‘Army of the Dead’ Review — An Intense Zombie Heist

The newest zombie movie to feature “of the dead” in its title and the second Zack Snyder film to follow this trend is Army of the Dead. This is a zombie heist movie that serves as Snyder’s second 2021 movie after this year’s fan-favorite superhero film, Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

After languishing in development hell since 2007, Netflix has finally given Snyder full creative control to create the zombie movie of his dreams. This film follows a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas as a group of mercenaries enter the quarantine zone to steal millions of dollars in cash from an abandoned casino.

Snyder has always been a very ambitious filmmaker, bringing a unique writing and directorial style to every project he works on, whether it’s his work in the DC Extended Universe or Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. With this film, Snyder crafted something quite special.

As Snyder serves as the film’s director, co-writer, co-producer, and cinematographer, this is truly Snyder’s vision. Unlike the 2017 Justice League, there isn’t a hint of studio interference, and you can tell how much fun Snyder is having with this unconventional zombie flick.

Once we are introduced to the source of the epidemic in a tense scene, the opening credits sequence serves as a perfect, entertaining setup to the world and state of affairs once the main events take place. It’s dripping with Snyder’s passion and personality, which isn’t dark and grim like his superhero films but is instead really damn fun.

The genre for this movie was quite a fresh idea; we’ve seen zombie movies, and we’ve seen heist movies, but a zombie heist movie? One could argue for last year’s disappointing Peninsula, but this truly is the first time we’re getting to see a lovely combination of Zombieland and Ocean’s Eleven.

We have our standard heist movie setup with our protagonist, Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), putting together a ragtag team of individuals who each bring something unique to the table. Stealing $200 million is hard enough with the police and the rich casino owner trying to stop it, but throw zombies into the equation, and that puts everything on a whole new level.

Quite honestly, it’s hard not to have at least a bit of fun with this movie’s action sequences. Snyder directs the film with a lot of intensity, and there are setpieces filled with massive explosions, quiet tension, and major shock. We get Snyder’s trademark slow motion, and the film’s shallow depth of field added a new layer to every scene.

Furthermore, the characterization is all serviceable. While the setup for Ward feels a bit familiar, it helps the audience sympathize with him, and Bautista gets to demonstrate his dramatic acting chops in ways that he hasn’t gotten to as a Guardian of the Galaxy.

But as usual with Snyder films, his lofty ambitions can weigh the film down a bit. Clocking in at 2 hours and 28 minutes, the film feels a little too long, and some scenes could have been tightened up to reduce the runtime, even if the film never gets boring. Like Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the film has a natural conclusion but keeps on going for a bit longer.

There is also a subplot with Ward’s daughter, Kate (Ella Purnell), who has her own mission within the story's events beyond a heist. Her subplot felt unnecessary, and while this is very much a zombie film that spends time on character, this subplot fell flat in making the audience invested in her success.

However, there are excellent ideas in this film. The fact that there are many different types of zombies with varying degrees of intelligence is wonderful. While there are shootouts and jokes, the film isn’t all fun and games as we have very dark, emotional scenes peppered throughout.

Fans of Snyder’s style are likely to find entertainment in this 148-minute blood-splattering, money-stealing, intense zombie heist.

Grade: ★★★★☆ [8/10, B]

Army of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix.

Rating: R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout, some sexual content and brief nudity/graphic nudity