Zack Snyder’s “Army of Dead” begins with almost unparalleled ferocity and style. A military convoy is driving through the Nevada desert. Breathtakingly picturesque against the magic hour sunset, a sudden and explosive fellatio-related head-on collision results in a dangerous payload breaking open on the road. A sentient, speedy and vicious zombie attacks the remaining soldiers before turning its attention to the mecca of neon and greed that is Las Vegas. Cue a needle-drop musical burlesque bacchanal turned bloodbath – all with a winking Liberace impersonator.
Snyder is a visual stylist and adds director of photography to his suite of roles crafting “Army of the Dead”. He orchestrates epic swarms, claustrophobic corridors of undead in stasis that could stir at any point, and ferocious bone-shattering combat. It’s the intimate photography that intentionally focuses on the characters in the frame, stripping the world away with a variable (and sometimes extreme) depth of field effect that is garnering the most negative feedback. This intentional cinematic “portrait mode” is no accident, rather a technique he commits to differentiate and hone in on emotion in the storm of chaos and death.
Snyder, Shay Hatten, and Joby Harold do a great job of embracing zombie mythology and expanding upon it. The joy of “Army of Dead” is in embracing the different kinds of zombies we’re accustomed to in pop culture lore – fast, slow and conscious – and pose the question of their next evolution. “Army of the Dead” wears its inspiration from and aspiration to be James Cameron’s 1986 sci-fi action masterpiece “Aliens” in more than just Chambers’ (Samantha Win) red Vasquez style bandana. Snyder, Hatten, and Harold embrace a cynicism of entangled government and corporate relationships, especially when the mission outcome feels too attainable, too good to be true.
“Army of the Dead” at its core is ultimately about reconciliation between a father and a daughter. Despite the body matter splatter, a father’s desperate and death-defying mission to make his daughter’s life better hits different. Dave Bautista plays Scott Ward, an operative hero in the Las Vegas evacuation, turned fry cook. Bautista does a phenomenal job in the film, barely being able to cope with the reality of the emotional turmoil and trauma that he’s trying to keep a lid on – scarred from the things he had to do to keep his daughter Kate alive and escape Nevada unscathed.
There’s a beautifully intimate sequence between Scott and Kate (played by Ella Purnell). Ward is trying to repair their fractured relationship, and Kate is forthcoming with the emotional truth-bombs. Snyder’s camera takes a personal stance where the actors are composed in a mid-shot (framing the upper torso and head of the actors), and the focus is targeted to blur and nearly smear the world away from the actors’ emotions.
This gives Bautista and Purnell the chance to shine. Purnell’s eyes are like pools you want to fall into. Bautista reels from the hits more than any attempted bites. The interactions hit one right in the daddy issues and daddy insecurities, plaguing your fears that it’s you that’s hindering your kids.
The ensemble of “Army of the Dead” is outlandishly great. And also, quite hot. Ana de la Reguera plays Maria Cruz, a woman with nurturing toughness that you know will put her right in harm’s way if this thing gets hairy. Nora Arnezeder’s Lilly the Coyote is a people smuggler. Arnezeder, through Snyder lens, creates the same titanic badass attention-grabbing quality of Antonio in Robert Rodriguez’s “Desperado”.
Omari Hardwick’s Vanderohe may be the MVP of the entire film. He manages the intimidating physical specimen, resourceful, wise older brother energy. He’s also a chainsaw-wielding badass protecting Matthias Schweighöfer’s delightfully weird safe-cracker Dieter. The immigrant lock-smith turned safe designer superfan who believes that he’s the only person in the world that will be able to find a way into this safe. Schweighöfer leans into the oddness, a man whose arrested development has gone on unabated.
Raúl Castillo imbues the crass and perverse viral star of “real-life” zombie head-shots Mikey, with dark allure. Tig Notaro plays lunatic helicopter pilot Marianne Peters with such phenomenal swagger that you’d be blown away to learn (and in a few brief glimpses you may catch) the fact that she did not act for a single moment alongside the ensemble of the film. Snyder took cues from Ridley Scott’s baller move replacing Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in “All The Money In The World” to excise ‘cancelled’ comedian/actor Chris D’Elia from the project.
Hiroyuki Sanada gives Ken Watanabe a run for his money in “I bought the airline” swagger as Bly Tanaka. Sanada has this ability to convey a great amorality in this demure performance. It’s so often that you find Sanada utilised for maximum ferocity, but this quiet, calm boss treats this recruitment like he’s ordering take-out on the phone.
Garret Dillahunt, the terrific triple cast “Deadwood” alumni, plays the insurance man for Sanada’s Tanaka. From the moment you realise he’s on the crew, you’re right to suspect that he’s clued in way more than he’s letting on. I don’t know how to say this in a friendly way, but Dillahunt has a quality when he’s in this villainous mode that makes you gleefully anticipate a horrible death.
Junkie XL creates a swelling, emotionally charged, atmospheric tapestry of sound that plays to move and unsettle in this second knock-out Zack Snyder movie of the year. Snyder is an aggregator of inspirations, unabashedly spring-boarding from the giant canonical zombie and action texts. Snyder is a ‘Bro’ Poet (“Bro-et”), and I, for one, enjoy his predictable rhymes.