Film Review: Army of the Dead
Zack Snyder refines his bag of tricks for the zany, grandiose Army of the Dead
Taking a blood-soaked buzzsaw to his signature pretensions, Zack Snyder delivers his best film since 2004’s Dawn of the Dead. Yes, it’s bloated, and yes, it features the filmmaker’s penchant for stylized pop-video aesthetics, but Army of the Dead is clear and fun where it matters. Snyder’s construction of a new zombie mythos - coupled with bombastic action - is nothing short of delightful. Minor spoilers ahead…
2021 seems to be the year of the Zack Snyder about-face. A filmmaker once lost in the self-important miasma of superhero world-building - with a filmography ranging from graceful misfires (Watchmen, Man of Steel) to ostentatious slogs (Batman V. Superman) - Snyder has exited the other side of his time in the DCEU with a newfound clarity. Just two short months ago, HBO Max released Zack Snyder’s Justice League, or as it’s been affectionately dubbed by a fervently devoted fanbase, The Snyder Cut. A flawed, over-long exercise in excess, The Snyder Cut nevertheless represented a bold reclamation of a director’s lost vision, and through a dose of heart and earnestness long-since missing from Snyder’s dark oeuvre, it earned its indulgences as well as its four-hour runtime. And if this new iteration of Justice League embodies a refreshing momentum in Snyder discovering the type of story that fits best with his directorial style, then his new film - Army of the Dead - is another leap forward.
Returning to the world of zombies that launched his career, Snyder has followed up his first and best film - 2004’s Dawn of the Dead - with a worthy successor. And while Army is fully divorced from Dawn in both continuity, tone, and style, it proves that Snyder’s truest element remains the playground of the undead. With a mashup of genres and a host of influences elevated by thrilling action, Army of the Dead does its most to highlight its filmmaker’s strengths rather than weaknesses. Yes, it’s overlong and bloated; yes, its characters are barely more than paper cutouts; and yes, the narrative borrows - perhaps too liberally - from James Cameron’s Aliens, but Army is Snyder at his least pretentious and most energetic.
“…Army of the Dead does its most to highlight its filmmaker’s strengths rather than weaknesses.”
If there’s one thing to learn about Zack Snyder, it’s that he loves an attention-seizing intro, and Army of the Dead is no different. Opening with a bravura action sequence followed by a six-minute musical montage backed by Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas,” the film details the fall of Las Vegas to an undead horde in the most Zack Snyder way possible: a Grand Guignol melee engulfs the Strip - replete with shambling Elvis impersonators and undead showgirls - as we’re introduced to the slow-motion quarantine of a doomed Las Vegas. The rest of the film’s refreshingly simple heist narrative is married straight into James Cameron’s Aliens - somewhere under the ruins of Sin City is a vault with $200 million, and Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) is tasked by shady businessman Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) to fetch it before the United States military wipes the undead city off the map with a nuke. Putting together a team, Ward gathers second in command Cruz (Ana de la Reguera), snarky “helicopter guy” Marianne (Tig Notaro, painstakingly edited in to replace the disgraced Chris D’Elia), philosophical heavy Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), famed social media zombie killer Guzman (Raúl Castillo), eager German safecracker Dieter (a scene-stealing Matthias Schweighöfer), and French smuggler-slash-guide Lily (Nora Arnezeder), to infiltrate the walled-off city. Of course, bargaining her way onto the team to provide emotional stakes is Ward’s estranged daughter, Kate (Ella Purnell), tagging along with the rest of Snyder’s Aliens tributes: Vasquez analog Chambers (Samantha Win, complete with red bandana), and scumbag-with-ulterior-motive Martin (Garrett Dillahunt).
Army of the Dead features a sprawling, unwieldy cast made up of thin archetypes, but through performances, clever shading, and sheer force of will, its characters maintain an illusion of depth - an illusion upheld the most by Dave Bautista’s Scott Ward. A performer quickly becoming my favorite wrestler-turned-actor, Bautista is particularly adept at juxtaposing his soulfulness with his gigantic frame; whether it’s Blade Runner 2049’s Sapper Morton, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Drax the Destroyer, or Army of the Dead’s guilt-ridden soldier-slash-father, Bautista is always able to find the arresting pathos at the center of his towering, physical roles. And as for the rest of the cast - no matter how thin and perfunctory - everyone gets a chance to shine, even Ella Purnell’s Kate, who’s saddled with the prime culprit for padding the film’s runtime to an almost inexcusable 148 minutes.
“Army of the Dead features a sprawling, unwieldy cast made up of thin archetypes, but through performances, clever shading, and sheer force of will, its characters maintain an illusion of depth.”
Zack Snyder, first and foremost, is an action maestro. His eye for kineticism may have taken more of a backseat for his DCEU projects (it’s difficult to assign weight when all your characters are cloaked in CGI), but for Army of the Dead, his clear and concise choreography makes a welcome return. Where other filmmakers might blanket their zombie films with the cover of darkness, Snyder provides refreshingly lit set pieces; where other filmmakers might rely on shaky camera work to accentuate chaos, Snyder shoots his fights for maximum impact with the clarity of stability.
Army of the Dead also showcases Snyder’s world-building abilities, for better or worse. The film introduces a fascinating new mythos for the undead, giving its zombies a caste system that adds more depth than your run-of-the-mill ghoulies; this extra shading is brought to physical life by actors Richard Cetrone and Athena Perample, who portray the terrifying king and queen “Alphas.” Snyder also infuses this universe with some neat and inspired touches - from the zombie queen’s showgirl costume doubling as her royal regalia to a zombified Siegfried & Roy tiger, there’s plenty of fun within the walls of Army. But Snyder’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach also exposes a scattershot focus. The narrative is pretty much Swiss cheese: for every cool idea that Army explores, there are two more that are just abandoned, never to be mentioned again.
To put a bow on it, Army of the Dead is a nitpicker’s nightmare - bloated, inconsistent, and full of logical holes and aborted arcs. But if you’re able to suspend your disbelief and roll with the colorful chaos Zack Snyder has painted across the screen, then the film becomes the ultimate “turn off your brain” ride. Army of the Dead is now the second Snyder film of 2021 to loosen its director’s signature grip on self-importance, delivering a genuinely bombastic exercise in zombie-killing excess. There are plenty of things that fall through the cracks of Army’s wobbly construction, but Snyder hasn’t felt this carefree in almost two decades.
