“Army of The Dead,” was a film that took years to finally hit the big screen and Netflix simatinalously following a departure from Warner Bros. to the acquisition of its current distributor. However, this movie had the potential to be a great shoot ’em up the film with amazing action but the movie trended downward when trying to take itself too seriously and add a dramatic storyline. As
The movie centers around a zombie outbreak, when precious military cargo escapes from its cage due to an unfortunately timed sex act leads to a collision on a remote desert highway. This cargo happens to be a super zombie named Zeus who proceeds to kill some soldiers and then spread the zombie plague into the city of Las Vegas. In the ensuing scenes, a rendition of “Viva Las Vegas” by Richard Cheese and Allison Crown plays while presenting all the backstory and world-building required. As all of Las Vegas succumbs to the undead, the government has set up a wall built out of shipping containers to keep the zombies in.
As talks to send a nuclear strike in an attempt to end the zombie scourge once and for all, Scott Ward (David Bautista) is approached by Casino owner Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) to recover $200 million from his casino vault before the military destroys the city—money the insurance companies have already reimbursed him. So if Scott and his team are successful Tanaka promises a $50 Million payout to divvy up amongst his team however he sees fit. Ward agrees and the recruitment montage of “You son of a bitch I’m in” characters begins. Former teammates Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera) and Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), along with helicopter pilot Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro who replaced Chris D’Elia after his fall from grace), German safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer), and Chicano sharpshooter Mikey Guzman (Raúl Castillo), who brings along his associate Chambers (Samantha Win).
The group is then introduced to an additional team member of Tanaka choosing Martin (Garret Dillahunt) who can give the team access to the casino. While suspensions of Martin’s true intentions of tagging along are later brought up, fans are giving the classic plan that should go off without a hitch while riding off into the sunset. Akin to the Ocean’s film franchise.
Upon reaching the quarantine camp where Ward’s estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), who works as a volunteer, directs them to Lily “The Coyote” (Nora Arnezeder), a smuggler familiar with the city. Lily recruits Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi), a camp security guard who’s used as a sacrifice to the Alpha Zombies for safe passage into the city. When Kate learns Lily escorted her friend Geeta (Huma Qureshi) into Vegas, Kate insists on joining the team over Ward’s objections in order to rescue her friend.
Now Geeta was a character only introduced to us as a plot device to get Kate to join the group. It’s a way to shoehorn in all the dad-and-daughter drama that only ends up dragging the story down, to begin with. The removal of this character altogether, and having Kate sneak in after her dad and caused some problems without all the extra dead plot weight.
Without spoiling things, the mission goes left and the team has to fight their way out of a suddenly hostile city when Martin takes matters the head of the Queen of Zombies. What follows is a bloody, desperate fight to get out of the city before the nuke lands which the deadline had been moved up. Giving the team less than several hours to make it of the city and blast zone alive.
When this movie whenever it isn’t taking itself too seriously, it’s fun and brainless and action-packed. It’s just a movie that never seems quite sure what it wants to be, what kind of tone it wants to have, and what kind of message it’s trying to send. It’s a mess.
Checkout “Army of The Dead,” available on Netflix and select theater today.
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