Thank you Trin and Gemini,
It's refreshing after so many "hate the movie, but the man and his personal actions/words/demeanor/possible mindset are off-limits for all criticism, which shall henceforth be deemed "disrespect".) Honestly, the basic "Disrespect Argument" reminds me a lot of people who scream "You're UNPATRIOTIC" at people who cited extreme criticisms of the War In Iraq. I'm NOT saying that I think it's cool to just rip on someone, ANYONE to be funny, or witty or even relevant, but if something that a director has done elicits a genuine negative emotion in you, precisely where is the great treason in expressing that?
Know what, unlike many I actually on-balance found more to enjoy in Land than I disliked, though the things I disliked I positively despised. I recognize many others feel differently and find Land to be as or more deficient than I find Diary & Survival. Yet somehow I find that I feel no need at all to defend Romero from the sincere negative feelings expressed by others at Romero over a movie that they hated and I rather liked (In a qualified sense, as I explained).
To the "Stay with me, Guys" Interview Romero gave, I retort with this:
Survival lacks the kind of grand theme that gives the best Romero zombie movies their oomph. The Romero of old would tease his audience with graphic violence so he could comment on social ills, but lately, he’s been shoehorning in the commentary around scenes that play to that core base of fans who dress up as zombies and cheer on every clever kill. Survival has lots of those clever kills; Romero just doesn’t provide enough reason for them to be.
And this:
It’s also fun to dream up these new silly sort of Loony Toon ways of disposing of zombies, which we can do now with CG, which I was never able to do when it was all practical mechanical effects, you know?
Important point here, which supports what I've been saying, about him knowing what pisses us off and doing it for precisely that reason.
If you look at Night of the Living Dead they’re eating insects, they’re violating all of my rules that I’ve tried to stick to since the second film. So now this is maybe something new. I hinted at it in a film called Day of the Dead, but this is something new. They actually do it, but the humans are too busy shooting at each other so nobody notices. So I have that in my hip pocket as something that will definitely play in upcoming episodes, if there are upcoming episodes.
And FINALLY, the very capstone of what I'm pointing out, using Romero's exact words.
"I'm convinced that my increased focus on the communications medium and the "feel" if you will of the Big Country-like influence makes Diary and Survival far and away my best Dead-related work to date."
This is "the pattern" that gets under the skin of many of us that, on top of being frustrated and disgusted with the obvious reality-disconnect going on here for/inside this man, is further inflamed when various "GAR Defenders" leap to the man's defense the moment someone on here points out that there's more than ample first-hand evidence that not only has GAR completely and perhaps irrevocably deviated from the zombie film-making values that made the Original Trilogy great, he's fully aware of the fact that his newer work is creating larger and larger numbers of former fans that have become disaffected with his movie-making credentials in the here-and now. That he has the gall to express something akin to frustration and disappointment in us, as all the while he assumes "we just don't GET his new films", thus condescending to us at the same time he's expressing his wish for us to watch his new movies again and again until we do get it, it's INFURIATING.
They say that the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem/there is a problem, and that conversely, believing that it is EVERYONE ELSE that has the problem is the very essence of denial.
So what makes it such Blasphemous Treason to highlight these very statements and actions made by Romero himself, that confirms without further explanation required why so many of us have grown disenchanted with the prospect of more Dead films from Romero, and what's wrong with said director from the get-go these days?
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Originally Posted by thxleo
it is THE worst zombie movie ever made. period.
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