Of course I would have to sit down to watch a movie such as "Isle of the Dead", given the fact that it is another zombie movie. And anything even remotely zombie will be appealing to me.
However, I didn't really have much hope or expectations for "Isle of the Dead". Which turned out to be for the best, because this was a very generic and mediocre movie, even for a zombie movie.
The story was adequate enough, though. It is about a small group of soldiers set afoot on a remote and isolated island where they are to discover the disappearance of a previous group of soldiers and also to seek out the chief scientist of a research facility.
It does seem quite like a simplistic storyline, doesn't it? Well, right, because it was. But hey, most zombie movies can't really boast with having intricate and elaborated plot lines and story lines. However, it turned out to be fair enough.
As for the acting in the movie, well I will say that people were doing good enough jobs with their given roles and characters, and taking into consideration the magnitude of the script and storyline. However, it was a shame that Sydney Viengluang didn't have a bigger part than she did, because she does perform quite well in the "Z Nation" zombie TV series.
The special effects in "Isle of the Dead" were actually quite good, taking into consideration the production level of the movie. However, they tended to fall into that classic error of zombie movies, where they put lots of make-up on the face, then forget about the neck and the rest of the body. A classic and stupid rookie mistake to make.
One thing that didn't sit well with me was the über-zombies, the ones that got out of containment and were able to speak and make coherent thinking and planning (for some reason). It just added a level of stupidity to the movie. And also, the ridiculous showdown between the two über-zombies towards the end of the movie was just like a slap to the face with a dead herring. Wow, that was awful.
All in all, then "Isle of the Dead" turned out to be a very genetic and mediocre addition to the zombie movie catalogue. There is nothing noteworthy to be had in "Isle of the Dead", and whether or not you watch it will have little impact on your extended take on the zombie genre.
Now that I have seen it, I can check it off the zombie-watch-list. However, I doubt that I will ever make a second trip back to watch this ever again.
