Delayed Reaction: Army of the Dead

Premise: A group of mercenaries are hired to retrieve the money from a casino vault in a zombie-infested Las Vegas.

 

Netflix reminds me of that kid no one really likes in school who tries to buy his popularity. He throws the biggest birthday parties and kids like going to his family's palatial house to gawk. No one really dislikes the kid, but he's not anyone's first choice to hang out with. That's my impression of how Netflix is with filmmakers. Netflix has been trying to spend their way to legitimacy. They give filmmakers a lot of money then basically leave them alone until the movie is ready. That's a perfect formula for getting all the projects that no other studio wants to make. All the studios would love to be in the Martin Scorsese or Alfonso Cuaron business, but not for the expense of an Irishman or Roma. Ever since Christopher Guest's very forgettable Mascots, I've noticed this "Bottom of the pile" effect. Netflix throws a lot of money at a filmmaker who then uses the chance for an unmarketable pet project or lesser effort (i.e., the screenplay from the bottom of their pile of unproduced work). In short, it feels like there's a reason that Netflix gets The Midnight Sky and not The Martian.

 

Army of the Dead is a good example of this trend. It's a screenplay that's been floating around since 2007. Pre-The Walking Dead. Pre-Zombieland. Pre-several cycles of the zombie craze. It kept falling apart with studios for over a decade until Netflix finally came along with a big production budget and little involvement. This movie should've been left for dead. It was an edgy, inventive 2007 idea that time had passed by. Which, that's fine. It happens a lot.

 

It's an entertaining enough movie. The very large cast has a lot of fun 2nd-choice types. There's a dream version of the movie that gets Dwayne Johnson for the Dave Bautista role, Hailee Steinfeld or Zendaya for Ella Purnell, Ana De Armas for Ana de la Reguera, and Anthony Mackie for Omari Hardwick. I like plenty of the people in the actual cast, but there's no one in it that made me think, "Oh wow. They got _____ for this." Bautista is really good in physical action movie roles that don't take themselves too seriously. I love seeing Raul Castillo pop up in stuff. Garret Dillahunt plays a vintage Garret Dillahunt character. I love seeing Tig Notaro in this*.

 

*I didn't know beforehand that she replaced Chris D'Elia in reshoots a year after production. She only worked with one cast member in the reshoots and was replaced with CGI everywhere else. I didn't notice it when I watched the movie, because I was just happy to see Tig, but now that I think of it, that does make some sense.

 

I like how the opening credits function like a prequel movie, covering the major beats of the infestation of Las Vegas and some key backstories. There's plenty of zombie killing action throughout. This kind of excess is exactly what Zack Snyder can deliver. The idea to pair this zombie premise with a heist movie is pretty fun, even though the heist aspect gets pushed to the background often.

 

However, I spent far too much of this movie thinking "Oh, this again." There are aspects of I Am Legend, Zombieland, and even Mars Attacks! in this. I don't have the same zombie movie appetite as some people, so I didn't revel in all the genre beats. Not a bad movie, but a little too familiar to make an impression on me.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend