Like most others, I was looking forward to this one. Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake took zombies to a whole new level, so I had hopes he would push the genre again with this one. Sadly, everything here is unoriginal and mediocre. Snyder really needs some new writers. This story contained every cliché and trope imaginable. It was predictable and tedious. The obvious bad guy in the team, the annoying, selfish character that gets others killed, the predictable ending, etc. We even started pointing out exactly who was going to die next because it was apparent. We literally said aloud, "Oh look they're only bringing that guy for bait." and "Uh oh she pissed off the bad guy, she's going to die next." Sigh... Oh and before you try to convince me that "smart zombies" or "tiger zombie" are original, please go watch some other zombie movies. We've already seen both of those things. We've even seen pregnant zombies.
Frankly, even with all that, the part I hated the most was the whole Kate storyline. It really should have been removed. It added nothing to the story, except time... lots and lots of time. They could have spent all that time developing the other characters so we actually cared about them and working on their frights, of which there were zero. It's hard to find something scary when you know exactly what's going to happen.
The acting was so, so bad. I'm not sure if it's because the cast had 1-dimensional characters to work with or not but they were all subpar. It was like someone took a pile of firewood and dressed each log up as a different character and then filmed this movie. None of them had any chemistry with each other. The worst, though, was Ella Purnell who played Kate. I know I'm harping on that character but, man, everything about her was just dreadful. A 20-something who acted like a petulant child screaming and throwing fits and misbehaving throughout the whole movie. The actress gave the character no subtly or likeability. She was just obnoxious and annoying from the moment you first saw her to the end. We spent the whole movie begging the zombies to eat her so we wouldn't have to see her any longer. Sadly, she gets the final girl treatment even though she wasn't even one of the main characters. Why not Lilly instead? She was at least trying to redeem herself.
The effects were the best part, but Snyder does love his effects. The best one is the fact that Tig Notaro was inserted into all her scenes after the fact because she replaced someone else who had filmed all his scenes already. You only really notice it because the pronouns weren't completely updated in the audio so one minute the character is a she and the next a he. But effects do not make up for a terrible movie.
If you just love zombie movies and have 2 hours to kill then give it a go, otherwise, just go rewatch the Dawn of the Dead remake and pretend you've never heard of this one.
Review by LknaroundBlockedParent2021-06-01T19:40:53Z
Like most others, I was looking forward to this one. Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake took zombies to a whole new level, so I had hopes he would push the genre again with this one. Sadly, everything here is unoriginal and mediocre. Snyder really needs some new writers. This story contained every cliché and trope imaginable. It was predictable and tedious. The obvious bad guy in the team, the annoying, selfish character that gets others killed, the predictable ending, etc. We even started pointing out exactly who was going to die next because it was apparent. We literally said aloud, "Oh look they're only bringing that guy for bait." and "Uh oh she pissed off the bad guy, she's going to die next." Sigh... Oh and before you try to convince me that "smart zombies" or "tiger zombie" are original, please go watch some other zombie movies. We've already seen both of those things. We've even seen pregnant zombies.
Frankly, even with all that, the part I hated the most was the whole Kate storyline. It really should have been removed. It added nothing to the story, except time... lots and lots of time. They could have spent all that time developing the other characters so we actually cared about them and working on their frights, of which there were zero. It's hard to find something scary when you know exactly what's going to happen.
The acting was so, so bad. I'm not sure if it's because the cast had 1-dimensional characters to work with or not but they were all subpar. It was like someone took a pile of firewood and dressed each log up as a different character and then filmed this movie. None of them had any chemistry with each other. The worst, though, was Ella Purnell who played Kate. I know I'm harping on that character but, man, everything about her was just dreadful. A 20-something who acted like a petulant child screaming and throwing fits and misbehaving throughout the whole movie. The actress gave the character no subtly or likeability. She was just obnoxious and annoying from the moment you first saw her to the end. We spent the whole movie begging the zombies to eat her so we wouldn't have to see her any longer. Sadly, she gets the final girl treatment even though she wasn't even one of the main characters. Why not Lilly instead? She was at least trying to redeem herself.
The effects were the best part, but Snyder does love his effects. The best one is the fact that Tig Notaro was inserted into all her scenes after the fact because she replaced someone else who had filmed all his scenes already. You only really notice it because the pronouns weren't completely updated in the audio so one minute the character is a she and the next a he. But effects do not make up for a terrible movie.
If you just love zombie movies and have 2 hours to kill then give it a go, otherwise, just go rewatch the Dawn of the Dead remake and pretend you've never heard of this one.