sammie_sambal

Purely from a visual standpoint Army of the Dead is a great action movie to watch. The set pieces are colorful and interesting. The special effects are top-notch. And the action is plentiful and fun to watch. Now you would think that if this were only a mindless action blockbuster that would be enough to give it a passing grade and be done with it, but unfortunately Zack Snyder got a hold of the pen as well on this one and that's where it falls flat on it's face and gets in the way of it just being a fun watch.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not hating on Zack Snyder. When it comes to directing and filming the man knows what he's doing and he can impress. That is what he is good at. Writing a screenplay and/or a script is one of the things he is not good at and something he should stay away from and leave to others.

But Zack is booming right now after the whole Justice League Snyder cut thing so who could say now to him when he says he wants to do something. And that's what I think happened here. Probably no one dared to tell him that yet another scene or event in this movie makes no sense at all.

I know "but it's an action movie, things don't need to make sense" and you'd be right, if only the amount of disbelief and inconsistencies weren't so blatant and plentiful to create a piling on effect. So much so that it takes you out of the movie every time there is no action on the screen, and that makes this a very hard watch at times. You want to see more exploding zombies and zombie tigers but you'll have to sit through another non-sensical dialogue first. Time is running out, things are about to go sideways really quickly, so this seems the perfect time to talk about our feelings. You need to sneak in to the the city, but you can fly out , no problem. There are just so many moments in this movie where I went "WTF? Why!?" that at this moment I'm still deciding between giving this movie a 5 or a 4.

...You know what, the acting overal was actually pretty good. Especially Dave Bautista's performance stood out to me. He made the best out of what he had and really showed depth and I think that deserves a bonus point.

Right from the start Blumhouse's Fantasy Island is a bit on the nose when it comes to it's source material so I knew that I was in for a campy "horror" movie. Actually, when I saw the movie poster/banner at first glance I thought it was family friendly adventure movie in same vain as the recent Jumanji and Journey to the Centre of the Earth movies, I would not have guessed horror or thriller. Anyhow, judging the movie by it's cover I already kinda knew what I was getting in to beforehand so the movie letting me know in a overly direct and unsubtle way that it is based on its title name sake didn't phase me all that much. My expectations were set to low and I did actually enjoy the movie and it's darker twist on the 'live your fantasy' premise. Unfortunately that premise never really gets fully explored because about half way through the movie the plot takes a sudden turn, followed by a twist, followed up by another twist and by the end you can only laugh at the ridiculous mess it has become. This movie is basically LOST in a nutshell if LOST was as good as is last few seasons overall. I honestly think that if the plot would've kept on track with the whole 'you get what you wish for' Twilight Zone story and explored it further it could've turned out quite okay. It wouldn't have been nearly as good as a Cabin In The Woods but a least it would have tried to be as interesting. But no, instead we get a unpleasing mash-up of Fantasy Island with late 90's slasher films and a out of place Michael Pena played by Michael Pena. Don't get me wrong, I like Michael Pena, but he basically played the guy he always plays, and then a bored version of that guy. That character needed more, he needed to be more mysterious and charming while being sinister and unpredictable at the same time. This mr. Roarke possesses none of those characteristics and frankly neither does the movie itself. For what this reincarnation sets out to do it fails. It starts of in the right direction but veers of course quickly never really living up to it's potential feeling very timid on the horror and scares along the way. Kind to think of it, I guess I wasn't all that far of with my family friendly adventure movies then.

I feel sorry for the people going in to this after having seen the trailer and thinking they were going to see an action movie starring Ryan Gosling.

Sure it's lengthy and drawn out but if you're in to sci-fi and you don't have the attention span of a toddler you will love this movie, dare I say even more so than the original.

The cinematography is simply amazing and probably the best way to experience it is to just relax and let yourself "sink" in it. The bigger the screen (read: IMAX) the better.