombie don’t make sense.  Why do some people turn instantly while others don’t?  How do animals turn into zombies and seem to keep their animal instincts even becoming domesticated? Wait, some zombies hibernate?  Because reasons?  These devices are all clearly in place to drive the protagonists into challenging situations, but like other zombie films none of these rules or behaviors stands up to any scrutiny.

I’m not going to pretend like I hate Army of the Dead because it’s my thing.  Honestly this is a mindless action flick hidden in the guise of a horror movie.  There isn’t much plot to get in the way of the action, but I saw a real opportunity to make something more if Snyder had wanted to do it.  He didn’t though, so what we get is a perfectly adequate action film…with zombies.

Patrick’s Rating: 2.5/5.0

Overall Nerds’ Rating on Army of the Dead (2021): 2.875/5.0