Zack Snyder is to filmaking what Bon Jovi is to music.
His movies are big. His movies are brash. His movies are not very challenging.
Fresh from securing a release of the four hour "Snyder Cut" of DC Comics' 'Justice League' comes another foray for Netflix into the world of zombie movies.
Zombie films have had an enduring popularity, with the best entriess playing about with the genre and often embracing its potential for symbolism and social commentary.
The first movie to play with the genre was Victor Halperin's poorly received 1932 independent horror flick 'White Zombie' with Bela Lugosi.
However the genre hit its stride in 1968 when George A Romero drew inspiration from Richard Matheson's cult apocalyptic novel 'I Am Legend' and the Haitian folklore of 'White Zombie' for the classic 'Night of the Living Dead'.
A surprise box office hit, the film had a smart political undercurrent that played on America's uncomfortable history of racism.
With its African American hero played Duane Jones breaking all Hollywood norms at the time, Romero's film set the bar for other zombie films.
Romero's 1978 sequel 'Dawn of the Dead,' which was set in a shopping mall, continued to raise the bar - using the genre to reflect on Western consumerism.
Since then, the zombie genre has continued to thrive
Danny Boyle brilliantly gave the genre a British twist with his 2002 hit '28 Days Later' with Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson.
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost fused the zombie film with slapstick comedy in the excellent 2004 hit 'Shaun of the Dead'.
Marc Foster impressively turned the story into a pre-Covid tale of global zombie pandemic in the 2013 big budget hit 'World War Z' with Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, David Morse and Peter Capaldi.
Yeon Sang-ho took the genre to South Korea for the 2016 action movie 'Train to Busan',' while Colm McCarthy's thriller from that year 'The Girl with All the Gifts' with Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close fashioned a tense storyline around people navigating an England ravaged by zombies as they protected an exceptional girl on a perilous trek to London.
On the small screen, AMC has also enjoyed considerable success with its zombie shows 'The Walking Dead' and 'Fear the Walk Dead:.
The genre is a well trodden path and therefore, it takes a special kind of filmmaker to breathe new life into it.
If truth be told, Zack Snyder does not strike you as the type of filmmaker to do that.
In fact, you wouldn't bet money on him doing it, despite the box office success of his competent 2004 remake of 'Dawn of the Dead' with Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Pfifer and Ty Burrell.
'Army of the Dead,' his return to the genre, begins intriguingly enough.
A military convoy rolls through the Nevada desert carrying a mystery consignment from Area 51, with soldiers in the lead armoured vehicle speculating about what might be inside.
Unluckily for them, some newlyweds are travelling in the opposite direction, fresh from Las Vegas, and with no regard for the rules of the road, the wife decides to, um, show her appreciation for her new husband in a rather reckless way while he is behind the steering wheel.
The couple's car smashes into the convoy, exploding as the main vehicle overturns.
While Michael Cassidy's Sergeant Kelly tries on the radio to secure military backup to clear up the mess, their cargo reveals itself to be a zombie who subsequently slaughters every man jack of the platoon.
The platoon becomes a zombie platoon and subsequently vmarches on Vegas.
To the sound of the appropriately named Richard Cheese and Allison Crowe's lounge lizard cover of Elvis Presley's 'Viva Las Vegas,' Snyder delivers an amusing, if typically bloated slow-mo credits sequence of a Liberace impersonator encouraging bare breasted zombie showgirls to slaughter a man in the bathtub of a hotel suite.
Audiences are treated to the sight of a zombie Elvis, parachutists being engulfed by zombie crowds, angst ridden images of people being separated from their loved ones as they succumb to the zombie hordes and the various protagonists shooting or beheading zombies with a saw.
'Army of the Dead' quickly settles into stock action movie meets heist movie tropes - riffing on the work of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Steven Soderbergh along the way.
Dave Bautista plays the scowling, pumpkin headed mercenary Scott Ward who at the start of the movie is flipping burgers in a cafe when he is approached by Hiroyuki Sanada's businessman Tanaka with an opportunity to risk his life but get rich quick.
Tanaka tells him there's $200 million in a vault in a Las Vegas casino which he wants to recover but it'll mean sneaking into the zombie infested city which has been walled off from the rest of the country.
Scott will need to assemble a crew to go on this dangerous mission but the reward is a very handsome slice of the money.
The added problem they face is the US President is planning a nuclear strike on Las Vegas on the Fourth of July to rid the country of the zombie population, which means time is of an essence.
Scott, who dreams of having his own food truck, agrees to brave the zombie hordes and sets about recruiting his own team, with Tanaka insisting his head of security, Garret Dillahunt's Martin takes part to guard his interests.
The first to be recruited is Ana de la Reguera's Maria Cruz, with Omar Hardwicke's Vanderohe quickly coming on board.
