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Movie: Dawn of the Dead
In this remake of the 1978 horror cult classic, director Zack Snyder takes us down a slightly different route. Instead of the select few survivors of the initial zombie attack, we are bombarded with three security guards, four civilians who meet up with each other once they get to the mall, only then to be intruded upon by about eight other people. They secure themselves in the mall keeping the zombies at bay down below. But it's only natural that they run into a few problems amongst themselves along the way, like a pregnancy, quarrels for authority, use of the bathrooms, and losing electrical power.
This review has taken me quite awhile to write, and has gone through many different revisions as my opinion on the film has changed numerous times in the last week. My initial reaction was that I was upset that they didn't keep the honor of Romero's satire of consumerism (or any other for that matter) from the first picture. It reinforced my anger that a movie like this could be number one at the box office while Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind came in at six and quickly drop off the chart within a week or two. I looked at this movie and thought "I don't understand why they would make a movie about meaningless killing for pure entertainment." Then I realized how old I sounded. And it soon became apparent to me that I was torn in my opinion of the film because I didn't want to admit that I was entertained by it. So with that said, I am going to review the movie for what it is, not what I wanted it to be.
The directing of this film was rather skillful compared to most other movies of the genre. This is Zack Synder's debut film, and technically speaking it was a pretty great introduction to the film world. One shot in particular that has stayed with me since I first saw the preview for this film was in the beginning of the film where the main female was driving the car and they had the camera mounted on some contraption coming out of the back so the camera moved the same way as the car keeping it in the center of the frame at all times. I've never seen a driving shot like that before, with the exception of a shot from Ocean's Eleven.
The writing of this film I believe is where the fault of this movie lies. Here we have the guy who wrote Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo Too writing, or should I say RE-writing one of horror's greatest classics. With the world in the state that it's in, right now would have been a pertinent and perfect time to do a satire on what our society has turned into. In fact, especially without the satire, this movie is a perfect example of what our society has turned into. Mindless zombies who can't think for themselves that strike fear into those who do think for themselves because they are taking over the world, (even in higher powered places that make it real scary *cough cough*) But, however message less this movie may be, I did still find quite a few moments entertaining, like Celebrity Zombie Hunting and other scenes that I don't want to spoil for those of you who haven't seen it.
The acting of this film was pretty generic for this genre. You could still point to the characters when you first meet them and say "You're dead, you'll live, you'll die by a really horrible death, and you'll sacrifice yourself," (I'm not saying that pertaining to any character in particular, just a generic horror film formula.) I don't believe the acting in here was all that special. Granted it was a notch up from say... Valentine, but nothing to boast about. It's also fun to pick out the cameos from the original film while watching this movie. I found three, I'm not sure if there were more or not.
So how do I close this review... Chances are that if you are a fan of the first film you have already seen this movie. If you are a fan of the horror genre, you have already seen this movie. If you are just a mainstream moviegoer, you have probably already seen this movie. All in all, I do stand by my initial opinion of this film being mindless violence and killing for the sake of mindless violence and killing. And it worries me that since movies like this are bringing in all the big money that movies with substance will soon be wiped out of mainstream theaters all together and will be hard to come by. But at the same time I was shamefully entertained by it, and I don't believe anyone who goes to this movie will be utterly disappointed.
Click here for the Official Movie website
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