Overview
Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble: venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.
Initially I was utterly horrified – I thought my TV was broken! Thankfully it turns out the dead pixels that affect so much of the film is not just on my TV, but exactly the same for many others worldwide – primarily those with 4k sets. Double checked and same issue on two of my TVs, but no noticeable issue on a 7 inch Samsung tablet. So, in order to appreciate the film without extremely distracting glitches, I’d have to watch it on a crappy small screen without my home entertainment sound set up? Yay for the home cinema experience, eh?
Anyway, that niggle aside, first impression is that it is very apparent that Zack Snyder has seen Aliens…a few times! The film is effectively a zombie remake of that film – or let’s be kind and say it is a homage – with a few other movie referencing nods scattered throughout (was that a reference to American Werewolf in the opening scene? I’m pretty certain it was.)
Moderately entertaining, albeit a bit bloated. The generic character archetypes didn’t bother me so much, nor did the overly derivative nature of the story. No, the visual stylings were what let it down most for me, and that came as a bit of a surprise.
Important to note that despite my overall feel of recent Snyder output, I’ve never faulted his films visually. He makes gorgeous looking films. Until now….here his focus choices and style seems off somewhat, and almost as distracting as that pixel issue (#ReleaseTheFixedPixelCut). Interestingly this is the first full feature which Zack made with digital cameras, and he also sought out old lens styles to use. By switching from film stock, whilst also deciding to be creative in his lensing (he was his own DP on this film) he seems to have lost some of his usually crisp, almost portrait-like style, and that’s a shame.
All in all, a fun diversion of a film with a handful of problems. I’m still intrigued in this world setting enough for the reported other tales set in it (especially with a couple of blink-and-you-miss-it sci-fi Easter eggs), and am glad to see Zack move away from DC and given more creative freedom. But this isn’t a game-changer of the genre by any stretch of the imagination.