Army of the Dead (2021)

 Score: 2.5 / 5

The latest zombie movie opens with an odd, funny little scene of two vehicles heading toward each other on a remote desert highway. One is a convertible driven by two drunken newlyweds; the other is a military transport from Area 51 to destinations unknown. When the vehicles inevitably crash, the convoy's payload turns out to be a zombie, which quickly kills and turns each of the soldiers into his burgeoning, titular army. They walk toward the nearest hill to behold their glowing hunting ground. Then, as "Viva Las Vegas" plays loudly, we're treated to a montage of the zombie carnage that led to the U.S. military evacuating the city as much as possible before walling it off. Stuck inside, the initial zombie becomes a sort of king, lording over his domain from a casino called Olympus.

Zack Snyder always goes a bit gonzo, and sometimes it works in his favor. Heaven knows his masterpiece earlier this year, Justice League, wasn't exactly subtle. Here, he seems determined to go above and beyond the style of his previous postmortem outing -- in fact, his first film -- his 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, and in that he mostly succeeds. Whereas that film was a pretty straightforward remake of the George A. Romero classic, Snyder's newest release only loosely tips its hat to its predecessors; we might call it a spiritual successor or evolution of typical zombie fare. Its title is certainly meant to connect them generically, if not aesthetically.

The opening sequence also visually introduces us to several of the film's major characters, badass soldiers who survived Las Vegas and now work in blue-collar jobs, disillusioned and world-weary. These include Dave Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, and Omari Hardwick; characters have names, but there are too many to remember. And it's not like character names mean much in movies like this. They're all thinly written, with brief moments of sentiment shoehorned in amidst the bloody action. But this isn't meant to be character-driven drama. It's meant to be a hot mess of action, violence, humor, gore, and style. Snyder knows his audience.

In a plot that combines his earlier film with Ocean's 11, Bautista's character learns from Hiroyuki Sanada that there is $200 million locked in a vault under the Olympus casino, of no use to the zombies running the city. He also learns that the government plans to drop a nuclear bomb on the city in the next couple of days. Quickly assembling a team of safecrackers, coyotes, a pilot, an abusive cop, and ex-soldiers, Bautista leads them into hell to get rich. Once inside, they run into a zombified tiger -- yes, an undead tiger, which is one of the coolest things I've seen since ghost sharks in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The tiger suggests to them that things inside have gotten much worse since the last time they entered the city of sin.

And while the tiger -- the tiger! -- and the race of hyper-zombies called Alphas are really cool, the movie continues in a remarkably typical pace on familiar paths. I felt that the plot, which is truly a clever conceit, served only to allow for action sequences. And the action is really wonderful in this movie, make no mistake. But I kept waiting for a twist, a complication, even a subplot, and none came. You can't think too much about this movie, or you'll become disappointed. I should have gone in a little buzzed on something, tired from a day's work, looking for action and music and fun, because that's what I would have gotten.

Snyder doesn't even seem to have anything to say about the concepts he introduces, which is possibly the greater sin. A walled-off American city under occupation, threatened with nuclear weapons? Needing a coyote to steal money from undesirables? Quarantining and temperature-checking people before they are allowed to travel? Snyder tosses these considerably hefty images and ideas into the film, but does absolutely nothing with them; maybe that's not a "bad" thing in itself, but it feels intellectually lazy to not follow through on any of the hot topics presented.

But when you have a few really, really great scenes, and a hell of a lot of fun along the way, does it matter that the plot is as shallow as they come? Snyder knows how to make breathtaking action, and  handful of riveting scares. Plus, his style is always fabulous to see, perhaps nowhere more so in this picture than when the zombie queen appears. Oh, and of course, we can all be thankful he has chosen the fast-zombie route of 28 Days Later and World War Z rather than The Walking Dead. It just adds an urgency and danger to what is often otherwise shambling yet overwhelming doom. This isn't a jewel in Snyder's crown, or in our lists of favorite zombie flicks, but it's got a modest reward for its viewers, if they are willing to join the crew.