Honest Review: Why Zack Snyder's 'Army Of The Dead' Failed To Reach Its Full Potential

A week after its much-anticipated release, Tatler dissects Zack Snyder's 'Army Of The Dead'; this time without the oozing blood and flying guts! Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Let us get straight to the point: Zack Snyder's attempt to bring a heist, a father-daughter drama, alien conspiracies, and hybrid zombies together in one movie was too much for everyone to bear.

In a span of two hours and 28 minutes, Army Of The Dead has undeniably brought unique and interesting concepts for the zombie genre. Before its official release, it was peddled as an action-packed heist story with a "different" take of the walking dead we see in many horror movies.

While the plot seemed interesting, there were so many things about the movie that Snyder failed to deliver; we have dissected them in this article for you:

Above Army Of The Dead movie poster | Photo: Netflix

NOT ENOUGH EMPHASIS ON CHARACTERS

In a zombie movie where countless deaths are expected to take place, the main characters must have their personalities and backstories presented well. In Army Of The Dead, so many deaths meant nothing to the viewers; take Chambers (Samantha Win) for example.

A lot of time could have been used to introduce and connect the characters and the viewers but they were spent exploring unnecessary subplots like the father and daughter dilemma of Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) and Kate Ward (Ella Purnell).

THE HEIST WAS QUESTIONABLE

It's not a heist story if there is not a single person who will betray the team for one reason. Martin, head of Bly Tanaka's head of security, reveals that he only joined the crew to ensure that a sample from one of the alpha zombies would land into the hands of his boss. (Tanaka could trade the sample for billions of dollars as a bioweapon of mass destruction).

This ploy of using Martin as an inside man was questionable in so many ways; Tanaka may as well have just hired the team to do the job and used the $200 million inside the vault as leverage.

GEETA'S DEATH

Kate joined the crew in the first place to save Geeta, one of the refugees kidnapped for zombification. Geeta's rescue alone took a lot of time only for her to disappear in the end, thanks to the nuke ex machina.

SOME THEORIES WERE LEFT HANGING

When the film started, a dialogue between two US soldiers suggests that, like George A Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead, there is an extraterrestrial force behind all the zombie attacks. Viewers never really learn the origin of the virus, but one of the soldiers mentioned that their convoy came from Area 51, America's most famous top-secret military base.

In the latter part of the film, a robot zombie appears in one shot. As Scott and his squad fight their way out of the casino, they shoot the zombie in the face, revealing what seems like a metallic skull and mechanical blue eye.

This has become the subject of heavy speculation among the director’s fans. Did the government deploy that to monitor the alpha zombies? Are they technology from the other world? The movie was long but viewers did not get answers.

SHOULD YOU WATCH THE FILM?

Despite having visually stunning scenes now and then, the movie failed to reach its full potential. Overall, the movie is fun, fast-paced, and had a cliche sense of humour; however, it failed to capture the emotional depth of zombies movies like Train To Busan and 28 weeks later.

Army Of The Dead felt rushed and dragged out at certain points. It was a pretty good zombie action film but 30 minutes could have been cut from its 148-minute running time.

There were so many things that Snyder wanted to happen but they all clashed. It would perhaps be better if Army Of The Dead was turned into a series instead of a movie.