Review of Army of the Dead

By Dave B.

Las Vegas has been overrun by zombies. The surviving heroes of the desperate, doomed struggle to save the city find themselves down on their luck. When they’re presented with the chance to make the score of a lifetime by robbing a casino vault, they can’t resist and head into the heart of the infested city. But they soon discover that they’ve underestimated their enemies, both living and dead.

Look, when it comes to Army of the Dead… it is what it is: a zombie, bank heist, action flick. If you go into it expecting more than that, you’ll be sorely disappointed. That said, it’s mostly entertaining. The action scenes are good, and frequent enough to keep the movie’s excessive runtime from feeling oppressive. The dialogue is okay and occasionally witty and some of the performances are actually decent. And I fully admit that the fall of Las Vegas montage near the beginning of the film is absolutely brilliant. 

The primary area where Army of the Dead struggles is plot. It’s overly convoluted, but also completely generic and predictable. While Zack Snyder’s take on these zombies is fairly unique, he overdoes that uniqueness to an absurd extreme. And its really a shame that a movie that does an above average job of conveying tension also manages to be completely predictable throughout. 

Despite its flaws, if you’re willing and able to turn off your brain, Army of the Dead generally succeeds at providing some mindless zombie fun. If you’re a fan of zombies, action movies, and/or Snyder, then I definitely recommend this movie to you. If you’re not interested in any of those three things, it’s certainly best to avoid this film. Personally, I appreciate the escapism that Army of the Dead provides, although I wish that it hadn’t taken up so much of my day. 

Service: Netflix
Runtime: 148 Minutes
Rating: 5.5/10