Zack Snyder’s “ARMY OF THE DEAD”
Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald
Number One Son watched Zack Snyder‘s ARMY OF THE DEAD with me and afterwords commented, “If these days you have an opportunity to create a piece of popular entertainment and have a choice of making a movie or a video game, I’m beginning to think that it makes more sense to make a video game.“
While I'm not a serious long time gamer like he is, after watching ARMY OF THE DEAD I see his point. As entertaining and exciting as AOTD is, the plot is simplistic, it’s unoriginal, and we spend a lot of time with our protagonists running around inside and outside shooting at zombies.
One thing missing from the movie is the sense of control you get with a video game -- you have constant choices to make and one wrong split-second decision can cost you dearly. With a movie you're just a passive observer along for the ride.
True, sometimes that might be all you might want as an audience member. But I do wonder about what new young creative types must think when choosing a path for storytelling – movies or interactive games?
ARMY Of The DEAD, despite its high entertainment value as a summer popcorn movie, in reality might be more of a death rattle for this genre of movies.
Review copyright © 2021 by Dennis D. McDonald