01 Who is the "Father of Zombie Movies"?
I was looking forward to Zach Schneider's latest zombie movie, Army of the Living Dead, because he is the "father of zombie movies" in Hollywood, and director George W. Bush is the only one who can do it. A. Romero's canonical descendant.
George W. A. Romero
Speaking of Romero, let's first take a general look at how strong this Hollywood "father of zombie movies" is, and how he became the "father of zombie movies"?
As early as 1968, the 28-year-old Romero wrote and directed his first film, "Night of the Living Dead", which was the first zombie movie in the world. It tells the story of a small town where the dead are resurrected from their graves to attack the living because they are exposed to radiation.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Although the film was criticized by critics at the time for being "too scary", "no one survived, desperate ending" and "lack of conscience and social responsibility", it did not prevent this black-and-white film from creating the significance of zombie genre films, and also established Romero's indelible position in the history of American cinema.
Dawn of the Living Dead
In 1978, Romero wrote and directed Dawn of the Living Dead, and earned $20 million in local box office and a cumulative global box office of $55 million for only $500,000, making romero's best zombie films, while also further exploring the huge commercial potential of zombie genre films.
In 1985, Romero once again wrote and directed "The Day of the Living Dead", also known as "Zombie Out of the Cage", the then 45-year-old Romero hoped to break through the zombie genre film routine he had created in this film, dig out new perspectives and content, so he boldly added the zombie emotional setting and humorous and ironic elements. It may be that this idea is too advanced, resulting in this film being too preachy, slightly dull and boring, and losing the coolness of zombie genre films.
Day of the Living Dead
Although it was not very accepted by fans at the time, its powerful brain hole and avant-garde setting were of indelible significance to the innovation and expansion of zombie genre films in later generations. These include the 1996 Game of Resident Evil by Capcom and the film series of the same name, which began in 2002, and the 2004 comedy zombie film Shaun the Zombie.
Shaun the Zombie
2013 love zombie film "Warm Corpse"
"Warm Corpse"
The American drama "I Am a Zombie" and so on are undoubtedly based on the "zombie" setting created by Romero decades ago and the new elements of zombies that are constantly trying, such as emotion, humor and irony.
American drama "I Am a Zombie"
Thus, 1985's "Day of the Living Dead" and the previous three films, "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968 and "Dawn of the Living Dead" in 1978, together constitute George W. Bush' work. A. Romero's "Zombie Trilogy".
Night of the Living Dead / Dawn of the Living Dead / Day of the Living Dead
The high scores of 7.4, 7.3 and 7.1 that are generally higher than those of the same genre also make Romero the deserved "father of zombie films".
Nowadays, both zombie movies and games are diverse, and have a large number of loyal fans. But all of this content is basically inseparable from the framework of "radiation, zombies, infection, humanity's last hope".
Resident Evil 2: Revelations
In short, George W. Bush The zombie genre films pioneered and developed by A. Romero laid the most basic framework for the zombie genre in later generations, including the famous video game Resident Evil. But what Romero didn't expect was that the game inspired by himself would dominate the "zombie movie" in the near future.
02 The "Father of Zombie Movies" is maimed by Resident Evil
With the rapid development of the times, soon the "father of zombie films" was challenged by the younger generations, and 2002's Resident Evil 2: Revelations raised the zombie genre film to an unprecedented height with high scores of 8.2 and 7.9 respectively, and created a new zombie film IP with a new worldview and more attractive protagonists.
In 2005, the 65-year-old Romero was not reconciled to the mediocre response of the trilogy's closed mountain work "The Day of the Living Dead", and even more unwilling to let the zombie film he created be taught by his little brother to catch up. So he once again went out of the mountain to write and direct his last zombie film "The Land of the Living Dead", and at the same time broke the rule of zombie brainlessness again, further explored the feelings and intelligence of zombies, and deepened the criticism of human selfishness and blindness, cocooning themselves.
Land of the Living Dead
This also led to the polarization of the film's reputation, and the die-hard fans who followed Romero along the way enjoyed it, believing that the film was both entertaining and critical, the most standard and the best to watch in Romero's zombie films.
The new generation of zombie genre film fans affected by "Resident Evil" questioned that the zombies of the film can shoot, can swim, have enough blood tubes, have weak logic, and the protagonist is too virgin... I have to admit that the final reputation of 6.5 points is indeed questioned by these complaints, note that these complaints will become a common disease of Romero zombie genre films outside of "Resident Evil" in the future.
