"Army Of The Dead" Review: I LOVE These Zombies (Except The Tiger). More Of The Same Please!

After spending some time in theaters, "Army of The Dead" was released on NetFlix on May 21. It's currently on track to be one of the streaming service's most watched movies. The top of the list thus far includes:: #1 "Extraction", "Bird Box", "Spencer Confidential", "6 Underground", "Murder Mystery", "The Old Guard", Enola Holmes" and "Project Power".

Zach Snyder is best known for his DCEU offerings-- "Superman", "Man of Steel", "Batman v Superman": He also did a previous zombie movie. It's the 2004 reimagining of 1978's "Dawn Of The Dead" (ie zombies in a mall).. Other films include "300", "Watchmen", and "Sucker Punch". So the guy definitely knows how to make a great action/horror flick.

A fun companion piece "Creating An Army Of The Dead" is also available on NetFlix. it goes behind the scenes and shows how this world was created. I highly recommend it.

The story is basically a zombie heist film in post apocalyptic Las Vegas. What makes this movie so great is the attention to detail, the humor and of course the ZOMBIES.

As the movie begins, "something" escapes a military caravan and quickly proceeds to kill everyone within range. We see a night shot of him/it looking over Las Vegas in the distance. The virus quickly spreads giving us a crazy fun scene in the title credits. Zombies attack everyone including: Elvis impersonators, topless show girls, old people at the casinos, bachelorette parties, Chippendale dancers, etc. The military stacks shipping containers 3 deep around the city in order to keep the zombies in.

There's tons of unclaimed money left unattended in Vegas. Mr Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanda from "Mortal Combat" and "Altered Carbon") hires a group of people to get into the safe at his Bly casino and extract $200 million. This has to be done before the government blows up the entire city on July the 4th.

The group includes: Ex military guy Scott Ward (Dave Bautista from "Guardians Of The Galaxy"), his daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), helicopter pilot Marianne (Tig Notaro), safecracker Ludwig (Matthias Schweighofer), Scott's former teammate and potential love interest Maria (Ana del la Reguera), buzzsaw wielding former teammate Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick from "Kickass"), Tanaka's head of security Martin (Garrett Dillahunt of "The Walking Dead"), sleazy camp security guard Burt (Theo Rossi from "Sons Of Anarchy"), the Coyote/Lilly (Nora Arnezeder), Mikey who likes to post all his kills online (Raul Castillo). and his friend-- a Vasquez from "Aliens" type character named Chambers (Samantha Win).

The zombies in "Army Of The Dead" are excellent. There are several different groups:

Shamblers- These are your traditional slow moving zombies. They can also be classed in different groups by how decayed they are.
Zombie Animals- A zombie tiger named Valentine (TBH I didnt much care for his look) and a zombie horse (which was much more realistic). But what do zombie horses eat?
Alphas- A new category of zombie. They're more intelligent and communicate via screeching sounds. They hunt in packs. They're created when Zeus bites someone. Snyder enlisted a number of people who do parkour to make the zombie's movements more athletic, aggressive and frightening.
Zeus (Richard Cetrone) and the Queen (Athena Perample)- He mated (somehow) with her. Their union produced a little blue zombie fetus.

Easter Eggs and Miscellaneous Notes:

Who/what Exactly Is Zeus? When we first see him killing everyone in the Army caravan, Zeus is wearing dog tags and camo pants. Did you notice when the convoy is leaving Area 51, there was a quick glimpse of two UFOs in the sky. Did the government use alien tech to infect s soldier? He also has some blue stuff in him when he's blown up. We see the same blue color on a few of the other zombies. Also Zeus' hair grows. He starts with a crew cut and later has longer hair.
Have They Done All This Before? When they go to open the fault, Vanderohe and Ludwig encounter a bunch of dead bodies that look similar to them. How many teams has Bly sent there? Or as Vanderohe suggests they are in some sort of time loop. One viewer's theory is this is the fourth time they're tried this mission. That's due to serial easter eggs; Maria's necklace has four holes in it, at the beginning of the film Fake Liberace says "a one, a two, a three, a four", etc.
What Is Bly Really Up To? If we believe Martin, he's not really interested in the money. He instead wants the head of the Queen so they can create a zombie army. OK then.
Dead Pixels- There have been several complainst about dead pixels on viewer's TVs when watching the movie. i guess these are typically removed post production but couldnt be due to the type of equipment used (or something like that)? i myself didnt notice it. I have an older TV and the issue apparently only shows up on 4k HDR?
Great Musical Selections- There are several Elvis numbers: "Suspicious Minds", "Viva Las Vegas", etc. I also noticed Culture Club's "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" when Ward is in the elevator trying to escape. The Cranberries' "Zombie" is a perfect pick for after Vegas is nuked.
Controversy- Chris D'Elia was originally slated to star but was removed due to sexual harassment allegations. Tig Notaro then took over the role. She never worked with the cast though. All of her scenes were done with green screen and CGI. She was definitely a fun addition to the show.

Grade: 4 3/4 (out of 5). "Army Of The Dead" is the zombie heist movie I've been waiting for. Great action sequences and great attention to detail. The zombies are EXCELLENT-- especially the addition of a new type of zombie-- the Alphas. My only criticisms are: 1. The zombie tiger looked pretty bad IMHO; and 2. The movie is way too long. Runtime is two hours 28 minutes (and they dont even get into Vegas until the 50 minute mark). They could completely do away with the Geeta story line. Still,l the positives outweigh any issues. I cant wait to see the future offerings. A prequel "Army Of Thieves" and an animated feature are currently in the works Snyder has also not ruled out a possible sequel. Do we know if this movie shares the same universe as "Dawn Of The Dead"? If so, that would be way cool.