Leaving DC, Zach Schneider unloaded his burden and returned to the zombie theme of his famous work (Dawn of the Living Dead (2004' Dawn of the Living Dead).
This time, he took Netflix's $70 million (450 million yuan) investment and wrote and directed "Army of the Living Dead".
The movie was recently launched, the current Douban score is 5.4 points, and the audience's reputation is bad.
Some netizens even commented:
Zach Schneider may be the best MV director, but certainly the most boring director I've ever seen, pretending to be x-gigantic, narcissistic, and without the slightest sense of humor.
It is recommended that Za guide turn to the line to shoot the wedding.
Zach always proves himself again and again that he is really not good, this time there is no Warner "dragging his legs", Netflix only gives money and never interferes, the director and screenwriter are all you Zach himself, this pot can not be shaken off ah.
As we all know, Netflix is not as authoritarian as Warner, they are famous for only giving money, but asking for filming, which also gives Za director a good space to play and be able to fully present his ideas.
But I never expected that what made fans wait was another overturning of the director.
This time, Warner does not carry the pot, Netflix does not carry the pot, so what is the problem?
In Pigo's view, the problem arises in two ways,
Before answering, let's briefly understand the content of this movie -
01、
Zombie movies have already formed an "apocalyptic culture" in the world.
Usually, the beginning of the movie does not take the time to introduce the ins and outs of the spread of the zombie virus, and it is directly bitten when it comes up. For example, "Dawn of the Living Dead" before Za Dao.
But in this "Army of the Living Dead", Za Dao made an explanation at the beginning of the film:
Due to the secret weapons developed by the government and military, a car accident occurred during transportation, resulting in the escape of the experimental subject "Zombie Ancestor" with the zombie virus, and eventually turned the casino city of Las Vegas into a zombie city.
The zombies in the film are divided into two types according to their IQ level -
The first: Zombies who have been bitten by the ancestors of the zombies and transformed, they are called "alphas", this kind of zombie has a certain intelligence and agility.
The second: zombies that are transformed by these alpha bites, they are called "toddlers", this kind of zombie has low intelligence and slow movement.
The whole of Las Vegas is surrounded by government containers, and the zombie ancestors with a group of alphas control the hinterland of the casino, which is a headache for the government.
So the president decided to drop a nuclear bomb directly into Las Vegas, and set the time for a nest of zombies in the casino to be set for 4 days.
This upset The treasurer of vegas bray mansion in the casino, Blitanaka, who had $200 million in the underground vault underneath the casino avenue.
Tanaka decides to find someone to get the money out before the explosion, so he finds Scott Ward (Dave Batista), who is experienced in dealing with zombies and is currently running a restaurant, and promises him $50 million.
Scott then assembled a group of monster fighters and went to the underground vault of the Vegas Blay Building.
Among the group are Scott's former teammates Maria Cruise and Van der Rohe, online celebrity couple McGee Guzman and Chambers, who specialize in online live-streaming zombie fights, Ludwig Dieter, who is responsible for unlocking the lock, and Marianne Petes, who drives the plane.
According to the plan, Scott and his party are taken into the casino by a beautiful woman named Coyote (Nora Anazeder) who lives in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Las Vegas, completes the mission, and leaves in a helicopter on the roof of the Vegas Blythe Building.
02、
The first problem: the human design is wrong, and the plot loopholes are obvious
Director Za may think that such a strict team action in the movie is difficult to mess up, and it is difficult to make up the story without a little chaos, so he added two pit goods to the team.
Pit Cargo 1: Martin, Tanaka's subordinate who has been assigned to the team.
This figure is ostensibly Tanaka's "commissar" who installed the team, responsible for ensuring that the team can smoothly ship the money out.
But in fact, Martin has another purpose, Tanaka asks him to find a chance to get an alpha zombie's head, so that he can bring out the zombie virus for research.
Martin carried the attributes of a pit teammate all the way, first killing the women's team Chambers because of a verbal altercation, and then cutting off the team's retreat on his own initiative, and his final fate was also bitten to death by a zombie tiger.
When writing the script, Za Director did not seem to think about Martin's removal of the zombie head, and there was no conflict with the team's task of withdrawing money.
From his point of view, escaping from the zombie city with the team is better than the chance of killing his teammates and escaping to survive on his own, why did he do such a self-cutting back road?
The character's behavior is completely illogical, and this obviously flawed plot is from the hands of Za Dao.
Pit Cargo 2: Kate, the daughter of male protagonist Scott.
Scott killed his infected wife with his own hands, causing him to dare not face his daughter, and the father and daughter have been strangers ever since, and the daughter remains alone in the camp as a volunteer.
In order to save a friend who ventures into zombie city despite advice, Kate persuades Scott to let her join the team and follow her into zombie city.
The appearance of this character, who clearly carries the aura of "Madonna", we can fully understand that zadao is thinking of his daughter Cho Schneider, who committed suicide.
Scott and Kate's father-daughter interaction has also added a lot of emotional scenes, which would have been beneficial, but too many emotional scenes slowed down the pace of the movie, which greatly reduced the excitement of this zombie film.
Coupled with Kate's Virgin, she always radiates the "Virgin Light" at key moments, leaves the team without authorization, and runs to rescue her friends.
This directly led to the death of the remaining members of the team, including her father Scott, and the friend Geeta, who had been rescued by her, was not spared.
And Kate, who killed everyone, turned out to be the last person to survive, and this ending is believed that most viewers will not be able to accept it.
An unsatisfactory ending is bound to drag down the entire movie and lead to a total collapse, which is why many netizens score low.
03、
The second problem: the plot rhythm, the arrangement is wrong
Putting aside the above-mentioned loopholes in the human and plot, there are also great problems with the plot arrangement and rhythm control of the movie.
We still remember 2005's "King Kong", a big investment monster cool film, but the "foreplay" accounted for more than 1 hour.
The same problem exists in this film, introducing the causes of events, the appearance of the characters, and the preparation of the father-daughter plot, and it took 1 hour to grind and rub.
The appearance of intelligent zombies has also been seen in other zombie movies before, such as "I Am Legendary", so it is not new.
The brainless mistakes of the protagonist team and the mutual pits of teammates are also very cheesy, basically seeing the appearance of the characters, you can guess their ending, so there is no bright spot in the plot.
The only thing that is desirable is that the "epic" shots that Za Director has always liked, as well as the performance of slow-motion shots, are still passable.
The scenes of zombie wars in the casino have also reached the first-class level of industrial movies, and the explosion shots of bombs, grenades, and nuclear bombs have also been spectacularly and beautifully watched, and these good scenes have not regressed.
In terms of the performance of the characters and actors, in addition to the protagonist's father and daughter, those supporting roles who can play for their lives, can open locks, and can fly airplanes, the image shaping is very good.
But apart from that, the two-and-a-half-hour long film was a lackluster one, and that bad ending made it mediocre.
04、
summary:
Zach Schneider, who was ostracized and restricted by various exclusions and restrictions in Warner's DC cinematic universe, left DC to take over this film, thinking that he could find himself under the shade of Netflix, but the fact was chilling.
We can't help but ask whether the various discord between Za Dao and Warner's senior management when making DC films is a problem of Warner's senior management, or a problem of Za Dao's own.
Maybe it can't control the rhythm and can't tell the story, which is zadao's own problem, and the mediocre work of "Army of the Living Dead" has invisibly become Zadao's "mirror".
Zach Schneider, who does not make DC movies, invested 450 million in exchange for an R-rated bad movie!
Oh, a sigh...
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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