Sadly, I was only able to get one film in this weekend. I mean, in exchange for less films I did get to see some friends for the first time in over a year and some change, so I’ll take a slow weekend for that. However, I don’t plan on that being the new norm! It wasn’t in the before times, so there’s no need for it to be now.
Anyway, Army of the Dead is the latest Zach Snyder epic that just premiered on Netflix over the weekend. It’s an action heist but also a zombie movie, so naturally I needed to watch this. In Army of the Dead, Las Vegas had been sectioned off from the rest of the world to contain a zombie outbreak, where most of our core characters were helping with during the very long and very cool opening sequence. Some time after those events, the Olympus Hotel owner, Tanaka, enlists Scott and whoever he decides to team up with to go in and get the money in the basement safe of the hotel.
Scott agrees seeing as he’s literally a fry cook right now, and he also goes to recruit two of his former fighting buddies, Vanderohe and Maria. From there, he also gathers sharpshooter Guzman, safecracker Dieter, pilot Marianne, and Lily, who can help get them all into Vegas. Scott also reluctantly allows his estranged daughter, Kate to join them, as she wants to rescue a friend who went in the day before. With the ragtag team in place along with Tanaka’s man Martin, the group heads into Vegas where they almost instantly come face to face with a zombie tiger (very cool).
There are plenty of what I call “loser zombies” to get through, but the real challenge will be getting through the alpha zombies, and more specifically their leaders The Queen and Zeus. After sacrificing a deplorable security guard to the alphas, they are pretty much left to their own devices, that is until Martin reveals his real reason for joining the group on the heist. While he and Lily are out patrolling, he manages to get the head of the queen, which the government wants in order to create a zombie army that they can control. This action pretty much screws everyone else.
Somewhat unexpectedly, there are almost no survivors of this heist, but there is a fun little twist at the end! I suppose a sequel could get made, but we already know there for sure is going to be a prequel focusing on Dieter. Seeing as he was my favorite character (along with his and Vanderohe’s reluctant bromance), I am particularly excited for this! Overall, I’d say if you like The Hangover, any of the Ocean‘s film, and Snyder’s previous work with Dawn of the Dead, then Army of the Dead is definitely something you should check out! Be warned about its bloated two and a half hour runtime, though. Otherwise, enjoy!