From the original 7.4 points of "Night of the Living Dead", 7.3 points of "Dawn of the Living Dead", 7.1 points of "Day of the Living Dead", until the 6.5 points of this "Land of the Living Dead", the ratings that have declined all the way down undoubtedly represent that the "Luo-style" zombie film has been declining, almost completely crippled by "Resident Evil", and more and more young people only know that there is "Resident Evil" and do not know that there is "Living Dead".
Resident Evil
At this moment, Romero's eyes appeared a young "savior", he was the then 38-year-old advertising director Zach Schneider. Perhaps the same age as Romero in 1978, when he delivered the best of Dawn of the Living Dead, Zack Schneider was looking for a project that would be his film debut.
Zach Schneider
03 Za Dao rose to prominence with his zombie film debut, and 17 years later made a new film to pay tribute to BoLe
As a young man, Zach Schneider was also a horror film fan, and he admired 1978's Dawn of the Living Dead, so he thought that a zombie movie was the most appropriate choice for his beginning in the film industry.
2004 edition of Dawn of the Living Dead
In 2004, Zach Schneider's film debut, written by the 64-year-old Romero himself, was remade in 1978's "Dawn of the Living Dead" film of the same name, and the director not only played the characteristics of the "Luo-style" zombie film with enough plasma tubes, weak logic, and protagonist Madonna, but also uniquely and innovatively designed the bridge section of "zombie childbirth".
Perhaps in line with the law that anything that is done to the extreme will develop in the opposite direction, the huge tide of corpses and the shocking setting in the film have been well received, and it is considered by many fans to be the best zombie movie in their hearts, and in one fell swoop, the performance of the "Luo-style" zombie film has been raised to the highest score in history of 7.5 points.
The film became, Za fuse, became the savior of the "Luo-style" zombie film, and was regarded as the heir of the "father of the zombie film", many die-hard fans of the "Luo-style" zombie film believed that Zack Schneider could completely create a new trilogy, suppress the "Resident Evil" series (after all, there were only two "Resident Evil" at that time), and reorganize the "Luo-style" zombie film.
In addition to the excitement, everyone seems to ignore two things, first, Za Dao does have talent, but often talented people are particularly loyal to themselves;
Second, although obscured by Za's amazing talent in Dawn of the Living Dead, "Why is there always a stupid person in a film like this, because a virgin heart drags everyone into trouble?" The "Luo-style" zombie movie is not overly mentioned, but this time bomb will eventually become the fuse of a fiasco in the future!
Spartan 300 Warriors
Zach Schneider, who has a geeky otaku temperament, seems to be more interested in manga content such as steampunk, cyberpunk, various samurai swords, robots, etc. Therefore, the savior of the "Luo-style" zombie film completely disregards the wishful thinking of these fans who inherit the mantle of Romero. Instead, he turned around and directed the 2006 film Spartan 300 Warriors, adapted from American cartoonist Frank Miller, with a score of 7.8. In 2009, he directed the comic book adaptation film "Watchmen" with a score of 8.5.
Watchmen
Since then, Za Dao has soared all the way, indulging in the comic book worlds such as "Owl Kingdom: Guardian Legend", "Sailor Moon", "Sailor Moon: Body of Steel", "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and so on.
"Pretty Girl Strike Force"
Especially since the release of Zach Schneider's version of "Justice League" in 2011, the score of 8.3 points seems to have finally given DC, which has been suppressed by Marvel, see hope, and Zadui is regarded as the savior of DC.
Army of the Living Dead director Zach Schneider (center)
It may be that this praise of "Savior" reminds Za Dao, who has already achieved fame, of his debut film "Dawn of the Living Dead" and his own Bole Romero many years ago, when the "father of zombie films" has been dead for 4 years.
So Zach Schneider decided to emulate Romero, serving as a producer, self-directed, and even handheld camera, offering a shocking zombie film "Army of the Living Dead" to pay tribute to the late "father of zombie films".
Legion of the Living Dead
04 The "thunder" buried seventeen years ago finally exploded, why did "Army of the Living Dead" fail miserably?
Since 2002, it has dominated the screen for 14 years, and the results of the zombie series "Resident Evil", which is sought after by fans and game fans around the world, have also declined year by year, and by 2016, the sixth film "Resident Evil: Final Chapter" only ended with a score of 6.5. Enough to illustrate the shrinking and innovative dryness of the zombie genre film market. There are two reasons for this:
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
First of all, since the day of the birth of the zombie genre film, it is undeniable that it has greatly satisfied the audience's curiosity and strong sensory stimulation. In the decades to come, in the extremely diverse film market of monsters, superheroes, magicians, wizards, aliens, mutants, etc., zombies are no longer a thrilling element.
