Zack Snyder has already made one very enjoyable zombie movie thanks to his Dawn of the Dead remake, which also served as his feature film debut. And over the last seventeen years, he’s honed his skills almost exclusively in the realm of glossy big budget blockbusters, so naturally, expectations are pretty high for Netflix’s Army of the Dead, where he gets the chance to combine the two.
The first trailer didn’t reveal much in terms of plot specifics or any extended looks at the action sequences, but it’s clearly very much a Zack Snyder movie. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is entirely dependent on personal preference, and while the filmmaker typically leaves a lot to be desired in the story and character departments, you can’t fault his visual flair or knack for worldbuilding.
A high concept zombie heist thriller with ties to Area 51 is certainly bonkers enough to generate plenty of interest, and a new image has now been released which makes it pretty clear that Army of the Dead is going to feature a lot of guns, both of the weaponized and bicep variety, as you can see below.
The film follows Dave Bautista’s character, who leads a crack team of thieves into a Las Vegas that’s been overrun by the undead in order to stage a casino heist. That’s a fantastic premise based on nothing but how insane it is, and hopefully Snyder doesn’t fall into the familiar pitfall of treating everything with the utmost seriousness, because something like Army of the Dead desperately needs to be treated with a relatively light touch and an overriding sense of fun to wring the most out of its undoubted potential.
