Army of the Dead

[Greg]

Viewing achievement: unlocked.

[Greg]

Ah, the dumbness. So much dumb. The movie is exactly what you would expect. Let's go kill a bunch of zombies in the most graphic way possibly in the most cinematically way possibly. Let the blood or goo splatter. Please leave your concerns about logic at the door. Which I mostly did. The biggest of which being why don't you just give us the combination to the safe. But let's not worry about quibbles.

Even if you do leave logic at the door. Even if you do want to see crimson explosions, the film is still really dumb. It doesn't help that Dave Bautista cannot act. His best role is still Drax the Destroyer because to Drax everything is literal and that works to how Bautista acts. Schwarzenegger can't really act either but he makes up for it with charm. Bautista doesn't even have charm. The not being actor thing doesn't help when he is given emotional scenes with his daughter and his former lover.

Every cliche in the book is on display. If you know the cliches, you won't be surprised by what happens. So, there aren't a lot of narrative surprises. There a couple, but not a lot. I think the best thing for me to do would be to watch the opening again because that's where the most fun happens. There is so much going on you get overwhelmed. There is a lot of goofy zombie stuff going on with zombie chorus girls and zombie Elvis's. But it all happens very quickly.

Kudos to Zach Snyder for being the director and the Director of Photography. Both are tough jobs and usually require two people. But not for Zach. Which unfortunately leads to some cinematic excesses and over use. The prime one being the use of very narrow depth of field. That means in a lot of shot everything in the shot is out of focus except for maybe the persons face or hand or something. But that technique should be a seasoning not the main course. And it's everywhere. Other note, it's 2 1/2 hours long. Mr. Snyder does like to let his scenes run.

Finally there is Tig Notaro. Tig plays the helicopter pilot. But she wasn't the first person in the role. Chris D'Elia was in the role. But he was creditably accused of sexual harassment. Snyder made the choice to go an reshoot Tig in the role to replace all the shots he already filmed with Chris. He didn't refilm the entire scenes, he just reshot them with Tig. I don't know if you can tell if you didn't know this tidbit, but I did. And she really doesn't blend in with the other actors and scenes. There is something off about her scenes.

There you have it. There were some bits that were enjoyable. I'm not going to remember this film by next week. But I might go do the opening again.

[Drunk Monk]

Luv Tig. She’s the 2nd best character in Disco after Michelle. But still, I have no intention of watching this, especially after Greg’s review. This just sounded bad from the get go but I do appreciate the confirmation here Greg.

[thatguy]

It doesn't help that Dave Bautista cannot act.

I just rewatched 007 Spectre over the weekend. I say rewatched, but I only remembered the opening sequence. Bautista is the heavy, but I don't recall him having any lines which is funny given how much screen time he has.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Forgot Drax was in that. My Spy has been in my queue forever but I’ll prolly never watch it.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

You were expecting Shakespeare? It's a zombie/action movie, not an Ibsen play with a Mensa chaser. It was fine. Whenever there was any father/daughter angst, I used my hi-tec solution to bad acting/dialog: The *fast-forward* button. Really, you all need to let tech work *for* you.

[Greg]

Wait, I thought Zach Snyder was the new Shakespeare.

I don't mind point and shoot movies. I just wish there weren't plot holes you could drive an armored convoy through.

[Drunk Monk]

Snyder lost me way back with Sucker Punch. I will eventually watch the Snyder cut of Justice League, but grudgingly despite my penchant for DC.

[Drunk Monk]

Feckin Zack

Zack Snyder Has Reworked His Kurosawa-Inspired ‘Star Wars’ Pitch Into a Non-‘Star Wars’ Idea
Posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2021 by Ben Pearson

A year after Disney purchased Lucasfilm and before we knew that J.J. Abrams would direct Star Wars: Episode VII, a report came out saying that director Zack Snyder (Justice League, Army of the Dead) was developing a Star Wars film that was inspired by Akira Kurosawa movies like Seven Samurai.

Snyder’s representatives denied the report at the time, but in a new interview, Snyder confirms that plans were being made for it back then and explained that it has since been reworked into a different, non-Star Wars-related idea that audiences may see one day.

In its initial stages, this Zack Snyder Star Wars movie would have not been part of the Skywalker saga. Instead, it would have been set in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi and told the story of a group of Jedi warriors going on a mission.

On the most recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder revealed that even though the project never ended up getting made at Lucasfilm, it’s not completely dead yet. “Yeah, we talked about it, but it never…I’ve been working on it, just away from the Star Wars universe, just on my own as a sci-fi thing,” he said. “It’s still a sci-fi thing, it’s the same story, it’s just kind of – let Star Wars be Star Wars. And the 11-year-old me still wants to make that. Now I just know how to, so maybe we’ll see that someday.”

When asked if his original pitch involved pre-established characters from the Star Wars mythology, he said it did not. “My idea was just: give me the keys and I’ll take her for a spin…it was that sort of middle Star Wars time, after they had done the prequels and before the sale. I was just like, ‘You know what? I can fix that,'” he said.

Snyder, of course, has a history of jumping into pre-existing universes on film, whether it was with his 2009 Watchmen adaptation, his remake of Dawn of the Dead, or his divisive DC superhero movies. I’m very curious about the alternate history scenario of what Lucasfilm might look and feel like right now if this project had been able to come to fruition. If a Seven Samurai-inspired movie came out around 2015 or 2016, The Mandalorian probably would not exist – at least in the same form. Does that mean that the StageCraft tech would also not exist, or would Jon Favreau have cooked that up with another team at a different company instead? Fascinating stuff to think about…

[thatguy]

Luv Tig. She’s the 2nd best character in Disco after Michelle. But still, I have no intention of watching this, especially after Greg’s review. This just sounded bad from the get go but I do appreciate the confirmation here Greg.

Tig is coming to the Rio:

Tig Notaro

Saturday, April 30th
Rio Theatre, 8:00 pm

Tig Notaro is an Emmy and Grammy nominated stand-up comedian, writer, radio contributor, and actor as well as a favorite on numerous talk shows, including “Ellen,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and “Conan.” Rolling Stone named her one of the "50 best stand-up comics of all time."

Notaro currently appears in Zack Snyder’s "Army of the Dead" and “Star Trek: Discovery”; she wrote and starred in the groundbreaking TV show “One Mississippi” and hosts an advice podcast, Don't Ask Tig as well as the documentary film podcast Tig and Cheryl: True Story.

Tickets on sale: Friday, February 4th at 12pm

--tv

[Drunk Monk]

Tempting. Thanks for the heads up.

But you shoulda posted it on the ST: Disco thread.

[thatguy]

But you shoulda posted it on the ST: Disco thread.

I was waffling on that. (No one says 'pancaking"...)

--tv