This review contains some spoilers, but don't be afraid to read it if you're planning to see the movie, it won't change much, if anything, except perhaps your will to see it.
I find it quite difficult to grasp how so many people could still give this movie such a high score. I think it somehow must have something to do with people hyping the movie since it's the successor to Dawn Of The Dead (DOTD) or something, but seriously, they're all wrong, and I'll tell you why.
I too went in to see more of the (in my opinion pretty good) Dawn Of The Dead, and was expecting a bit less of course, since sequels are always worse than the first one. Point proved once more.
A few comparisons perhaps to show you what I mean: In DOTD, the zombies were... well, zombies. In Land Of The Dead (LOTD) the zombies have somehow "evolved" to have some kind of intelligence, with 1 commander-zombie who somehow manages to lead them all with a few grunts, giving the others orders. This is what destroyed the movie from the very beginning. I mean come on, "they're trying to act like us." (one of the first lines in the movie) and then you see a zombie couple walking hand in hand, a band of zombies trying to play something, and the list goes on. That's not what we're here for, you know? It doesn't feel like you're watching a zombie movie, it feels like you're watching Revenge Of The Mentally Challenged, and it isn't working.
I don't want to see a zombie with enough intelligence to fire a gun (seriously) or who knows that he can make a car explode by soaking it in gasoline first and rolling a burning keg of gas (which appeared out of nowhere) towards it, and I doubt anybody else was waiting for that either.
The scares are all extremely predictable by the way.
One of the aspects that made DOTD good to great, was the awesome job the crew did with the masks of the zombies. This is not the case in LOTD, you only get about 3 mass zombie scenes, the other scenes containing zombies are always close-ups of the same 5 zombies that hang around the commander-zombie, and only 1 of them (the girl with the slashed mouth) looks like how a zombie should look, the others just appear to have had a reversed face lift.
There is no depth to any of the characters. In DOTD, you had some outspoken personalities, here you have the stereotypical rebel-hero, the love-potential rebel female (which is a prostitute in this movie, nice twist on the whole Romeo and Juliet thing, I'll give them that), a retard that somehow is able to fire a gun with inhuman precision, and a few mercenaries (like the humongous fat Samoan guy) but who don't do *anything* at all in the movie except just standing there and trying to look cool.
When I thought the movie would finally kick off, the end credits rolled across the screen, and the whole theater was going "what the ****?", really. Everybody there was disappointed, everybody.
Just as you felt it had potential to burst into something great, it was over, and you realize you have just watched 90 minutes of pure time wasting. Nothing has been told, and nothing has happened during the movie.
Also, the tank-like car they use to raid surrounding villages is over the top and overused, and I didn't think it had anything cool about it, at all. They tried to revoke the busting-out feeling from DOTD with those fortified trucks I think, but again, it didn't work.
Everything was there though; the tower as a last stand (which takes only one 2 minute scene in the whole movie when it is invaded by the zombies), the expertise from DOTD should have created even more and better looking zombies, the concept was a great base to build off (the remaining humans walled in in a city with the undead controlling the rest of the world),...
But they didn't do anything with it and decided to just create a rip-off and milk the movie dry. And I don't blame anybody for that, but don't expect me to like it when you don't finish the job.
The final straw for me was the ending scene, when the zombies have taken over one of the *last* remaining human cities (remember, they control the rest of the world) and the main character with his finger on the button to shoot a few rockets in the mass of zombies, decides not to do it and just leave them to raid the city and it's inhabitants, since "they're just like us, they just want a place to call home", and then drives off launching fireworks with his truck.
I'm not kidding, I swear.
So there I was, both mouth and eyes wide open, trying to subdue the urge to let a well-meant "what the **** was that" slip from my lips while the end credits were rolling across the screen, having wasted a perfect evening while I could have been watching any other movie, which would have had a good chance of being better than this one.
If you read this and decide that perhaps you should see a different movie, I think that would be a wise decision.
