
'Army of the Dead' lets Zack Snyder cut loose on a too-long zombie-heist combo
CNN
"Army of the Dead" basically skips straight to "the Snyder cut" phase, since co-writer/director/cinematographer Zack Snyder clearly felt little pressure to cut in assembling this 2 ½-hour zombie/heist hybrid. The result is a Netflix movie that yields plenty of striking shots -- a Snyder specialty -- without giving enough life to its non-zombie cast.
Snyder actually directed the 2004 remake "Dawn of the Dead" early in his career, before "300" and his extensive sojourn into the world of graphic novels and superheroes. While "zombie/heist" is convenient shorthand -- "Ocean's Eleven" meets "The Walking Dead" -- the movie mashes up several genres and older films, owing perhaps its most sizable debt to "Aliens," to the point of pilfering a memorable line of dialogue. Like that film, this one involves a squad of soldiers (OK, mercenaries here, but close enough) heading into a perilous setting surrounded by slavering creatures, carrying out their mission under a ticking-clock scenario. The monsters, moreover, might be a little more complex than customary incarnations, adding an extra degree of difficulty.More Related News