My Review of "Dawn of the Dead (2004)"

Dawn of the Dead (2004) is a zombie movie that I fondly remembered back when it first came out. I don't really like horror movies but when it comes to zombie movies I can't really pass them up. There's no reason why, I just like zombie movies. I think this was one of the zombie movies that first got me into zombie movies. So it was a transformative movie for me.

Watching it again almost 20 years later wasn't as great of an experience. There are a lot of things that I didn't really take into consideration when I first saw this movie. Things have also gotten a lot more advanced in terms of story telling and character development. Needless to say there were a few problems with this movie that I suddenly started seeing.

The movie starts off with the everyday life of Ana. She's a nurse at the hospital and she's getting off a late night shift when the zombie outbreak is just starting up. Being so tired from work she doesn't notice a lot of weird things happening throughout the hospital. I thought this was a clever way to start off this zombie movie.

When she wakes up from her good night's sleep she is horrified with the chaos and carnage in her own home. The little girl in her neighborhood miraculously gets into her house and starts eating her boyfriend. Then her boyfriend becomes a zombie and attacks her.

She somehow escapes unscathed. In her never ending run from these zombies she bumps into other survivors. They all eventually get together and escape to a local mall where they can hole up. The hope is that they can stay there until they can figure things out.

Of course more zombies show up and more survivors get introduced to our gang. They all basically build a relationship with one another to figure out how they're going to survive. Of course with no one looking to rescue them they're eventually going to have to figure a way out.

My biggest gripe about this movie is how stupid and clumsy all of these characters are. There are the odd competent individuals in the group like C.J. and Kenneth but there are a lot of really dumb moves by some of the group members. Logically some of their actions really made me think if anyone would do these things. I know it's extreme and it's all about entertainment value but some of these scenarios are really off.

The character progressions and relationships are also paced quite weirdly. We're not sure how long the whole group are holed up in this mall. Sometimes it feels like they've been there for months but sometimes it feels like a day or two. It kind of messes with our understanding of how long it takes for the zombie virus to take over an individual.

They added romantic interests out of nowhere that kind of don't even make sense other than they look like they should be together. There's no development of these relationships and it feels like things are forgiven so easily in this movie as well.

This pacing issue really threw me off and I know I would never have thought of it when I first saw this movie. Logically this movie doesn't make sense at all. Then again it's a zombie movie but still there's got to have some rules in this movie that they have to adhere to.

Overall, this was an okay time but not nearly as fun as I remembered it when I first saw it. It's really unfortunate because I was looking forward to rewatching this movie again. As it is I have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. There are too many issues to just gloss over and have a great time. I wish this wasn't the case.