Most of the people who don't like this movie can be grouped into two categories. One, the people who saw the original Day of the Dead and think that because this one isn't the same it sucks assholes all day long. And Two, the people who went to "Dawn of the Dead" expecting deep character development and plot.
For the people in group one, there is no help. My advice to them is to go rent the original or buy the DVD and leave me alone.
For the people in group two, let me just say this:
As far as I'm concerned, if you go to a ZOMBIE movie - that is, a movie about dead people that get back up, unlike in real life, and eat people - you should expect to see zombies. Preferably lots of them, endlessly marching on the remaining human population. They should be scary not in some psychological sense, as in "The Shining", but in the visceral sense that they are fucking dead people walking around and eating living people.
This is why 28 Days Later failed me. The utter lack of zombies, and the focus on the incredibly hackneyed "people are people's most dangerous enemy, not aliens/monsters/robots/etc." Ho fucking hum. If I wanted to see Michael J. Fox's "Casualties of War" with a few zombies instead of VC, I would have lit up a blunt and watched said movie through dirty glasses.
I want to see hundreds, if not thousands, of mindless, bloodthirsty freaks unrelentingly attacking a small contingent of survivors and for said survivors to be at least relatively smart, such that their first thoughts are say... oh, I dont know, how about survival? I want to see them arm themselves as best they can, establish a functional pecking order and go to work escaping/fighting/surviving their way through the movie. The conclusion at the very end, whether or not they survive, is last on my list of important things. If I'm bored to tears by being forced to watch endless dialog for an hour or more, with nary a zombie in sight, I don't care what happens at the end. If I'm kept at the edge of my seat by scene after ever-lovin' scene of gun-blastin', chainsaw rippin', butane tank explodin', skull-bustin', zombie-baby screamin' excitement... well, let me tell you I'll be happy regardless of whether or not those folks live or die because either way, I got my rocks off on the way.
"Aliens", anyone?
That the end of DotD, during the credits (which is even cooler), was a well produced riff on 28 Days Later (IMO, by being in DV) that perfectly pinched off the grim vision the movie portrayed from minute one, was just the cherry on the cake.
Posted by Matt at March 22, 2004 10:30 AMThere was a great comment on aint it cool that was something like, "Everone knows that zombie dragons can't run during the daytime!!!"
Kinda puts into perspective the whole nerd-centric focus. Zombies aren't real. They are make-believe. So there is no factual basis for judging their abilities, just subjective experiences by geek-peers.
Consider the change of how vampires are percieved from Bela Lugosi's Dracula or the old Nosferatu, and Blade. Personally, I like Blade more than Dracula...
Posted by: Matt at March 24, 2004 04:49 PMZOMBIE'S CAN NOT FUCKING RUN!!
"Horror" movies these days, shesh!
Posted by: d0g_p00p at March 24, 2004 01:57 PMFuck YES!!! They got my $9 and they'll get it again, sometime this week cause stupidly enough I walked out when the credits started rolling.
DOH!
Posted by: Paul at March 22, 2004 02:52 PM