Looking forward to it, Zach Schneider's Legion of the Living Dead is finally online.
It was za's first feature film project since Justice League, and the story was conceived by himself, and the writers invited Droby Harold of King Arthur: Battle of the Beasts.
Netflix didn't skimp on the project, spending $90 million (about 580 million yuan).
In a previous interview with foreign media, Director Za said: "This movie has no restraint on me. The self-indulgent za guide + explosive zombie theme makes people look forward to it.
This is not the first zombie film directed by Za, and his 2004 directorial debut "Dawn of the Living Dead" is also a zombie theme, although it is a remake, it has become an "underrated great zombie film" in the hearts of fans.
Under the lens of Za Dao, the zombie does not stop at nausea and blood, but has thoughts and emotions, in which the scene of the zombie mother giving birth to a zombie baby gives the audience a critical blow to the limits of human nature.
Judging from the trailer alone, "Army of the Living Dead" not only has the impressive classic elements of Za Dao's previous works, but also has an innovative upgrade to a certain extent.
The epic feel of Spartan 300 Warriors.
A human exploration of Dawn of the Living Dead.
The textured title in Watchmen.
A large number of shots that are cool enough to fly directly, the composition of the picture, is also beautiful to the point of suffocation and mourning to the extreme.
Comparing the Douban score of "Watchmen" of 8.5, the 7.8 point of "Spartan 300 Warriors", and the 7.5 point of "Dawn of the Living Dead", it should not be difficult for "Army of the Living Dead" to score 7, right?
As soon as the result came out, let alone climbing on the shoulder of 7 points, even the toe cover netizens who wanted to touch 6 points did not agree, and only got 5.4 points at present.
Where is the new work of Za Dao? Let's take a look.
The story takes place in Las Vegas, where an accident causes the zombies transported by the military to escape, leaving Las Vegas in a sea of blood and corpses.
The U.S. military decided to fence Las Vegas in containers to block the spread of zombies, as well as a lot of money in the city.
Among them, there was a large amount of money hidden in the underground vault of the casino avenue, and the Japanese Tanaka was eager to take it out.
Because after 4 days, the country will take extreme measures against Las Vegas and use tactical nuclear bombs to clean up, he does not want the money to be "cremated", so he finds the male protagonist Scott to help.
Scott once formed a "death squad" and successfully rescued the Secretary of Defense from the Zombie City.
Tanaka to the point: give you 50 million, the rest of me to bring back on the line, you find someone, I out of the equipment, struggle all day, happy for a lifetime, yes or no?
At this time, Scott, although he was very famous, but he was shy, and he was a hero who saved people on the outside, and only he himself understood that he did not give him anything except the honor of the country.
He also has a daughter, who is currently volunteering in the isolation camp around Las Vegas, and under consideration, he has to think about her future, so he agrees to team up to fight monsters.
The process of forming a team is very smooth, the money-loving is satisfied with the price offered, the people who like the stimulation are also energetic, and they are willing to insert knives for their friends' ribs, and a strong squad was born.
In addition to scott, the "destroyer" with outstanding ability, the team members also include the muscle man Van Der Roh, the sharpshooter Anna, the locksmith Dieter who opens the vault, the airplane pilot Bits, and the Internet celebrity zombie killer Guzman.
In order to successfully enter Las Vegas and get money, there are two other roles that are very critical, the first is Tanaka's eyeliner, ostensibly responsible for monitoring them, and privately doing the work of destroying the world.
The other is a guide, familiar with the current situation in the city, clear about the rules of the zombie world, she is the coyote Lily, living in the quarantine area, often help the poor "smuggled" to the zombie city, from which to take some unclaimed money, but the people who enter may not be able to come out alive.
In addition, there is an uninvited guest in the squad, that is Scott's daughter Kate, she and her father have some heart knots, but they are particularly kind, after knowing that the girlfriend went to the zombie city to "steal money" and did not return, she told Scott that she had to go in to find someone.
Unlike everyone else, she is actually nothing particularly powerful, but she has a powerful "Virgin" aura like opening a "heavenly hanging", which is the key character to promote the development of the plot.
Next, it's the big scenes, the strong stimulation, the weird layout, and the high-burning battles that we are looking forward to.
Eaten by zombies.
Bitten by a mourning tiger.
An overwhelming gush of plasma gushed out.
The truth behind the conspiracy looms.
The struggle of human nature in the face of danger is tangled and cruel, but it cannot stop the continuous sublimation of family, love and friendship.
In the end, it didn't end with the bomb that blew up Las Vegas, and a new challenge for humanity had just begun.
At this point in the story, "Army of the Living Dead" seems to be a film that is cool to the bone marrow, but director Za wants to bring more than just cool to the audience.
