Snyder's Army of the Dead (Netflix 2021)

[shootemindehead]

Amen to that. That opening scene of Snyder's Dawn, where the little girl, and her boyfriend, demonstrate super agility, as well as super vocal chords (dinosaur scream), just seems bizarre to me... Yeh, that was an "oh dear" moment. I wasn't ever that enamoured with the idea of a Dawn remake, but when that little girl happened, my heart sunk. In fairness, the opening is quite well done in other respects and the Johnny Cash song worked pretty well. The movie has some good moments scattered throughout and I liked Ana and Michael as characters, but the others were awful. Having a teased romance or at least friendship between Ana and Michael only for Mick to turn around at the end and say he was buggered was a nice touch as well, I thought. But it's littered with shite as well, like the zombie baby or that fat lady zombie. But, one of my biggest issues is that there is just no hope whatsoever in Dawn '04. Because run around super zombies eliminates that completely. At least with shufflers, shamblers, walkers or whatever, there remains something for humanity to fight for. With these modern super zombies, there's just nothing. They're completely overwhelming. I spose in the end the best thing I can say about the 2004 'Dawn of the Dead' remake is that it wasn't the 2008 'Day of the Dead' remake.

[Skinrash]

Kind of shocked to see the negative reactions. It’s always seemed to me that most fans of the genre regard Dawn04 as one of the best dead films in the last 20-30 years. Not here. The majority here have been calling it out for being the derivative cashgrab with magical super-zombies that it is since it came out.

[bassman]

Not here. The majority here have been calling it out for being the derivative cashgrab with magical super-zombies that it is since it came out. I have to disagree there. Opinions may have changed over the years, but when Snyder’s Dawn hit in 2004, it was received warmly by the majority of HPotD members. I remember this well because I was one of only a handful of members here that disliked the film. It’s also best to remember that at the time, we didn’t have an over saturation of zombie material like we do today. The genre was just starting to make a comeback with 28 Days Later/Shaun/Dawn04, but we had nothing substantial in the genre for nearly two decades before that, so there’s a chance it was received more warmly upon release because it was fresh. But yeah....I remember quite clearly that Dawn04 had a generally warm reaction. At the very least it felt like 70/30.

[MinionZombie]

I'm not sure if I'd say it was "warmly" received, especially as it was a remake of Romero's most iconic film. I certainly recall there being heavy debate about the movie with lots of back and forth. Some folks quite liked it, and other folks hated it or found a large amount of faults with it.

[EvilNed]

I can't recall what my initial thoughts of it were. I haven't seen it in ages, though I remember it being pretty good.

[MinionZombie]

I read a bit about this in Total Film. It seems to suggest that it does indeed take place years into the zombie apocalypse ... so, surely, there'll have to be some sort of fully fleshed-out reason given for the heist of paper money in that context. There was also a suggestion of different zombies having different levels of intelligence (even strength?), which made me worry about some lame L4D rip-off class system. I haven't seen anything specifically talking about that, but there did appear to be a hint towards 'group intelligence/leadership' among the dead (so a rip-off of Land, then?)

[bassman]

There was also a suggestion of different zombies having different levels of intelligence (even strength?), which made me worry about some lame L4D rip-off class system. I haven't seen anything specifically talking about that, but there did appear to be a hint towards 'group intelligence/leadership' among the dead (so a rip-off of Land, then?) He’s remade Dawn, followed by remaking Land. Someone get Phillyswat in here, he’s got new ammunition for his Land-before-Day argument!

[MinionZombie]

He’s remade Dawn, followed by remaking Land. Someone get Phillyswat in here, he’s got new ammunition for his Land-before-Day argument!

[bassman]

^ Colorful, but otherwise boring poster: Why would they not put zombies on the poster, at least? With zombies being so popular in recent years, it seems strange not to have zombie imagery on the poster...

[MinionZombie]

Yeah - no zombies at all on the artwork? Bizarre. I do find these 'line up the cast' posters to be thoroughly boring. It serves the same function as just writing their names up top, it's so uninspired and has been going on since the 90s when it was all just about showing people who was in it, rather than trying to get a feel for the flick at the same time. There seems to be nowhere near enough poster artists in Hollywood now, and an awful lot of photoshop users instead.

[shootemindehead]

Movie artwork today is absolute shite.

[JDP]

You just don't see movie posters like these anymore: Come to think of it, you just don't see movies like that anymore either!

[EvilNed]

He’s remade Dawn, followed by remaking Land. Someone get Phillyswat in here, he’s got new ammunition for his Land-before-Day argument!

[MinionZombie]

Latest trailer. Big Daddy and his basic gathering, march, and then attack on Fiddler's Green I was on board with. This, though, just feels like one of those dime-a-dozen zombie videogames with the same 'class system' of zombie types. That bit where the one zombie is dodging all of Bautista's attacks? Oh boy... The 'smoking while pouring petrol' shot annoyed me too. I mean, really? "Ooh, I'm so cool I do stupid shit like smoke around petrol." Jog on with that shit. On the other hand - Garrett Dillahunt. I'll certainly watch this, but it does feel too much just 'cool looking shit happening'. I do hope they have a proper reason for staging that heist, as well (e.g. they're starting a post-apocalypse city and they're going to set up a mini economy, perhaps with other established survivor cities ... ... i.e. just ripping off Land of the Dead). Because if the only reason is, essentially, "this'll be cool", then fuck that.

[paranoid101]

Latest trailer. Big Daddy and his basic gathering, march, and then attack on Fiddler's Green I was on board with. This, though, just feels like one of those dime-a-dozen zombie videogames with the same 'class system' of zombie types. That bit where the one zombie is dodging all of Bautista's attacks? Oh boy... The 'smoking while pouring petrol' shot annoyed me too. I mean, really? "Ooh, I'm so cool I do stupid shit like smoke around petrol." Jog on with that shit. On the other hand - Garrett Dillahunt. I'll certainly watch this, but it does feel too much just 'cool looking shit happening'. I do hope they have a proper reason for staging that heist, as well (e.g. they're starting a post-apocalypse city and they're going to set up a mini economy, perhaps with other established survivor cities ... ... i.e. just ripping off Land of the Dead). Because if the only reason is, essentially, "this'll be cool", then fuck that. I'm still a big fan of Dawn 2004 but that trailer made me go "oh Dear". Will watch it but hmm......