Maria introduces Scott to the social media savvy zombie slayer, Raul Castillo's Mikey Guzman and his sidekick, Samantha Win's Chambers who come along for the ride.
On top of the hotel casino is an abandoned helicopter which will be used to ferry the money and those who survive out of Vegas.
Tig Notaro's wisecracking pilot Marianne Peters is easily recruited with the prospect of $2 million dangled before her.
For $200,000, Scott secures the services of a German safecracker, Matthias Schweighofer's Ludwig Dieter whose inexperience with weapons is a bit of a drawback and initially draws Vanderohe's disdain, only for a bromance to inevitably develop between them as the film progresses.
The other key member of the group is Nora Arnezeder's street savvy, sharpshooting smuggler Lily who occasionally slips into the zombie zone and knows the now dilapidated Vegas like the back of her hand.
Lily has helped Huna Qureshi's Geeta slip out of the quarantine camp where Scott's daughter, Ella Purcell's Kate works.
Kate, however, has a fractious relationship with her dad, who clammed up when he has to kill her mother after she became a zombie.
When she learns of his plan to pull off the heist, she directs him to Lily but insists on going as well to locate Geeta's whereabouts.
Scott reluctantly gives in but on condition that she remains in his eyeline at all times and never wanders off track.
The group are stunned when Lily insists on Theo Rossi's sleazy bully of a security guard Burt Cummings joining them but it doesn't take long for her ulterior motive to reveal itself.
Will the gang pull off their amazing heist without getting nuked?
Will Kate find Geeta?
Are all the characters' motives pure?
How many will make it out alive?
Snyder, who co-wrote the screenplay and shot the film, throws himself enthusiastically into his zombie tale with all the guile and grace of a wheezing gorilla in a teashop.
The effects are impressive - Snyder even creates a Siegfried and Roy zombie tiger and a zombie king and queen who rule the rubble strewn streets of Vegas like the rulers of an ancient tribe.
But beyond this, there's little else to savour.
The director weaves in elements of James Cameron's 'Aliens' and Steven Soderbergh's 'Ocean's Eleven', with nods to David O Russell's 'Three Kings,' Francis Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' and Robert Aldrich's 'The Dirty Dozen' along the way.
The apocalyptic Statue of Liberty image from Franklin J Schaffner's 1968 version of 'The Planet of the Apes' is recreated.
The booby trapped vault of the hotel also rip offs Spielberg's Peruvian temple at the start of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.
Like most of Snyder's movies, 'Army of the Dead' has all the subtlety of a breeze block
It is a wild, undisciplined adventure that loses much of its impact because its director doesn't know when to pare back the spectacle or trim the length of the movie.
At a running time of almost two and a half hours, the film cannot sustain the thrills and spills of other shorter, much more impactful zombie fare.
Sections of the film are frankly a bit boring and the length draws attention to the fact that, despite some visual flourishes, the dialogue is simply too feeble.
Audiences looking for allegorical elements will struggle, as Snyder eschews depth for meat headed banter and overstretched action set pieces.
Amid all the slaughter, the cast simply go through the motions - spouting dialogue that sounds like it was dreamed up by frat boys.
Bautista is a solid lead but is lumbered with some really tiresome dialogue with Purnell about the type of food he will serve in his food truck.
Everybody else does exactly what's required of them, with Arnezeder scowling, Hardwicke growling and Notaro being particularly irritating as the helicopter ace with a poor line in sarcasm.
Snyder has the audacity to lay the groundwork for a sequel but even the way he executes it highlights his inability to know when a film should end.
It is a long drawn out coda and like much of the movie you just want him to get on with it.
Snyder, though, has already got his wish of creating his own zombie franchise.
Netflix has already greenlit a prequel, an anime spin-off and will surely deliver a sequel.
But when we sit back and measure 'Army of the Dead' against the zombie classics will we even give it an afterthought?
This movie is the streaming equivalent of 'Slippery When Wet' - a notable hit with audiences but instantly forgettable.
Just as Bon Jovi's album enjoyed platinum success but was nowhere near as ambitious, inventive or accomplished as The Smiths' 'The Queen Is Dead,' Peter Gabriel's 'So' or Paul Simon's 'Graceland,' 'Army of the Dead' has little to offer in a year that has given us Darius Marder's 'Sound of Metal,' Emerald Fennell's 'Promising Young Woman' and Chloe Zhao's Best Picture Oscar winner 'Nomadland'.
His choice of closing song tells all you need to know about his deftness as a filmmaker.
Eaten meat is soon forgotten and this meat is really overcooked.
('Army of the Dead' was released in cinemas in North America on May 14, 2021 before being made available for streaming on Netflix on May 21, 2021)
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