Army of the Dead: Zack Snyder’s Absurd and Personal Zombie Heist
Zack Snyder, a name synonymous with visually stunning action spectacles, makes a grand return with Army of the Dead, a film that is both wildly over-the-top and surprisingly intimate. This marks Snyder’s second prominent release of the year, solidifying his comeback.
Las Vegas, once a shimmering beacon of entertainment, has fallen to the undead. Years prior, a single zombie, through a series of unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your perspective) events, breached military containment, unleashing a plague that transformed the city’s inhabitants into a ravenous horde. Echoing scenarios from Romero’s undead classics, the government swiftly moved to isolate the outbreak. Massive shipping container walls were erected, effectively turning Sin City into a zombie kingdom.
Scott (Dave Bautista), a soldier who played a vital role in the initial response, rescuing survivors from the escalating chaos, is now relegated to flipping burgers in a humble diner, haunted by memories and distanced from his daughter. Fate, or rather a wealthy and enigmatic businessman, presents him with a tempting proposition: a high-stakes heist to plunder the zombie-infested city days before a planned nuclear strike obliterates it completely. Scott’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to assemble a crack team, infiltrate Vegas, and crack a seemingly impenetrable vault containing a fortune.
Assembling the Team of the Undead
True to the heist movie formula, Scott gathers his eclectic crew: a trusted former comrade-in-arms (Ana de la Reguera), a quirky safecracker (Matthias Schweighöfer), a skilled pilot (Tig Notaro), a knowledgeable zombie-Vegas expert (the captivating Nora Arnezeder delivering a strong, Cameron-esque performance), and a collection of other uniquely talented associates. Complicating matters, Martin (Garret Dillahunt), the businessman’s representative, forces himself into the group, supposedly to oversee the operation. Adding another layer of complexity is Scott’s daughter, who works at a refugee camp near the city and is searching for a missing friend, goes against her father’s wishes and joins the foray to zombie land. With their roles defined, the team ventures into a doomed LV, aware that there’s no turning back and that they’re in a race against both hordes of zombies and an imminent nuclear apocalypse.
Snyder’s Triumphant Return and Auteurship
Zack Snyder’s 2021 has been exceptionally fruitful, a remarkable comeback considering his retreat after the “Justice League” controversy and the tragic loss of his daughter. This is especially notable given the way Snyder’s films have been received over time, often met with harsh criticism – the supposed excess, bombast, and a perceived lack of irony (let’s not forget those biblical undertones and slow-motion moments he is so fond of). After finally releasing his vision for a four-hour director’s cut of a superhero epic, that was once mangled by studio interference, he journeys back to his origins. His debut film a remake of Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead”. From that debut to a dark era, to this new phase of affirmation, "Army Of The Dead expertly puts an entire filmography within quotations.
Army of the Dead cements Snyder’s status as a true auteur of old-school action cinema. Michael Bay might have once been a rival, but in recent years, “Bayhem” has become increasingly subdued, leaving Snyder to champion the style with full force. Snyder continues to push boundaries, portraying superheroes as if they were figures from the New Testament and reimagining zombies through a vivid, Morrissey/ZZ Top lens. There is no element of amateurism in the product, and instead is a work of enthusiasm from someone completely new to filmmaking.
Zombies as a Genre Construct for Deeper Exploration
For Snyder, zombies are primarily a vehicle for exploring genre conventions, as they were in Dawn of the Dead. The allegorical references that point to Bush-era politics in the debut, and parallels between Vegas being barricaded with walls and a Trump-era border wall are also included, which end up going no where. There are allusions made to the association between capital and militarism, which do not lead to exploration. Cinema’s exploitation of the zombie genre that began over 50 years ago (not the Jacques Tourneur, but Romero), there is no new territory. Snider switches gears to incorporate ironic winks to the audience, like inserting “Zombie” from the group.
Beyond the Surface: Socially Organized Zombies and Snyder’s Signature
Snyder refuses to restrict himself to youthful irony. He demonstrates sharpness and a proficiency in navigating tropes and themes. He develops several iterations of zombies, dividing them into levels, making some more active while others act during the day time. The setting has become the location of the zombies’ state, which gives rise to rites, castes, attempt at procreation.
Zack Snyder spends two and half hours in the realm of the two. The use of different camera lenses are used, episodes being mixed with music-style video editing (incorporating biblical, and Classical allusions). Michael Bay parallels can be made, not because of the action and explosions but the way that both fill each scene, which the simplest parts (In the particular case of one part heist, and one part Zombie horror flick). Some authors think Bay represents neo-baroque, its correct to say that it’s an artist who still keeps the flame of the style as perhaps one of the last formalist of unhinged blockbuster filmmaking. (Christopher doesn’t qualify here due to restraining himself).
The product from Snyder doesn’t even become of great deal of importance, his works that cover super heroes, zombies, and owls, are all aligned in one key element, that is them being a Zack Snyder film. This has lead his style that has become his trademark, his name and techniques. It may become comparable to like a “Made In China” type of tracksuit lookalike knockoffs, or that this trait leads someone to show the mark. Snyder’s brand will continue to be on the store shelves of stream service and the cinemas in the years to come. After the tragedy from losing his child, Snyder still directs reflections on that of Parenthood. In “Army of the Dead”, he finds some solace, which lead his toy-like characters including the zombies, that have given them all sensitivities and been brought into this world. He has found the new film close to reality, but also came down heaven, from the earlier Superhero directed work.