Army of The Dead is epic!

Zack Snyder is probably having the best year of his film making career. He has had two highly touted releases and one was four years in the making. There were plenty of people that wanted to see what this man could do with more creative liberties and freedoms from a studio like Netflix. If you want a fully immersive world Snyder loves to dabble with smaller stories in a larger picture and Army of the Dead is no different.

Opening with a near 10 minute intro of a cargo envoy driving through the desert, chaos begins to ensue when a head on collision empties the cargo leaving the military personnelle and the entire population of Las Vegas in danger. Flash a montage of the early stages and the closing off Vegas and we are introduced to Scott Ward and how quickly things turned for the worse. Now armed with an opportunity a group of people must be assembled to re-enter Vegas and take back some well stored cash.

Bautista's Scott Ward is a likable lead character who has a strained relationship with his young daughter Kate. We also get glimpses into the team and whose job it is to take on some of the more important tasks such as piloting and safe cracking. Before the team even enters Vegas we see Ella Purnell go toe to toe with Bautista and her fierce determination is likable. Bautista is firm but also understanding and knows his daughter's stubbornness is going to lead to a stalemate. It humanizes the team before we enter the chaos.

It's made even more impressive knowing an entire film was made without Tig Notaro and all of her shots were added after due to Chris D'Elia being fired for sexual misconduct. It works well because Snyder removed the problem and seamlessly wove in the solution. Dieter is probably the most likable in the cast and the prequel about his early days should be a fun project set within this world.

There were a few things based on the trailer that I was very skeptical about, including the zombie society concept and the animal zombie shown in the trailer. There are two elements that didn't strike me as necessary. Zombie animals and zombies that could use evasive manoeuvres during fight scenes. The rest Snyder sold me on. The hierarchy of the zombie society and along with the stronger less predictable zombies. They were wild. Zeus and the Queen were well done, they looked menacing and carried a larger tension through the film. It was extremely violent during the final act but the story called for it to keep pressure mounted on the survival aspect. It works for the most part with some shock value death sequences for some fairly important players in the film. It has Snyder's trade marks all over it. It's probably one of the better films of his career due in large part to a likable plot within the zombie world itself.

Despite the fact the film is not perfect it definitely is enjoyable. It never becomes boring or monotonous throughout and always kicks in the extra plot device or last second sacrifice to keep you emotionally gripped by who may or may not survive. One more aspect that I felt could have been different is the ending. Having Van emerge from the dust to reveal on the plane that he had been bitten was just typical and a way to keep the plague and potential for more open. I felt the ending with Katie in the desert being the only known survivor of a mission she was a last minute addition to would have been more fitting to Snyder's style of storytelling. While the world still obviously has much more going on Kate sitting there in the desert having no one left and no idea where to turn to now would have been much bolder. Snyder writes imperfect characters well and in that moment Kate was the most vulnerable she would ever be. The status of the world was up in the air and we knew the potential for this epidemic to continue was always looming.

Even though there were a few plot points that I would have removed to be more concise and to the point with the plot of the film, it still works and is the most innovative and creative a zombie film has been in years. The showdown with Zeus was incredible. You felt the emotion between him and his Queen and that added more depth to a complicated situation to begin with. That factored in with the likable cast of misfit characters you are brewing up a storm of success. It's compelling, it's insane and most of its reinventive and sometimes that's the most intriguing aspect. A fresh perspective.