For those of you who **have seen** Survival of the Dead - - - opinion poll!

[bassman]

And to think some people had big problems with the pie fight in Dawn. If only they knew what was to come. It's not so much the gags that I dislike, but their execution. Instead of the cheap CGI they could have used clever cuts and angles to make it look great with a puppet. Just look at Dr Tongue or the skinny zombies in Land. They looked great and something similar could have been achieved for the gags in Survival. Instead, the person who once said he hated CGI relied on it to the point of it being laughable in the wrong way.

[DjfunkmasterG]

And to think some people had big problems with the pie fight in Dawn. If only they knew what was to come. It's not so much the gags that I dislike, but their execution. Instead of the cheap CGI they could have used clever cuts and angles to make it look great with a puppet. Just look at Dr Tongue or the skinny zombies in Land. They looked great and something similar could have been achieved for the gags in Survival. Instead, the person who once said he hated CGI relied on it to the point of it being laughable in the wrong way. He also noted in recent interviews that CG is now cheaper to do that practical FX. I however am not sold on the use of CG in lower budget films, especially in Romero films, and Microbudget cinema. Until CG can look real in those realms I won't use it, and I hope George gets with his VFX team on the next project and gets them to see the issues at hand, but it isn't entirely all there fault either. Good CG costs money, and I bet the cost of good CG is about probably way more than practical, and practical is more expensive then... lets just get it done and not look extremely horrible. yes the recent Cg in Romero flicks is bad, but nowhere near as bad as n some of the other indie production I have sat through over the last 10 or more years.

[krakenslayer]

I'm pretty sure the main contributing factor in his use of CGI seems to be time. The last two or three movies he's made have been shot on very tight schedules compared with the likes of Dawn and Day (Dawn, I believe, was shot over a whole winter, from September/October until early 1978). I remember reading in an interview something along the lines that he is expected to work a lot faster on set these days because CG can now be added later, avoiding the need for a long set-up before effects shots (which you'd have with animatronics, squibs, etc.). Over the course of a shoot, the time saved by using CG can amount to three of four days, which obviously equates to a big financial saving too, so the producers prefer it.

[Danny]

And to think some people had big problems with the pie fight in Dawn. If only they knew what was to come. honestly that still bugs me more than anything else george has ever done before or since. it just felt too out of place and pulls me right out of the scene every time. The cgi is like just flicking away a bothersome fly or something and getting back to what your focusing on in comparison.

[bassman]

I've always felt the pie fight is in character with what the Bikers were doing. As Peter says, they're basically a professional army that's been living on the road through the whole ordeal. By the time they get to the mall, they're so comfortable with the zombies that they can have a goof. Kinda like the rednecks that are enjoying the round up in Night90, Diary, etc. Now if any of the four main characters had participated in the pie fight....that would be a different story.

[DjfunkmasterG]

I've always felt the pie fight is in character with what the Bikers were doing. As Peter says, they're basically a professional army that's been living on the road through the whole ordeal. By the time they get to the mall, they're so comfortable with the zombies that they can have a goof. Kinda like the rednecks that are enjoying the round up in Night90, Diary, etc. Now if any of the four main characters had participated in the pie fight....that would be a different story. I agree with Bassman on this statement. I feel for the Bikers this was normal behavior and when the raiding parties gathered supplies in LAND a lot of that behavior was still evident. Probably the only thing in LAND that stuck to DAWN other than SAVINI's cameo.

[MinionZombie]

Indeed. Don't understand the fuss some have with the pie fight - it's 'in character' for those bikers, the sort of people who raid a store to get bowling balls and sneakers among other shit ... like a mannequin before checking their blood pressure. (Not that the blood pressure gag annoyed me, far from it). Part of the problem with CGI is that it's not random enough - like, practical blood will fly whichever way it happens to fly. CGI blood flies only in the direction that's been told to. The happenstance is removed from CGI, and you pick up on it ... ... as well as the cheaper stuff not looking 'real' enough, i.e. the issue of contrast perpetuating the 'two layers on top of each other' effect. I'm not overtly bothered by CGI in Romero's flicks - because, as Kraken said, it's just the pragmatic way for GAR to get shit done these days on cheap budgets, so it's understandable ... just, in the wider scheme of things, it's disappointing. Practical is always best.

[undead]

I am a massive fan of the Dead series but I saw Survival of the Dead and I found it not boring, but not nearly as entertaining as the previous films. I thought it was excessive in some places and lacking in others... Don't me wrong, the more gore the better, but I just didn't feel like the senario was as interesting, or the characters as well positioned. In comparison to Dawn in particular, I just wasn't feeling as excited about it when I watched it.

[DjfunkmasterG]

I think survival would have been better had it just focused on the National guard guys and being on the road, fuck that dumb ass island and the hatfield and mccoy storyline. That was what ruined Survival for me.

[Trin]

I've always felt the pie fight is in character with what the Bikers were doing. As Peter says, they're basically a professional army that's been living on the road through the whole ordeal. By the time they get to the mall, they're so comfortable with the zombies that they can have a goof. Kinda like the rednecks that are enjoying the round up in Night90, Diary, etc. Now if any of the four main characters had participated in the pie fight....that would be a different story. Agree wholeheartedly. In my mind the biker gang was made up of a bunch of not too bright overaged adolescents with a couple of leader-types ushering them around. The antics inside the mall were them just being dumbasses blowing off steam. You could tell there were a couple of them kinda overseeing the operation and letting the rest do whatever they wanted. Better to let them run off their sugar high inside the mall than back at base camp. The most annoying thing about the pie fight to me was wondering why there were all those pies months into it.

[mista_mo]

I still don't understand why Peter, Fran and Stephen didn't just sit up on the mall roof and shoot the hell out of the bikers. I mean, they were all decent shots, and it isn't like they needed to kill them...just injure them and let the ghouls finish them off.

[bassman]

I don't think the three remaining characters could have took them all out from the roof. The gang came in huge numbers. Some of them were bound to get in even if they had opposition from the roof. Then that would've only made them look harder for the hiding place upstairs. Also, didn't the bikers have grenades? Not a good thing for the snipers on the roof...

[Trin]

They could sure make their lives hell from the helicopter though. How high can you throw that grenade cheech? I've maintained all along that effective use of the helicopter and some molotovs would be all it takes to deter the biker gang. Heck, with enough time you could eradicate them completely.

[krakenslayer]

Yeah, you wouldn't even have to eradicate them, just kill or injure a few of them before they entered the mall. Force them to run away and regroup and make them think again. By waiting till they were inside to attack them, it meant the bikers were forced to fight back because by then they were in too deep to retreat (although they eventually did).

[bassman]

So you are suggesting that the heroes should have hovered over the gang with the helicopter? The gang with machine guns, grenades, and who knows what else? I just don't see that being a smart idea at all. They take enough fire in that helicopter and they're fucked. Either way they went, they were far out-numbered and out-gunned. If they had picked them off from the roof they would have dropped a few, but they wouldn't have forced a retreat. Not three guns against hundreds(?), at least. And using the traffic report chopper that's low on fuel as an attack vehicle? Something about that just doesn't jive with me.... The only wise alternative from how it played in the movie is to take off and just get the hell out of there when the bikers arrived. No matter what they did to try and save the mall, it was destined to be overrun by the bikers and zombies. There was no stopping it, imo.