Resident Evil series
The "Resident Evil" series, which has dominated the screen for 14 years, coupled with the smelly and long American drama "The Walking Dead", and the proliferation of zombie films such as "Fear of the Walking Dead" and "Zombie Country" that follow the trend, squeeze the last breath of the zombie theme dry, which really makes the audience have aesthetic fatigue.
American drama "The Walking Dead"
Secondly, the strong sensory stimulation brought by the zombie films in the early years may mask the single story, logical loopholes, and lack of characters, that is, the previously called plasma tubes are enough, the logic is weak, and the protagonist's madonna is faulty. With the gradual growth of a new generation of film fans, their cultural level and movie viewing quality are undoubtedly much higher than those of film fans in the 60s and 70s. Therefore, these problems are in the eyes of today's film fans, such as fish in the throat, not spitting unhappy.
Fear of the Walking Dead
However, it seems that Za Dao, who is trapped in his own talent, did not analyze the above two points calmly, but once again exerted these common diseases to the extreme.
Although the film begins with a large section of the "epic" MV that is not uncommon in "Spartan Three Hundred Warriors", "Batman Wars" and "Justice League", it is still the old story setting:
The ancestral zombie source secret weapon developed by the military, because of the traffic accident in transit, the casino Las Vegas became a zombie world, and the male protagonist gathered a small team to help a Japanese rich man go to the vault under the casino before the nuclear bomb strike to take out 200 million US dollars, and then share 50 million.
Yes, the story is so simple and sloppy.
In order to innovate, or pay tribute to Romero, Za Dao divides zombies into two types in the film, and the little brothers transformed by archaeopteryx zombies can run and jump, and the movements are agile and thoughtful, listening to the organized actions of the archaeopteryx zombies.
The little minions transformed by the little brothers have become living targets, most of them have been dried and dehydrated by the sun, and the dry corpses have entered the "hibernation" state to stand still, and then said that they would come alive when it rained, and the result was that the whole film did not rain until the end. Unexpectedly, the zombie world eventually produced three, six, nine, and so on.
After paying tribute to Romero, Zadao also did not forget to pay tribute to the "zombie child" he designed in "Dawn of the Living Dead" in 2004, in "Army of the Living Dead", not only let zombies have thoughts but also have love, the ancestor zombies and the zombie queen fell in love and created the crystallization of love.
As a result, the real purpose of the Japanese rich man is to get the head of the zombie queen to study, he does not care about the 200 million US dollars, he sent people to cut off the head of the zombie queen and sneak away alone, the ancestor zombie took out the zombie baby grief-stricken, with a group of little brothers began to hunt down the squad.
Yes, the logic is so weak and flawed.
Focusing on the daughter of the male protagonist, she is a volunteer who is responsible for taking care of the quarantined people in the quarantine area, and as a result, a mother does not listen to advice and has to enter the zombie world to get something to earn money, and the result is uncertain. The daughter asked to go in with the squad to rescue her, because she had taken care of the mother's two children. And threatened not to follow you and I will also go in by myself, is that not more dangerous?
The male protagonist had no choice but to promise her, and warned her that you must obey the order and listen to the command, I will arrange people to search and rescue, you must not make your own moths, otherwise someone will die because of you. The daughter said yes with a pair of big eyes.
Thus, a good scene of the Destruction of the protagonist team by the Virgin Mary also began, and when the nuclear bomb was still 9 minutes away from the explosion, she resolutely broke away from the team and ran to the zombie lair to save people.
Of course, the male protagonist father who connived at his daughter to become a churning stick could not escape the blame, so that the only surviving pilot waited for her to save her daughter, so he killed into the zombie swarm. In the end, the protagonist and his squad all sacrificed, and only one Virgin Daughter survived...
Legion of the Living Dead, Virgin Mother
Yes, the protagonist is such a virgin, so good that there is nothing to say.
The best-looking and normal character in Army of the Living Dead, Lily the Coyote
The whole film is two and a half hours, the plot is divided, the logic is chaotic, the character emotional transformation is blunt, the photography abuses the virtual focus, the lines are designed to be as embarrassing as the idol drama, and the special "timely" addition of the white man sacrificing his life to save the black man bridge section, I feel that the director wants to mix too many private goods, zombies, human nature, family affection, politics, it is simply a play, but it is not similar, not scary enough, not interesting enough.
So this time finally failed to cover up the plasma tube enough, the logic is weak, the protagonist Oflorus's problems and "Why is there always a stupid person in such a film, because a Virgin's heart drags everyone into trouble?" The "Thunder" buried 17 years ago finally exploded today, and "Army of the Living Dead" failed miserably with a heart-warming 5.6 points. Made a bad film to pay tribute to Romero who promoted himself.