If you have read this review, and you decide that you still have to go and see this movie, I promise you'll get what you deserve.
Have a good life.
I find it quite difficult to grasp how so many people could still give this movie such a high score. I think it somehow must have something to do with people hyping the movie since it's the successor to Dawn Of The Dead (DOTD) or something, but seriously, they're all wrong, and I'll tell you why.
I too went in to see more of the (in my opinion pretty good) Dawn Of The Dead, and was expecting a bit less of course, since sequels are always worse than the first one. Point proved once more.
A few comparisons perhaps to show you what I mean: In DOTD, the zombies were... well, zombies. In Land Of The Dead (LOTD) the zombies have somehow "evolved" to have some kind of intelligence, with 1 commander-zombie who somehow manages to lead them all with a few grunts, giving the others orders. This is what destroyed the movie from the very beginning. I mean come on, "they're trying to act like us." (one of the first lines in the movie) and then you see a zombie couple walking hand in hand, a band of zombies trying to play something, and the list goes on. That's not what we're here for, you know? It doesn't feel like you're watching a zombie movie, it feels like you're watching Revenge Of The Mentally Challenged, and it isn't working.
I don't want to see a zombie with enough intelligence to fire a gun (seriously) or who knows that he can make a car explode by soaking it in gasoline first and rolling a burning keg of gas (which appeared out of nowhere) towards it, and I doubt anybody else was waiting for that either.
The scares are all extremely predictable by the way.
One of the aspects that made DOTD good to great, was the awesome job the crew did with the masks of the zombies. This is not the case in LOTD, you only get about 3 mass zombie scenes, the other scenes containing zombies are always close-ups of the same 5 zombies that hang around the commander-zombie, and only 1 of them (the girl with the slashed mouth) looks like how a zombie should look, the others just appear to have had a reversed face lift.
There is no depth to any of the characters. In DOTD, you had some outspoken personalities, here you have the stereotypical rebel-hero, the love-potential rebel female (which is a prostitute in this movie, nice twist on the whole Romeo and Juliet thing, I'll give them that), a retard that somehow is able to fire a gun with inhuman precision, and a few mercenaries (like the humongous fat Samoan guy) but who don't do *anything* at all in the movie except just standing there and trying to look cool.
When I thought the movie would finally kick off, the end credits rolled across the screen, and the whole theater was going "what the ****?", really. Everybody there was disappointed, everybody.
Just as you felt it had potential to burst into something great, it was over, and you realize you have just watched 90 minutes of pure time wasting. Nothing has been told, and nothing has happened during the movie.
Also, the tank-like car they use to raid surrounding villages is over the top and overused, and I didn't think it had anything cool about it, at all. They tried to revoke the busting-out feeling from DOTD with those fortified trucks I think, but again, it didn't work.
Everything was there though; the tower as a last stand (which takes only one 2 minute scene in the whole movie when it is invaded by the zombies), the expertise from DOTD should have created even more and better looking zombies, the concept was a great base to build off (the remaining humans walled in in a city with the undead controlling the rest of the world),...
But they didn't do anything with it and decided to just create a rip-off and milk the movie dry. And I don't blame anybody for that, but don't expect me to like it when you don't finish the job.
The final straw for me was the ending scene, when the zombies have taken over one of the *last* remaining human cities (remember, they control the rest of the world) and the main character with his finger on the button to shoot a few rockets in the mass of zombies, decides not to do it and just leave them to raid the city and it's inhabitants, since "they're just like us, they just want a place to call home", and then drives off launching fireworks with his truck.
I'm not kidding, I swear.
So there I was, both mouth and eyes wide open, trying to subdue the urge to let a well-meant "what the **** was that" slip from my lips while the end credits were rolling across the screen, having wasted a perfect evening while I could have been watching any other movie, which would have had a good chance of being better than this one.
If you read this and decide that perhaps you should see a different movie, I think that would be a wise decision.
If you have read this review, and you decide that you still have to go and see this movie, I promise you'll get what you deserve.
Have a good life.