In fact, this movie may just be a prelude to Za's creation of a zombie world.
Different from the traditional zombie group fight, the zombies here are very systematic from the setting, mainly divided into three types.
The first, a brainless zombie that can only walk around and jump and roar, cannot walk in the sun, is called a "lame walker".
The second one is much more advanced, called alpha, with the ability to think independently, both intelligent and organized.
The most powerful is the king of the zombie world, named "Zeus", who has his own daughter-in-law, and the corpse, as its name suggests, has a strong reproductive ability, not only can expand the team by "biting", but also have children with the daughter-in-law.
In addition to the type, the species of zombies has also been extended, human mutations, animal mutations, and even some zombies are robots.
As for the origin of the zombie robot, it is said that it will be revealed in the animated series "Army of the Living Dead: The Fall of Las Vegas" released next year.
In addition to this, the film has a lot of speculation details.
Does the UFO that appears in the sky at the beginning of the film indicate that zombies and aliens have some kind of connection?
After the zombie baby leaves the mother's body, the blue light emitted disappears instantly, and what does it imply?
Was the Japanese Tanaka conspiracy an act of personal action, or was there military support behind it?
Will the new Zombie King be the one who freezes at the end?
Putting aside these suspense, Za Dao injected deep emotions into this movie, especially family affection.
The male protagonist to his daughter, the zombie king to the next generation, the poor mother in the quarantine area to his children, the parents who dig out their hearts and lungs are reminiscent of the guilt, regret and redemption of zhadao who lost their daughters in real life.
In summary, we may be able to speculate a little, in ZaDao's mind, the quality of "Army of the Living Dead" should be like this:
The scene is magnificent and gimmicky; the plot setting has a big picture view and hints at the birth of the zombie universe; the characters are delicate and warm, and the zombie world is rich and not empty.
But the fact is: even if you don't delve into it, the movie "Army of the Living Dead" still has logical hard wounds that cannot be ignored, and many places make people panic when they watch:
A member of the squad was besieged by zombies under the operation of internal traitors, and before dying, there was a super long slow motion, and she kept telling her friends to run, run fast, and run quickly, but she did not say that there were traitors in the team, and successfully protected the traitors from exposure.
In this critical moment of survival, is it still unclear what is the focus of the moment? How can a group of people who choose to tie their heads to the waistband of their pants completely dominate and directly throw away their reason?
Not only that, the zombie king knows to prevent himself from being headshot and wearing a helmet, but several people in the protagonist team are not even wearing clothes with sleeves, bare arms, naked neck, as if sending "takeaway" to zombies.
Moreover, the hearts of some of the characters in the film are really big, and when they are alive and dead, they are chased by zombies and run to the top floor without closing the door to block zombies.
If you don't close the door because you are too anxious, then it is a bit surprising to find that someone rescued you and did not jump on the plane quickly, but instead chatted in place.
If it matters, can't you fly away first and then talk? The cloud is light and the wind is light, and it has a feeling of "the director let me wait for the zombies".
The most outstanding performance is the Virgin Heroine Kate, who contributed a lot in this game to help zombies kill teammates.
Moreover, although the movie picture is very beautiful, some are only beautiful for the sake of beauty, and the depth cannot be dug out; the story is sensational, but unfortunately most of it is the self-touching of the characters, and the character image that cannot be established makes it difficult for the audience to empathize.
Although Za Dao's innovative setting for zombies does give this film a sense of foresight as a "zombie culture revival film", it is still not enough to cover up the basic logical loopholes.
Under the accumulation of these slots, "Army of the Living Dead" falls into the cliché of "facial zombie films": some people cry and shout "die", some people have bad consciences to blacken, and some people give up themselves to save others.
The movie can be regarded as able to write and martial arts, but it is really a non-trivial interpretation.
If you think of it as a cool film, the literary and drama part that sublimates for sublimation becomes chicken; but if you think of it as a deep film, after watching it, you can only remember the scenes of "brushing zombies", "smashing brain shells", and "blood gushing".
Perhaps the direction after that may be as predicted by a netizen: the release of the new work of Za Dao will fill these big holes, and then people will sigh at the master's cleverness with hindsight.
But even if the bugs and unclear explanations in the movie are the foreshadowing for subsequent works, we should first take care of the quality of the stall in front of you, as to whether "Army of the Living Dead" is worth watching?
It can only be said that if you love the slow motion, dark tones, exaggerated violence of the director, and also like the zombie theme, it may not be very satisfying to watch, but it is really cool.
If neither of these is your persistent pursuit, then you can refer to the Douban score to decide for yourself, and the eyes of the masses are still quite bright.