Braaaaiiiiiins!

[annuin]

Went and saw Dawn of the Dead with daskreestof last night while prez went bowling. Much fun. I haven't seen the original, so I can't compare the two... but I have to say I really liked it.

One thing I really loved were that the zombies were fast. Most other zombie movies I've seen, admittedly that's not huge amounts, but usually they have slo-mo zombies, which some how manage to catch up to you even if you're running full speed and they're just shuffling behind you (much like the cliché of the horror bad guy walking behind the running victim and still catching up too). These ones were like Olympic sprinters, which definitely makes them a much worse threat than they usually are and increases the suspense a lot too.

A very effective movie if you like this particular kind, and a lot of fun to boot :)

Now, there were only a few things that bugged me about this movie, or made me wonder at least... first of all, and only a little gripe, was the security guard CJ's reticence to let people take/use stuff from stores. When masses of people are dead and deranged, and you can see the end of the world happening on tv, why are you going to care about the stock of a few mall stores?

Also I didn't understand why they didn't go scouring stores for more weaponry... not everyone had a gun initially, wouldn't you at the very least go into a sporting goods store (which was present in the movie because Michael goes in to check that it's secure) and equip yourself with anything you could find there? A nice aluminium baseball bat for example? wicked_wish also pondered why people weren't equipping themselves with protective clothing once they figured out that bites transmitted it... especially if you were going to go for a cross-town drive through thousands of hungry zombies having clothing with more coverage and protection than say a singlet top might stop you getting bitten as easily.

Similar to the above is the fact that they end up on a sailboat, and nobody thinks to engage the sails? Even if none of you knows how to sail properly, surely you can at least get the sail down and figure out how to catch some breeze, and thereby saving precious resources like fuel.

And I like to ask the questions of why there were zombies, which isn't something that really gets answered, apparantly according to horror movie conventions (SF movies will give you a theory of origin). Now the only explanation of sorts you get in the movie is the lingering shot of the religious guy on tv talking about how when hell is full, the dead will walk the earth. Which could be a plausible explanation, but it leaves the movie open to one flaw... everyone who killed themselves or got killed before they turned zombie would not die either and should come back.

Plus how long would a reanimated corpse sustain itself? would it fall apart once the body rots away?

Okay, so I'm picky about stuff like that...

Comments

[onetime75.livejournal.com]

I saw this movie with Keith last nite, a lot of those plot holes make sense, how about the scenes during the credits when the suvivors get to the island and get attacked by the zombies? How did the Zombies get there?
As for the zombies being fast, well check out 28 days later, people consider them zombies in that film anyways, but i said the same thing to Keith, it seemed like the zombies were trying out for the Olympics.
All in all a fun and bloody pic, funny as hell, and a little better than the original which i recommend. The new one slightly differs, you'll see.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Well, considering the zombies also seemed to be functioning on the basis of some residual memory (which is the explanation I got for why they all gravitated to the mall) maybe they got into boats and ended up on the island? they did find a zombie in a small fishing boat after all.

That aside, I don't think the island was uninhabited as it looked like somewhere where people might have a vacation house or something, there was a small harbour area at least and it was a fairly substantial island, more than just a little spit of land. And if you weren't killed in an attack and merely sustained a bite there was an incubation time of anywhere from several hours to even a day or two (the pregnant woman lasted at least a day or so with a bite/scratch and others like the wheelbarrow lady lasted 5-6 hours), so all you need is a bitten person to get to the island (seeing as zombies didn't seem able to operate machinery/vehicles that would have gotten them there) and to then die, zombify and start mauling anyone else who was there. You couldn't really tell how many zombies came at them towards the end, it could have been just a dozen or maybe a lot more (though it did look like there were at least 20-30 or so).

And the plot holes didn't really bother me, but it was more things I noticed... things you (hope you) would think of if you were in that situation (weapons/protective gear). Some of the other things are just questions I ask myself because I like thinking stuff through. The "hell is full so the dead walk the earth" was the only major glaring flaw really, because then not just the contaminated ones should start rising from the dead... that is if you assumed that to be the reason they were coming back.

And yes, I've heard they run in 28 Days Later too, I haven't watched it yet, though I do have it here. The running thing is just a lot better than the shuffling stuff they do in things like Dead Alive/Braindead and Resident Evil, it really ups their threat level and makes them more scary.

But good stuff. Also a fairly tight movie pacing-wise, with good funny moments (I loved Steve's sarcasm).

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing how much people like this film. So maybe I'll go under cover of vinlander71 one weekend afternoon (so I have the evening to decompress before going to bed and having nightmares because I am a total coward). I'd like to see it before seeing the original, as all the reviews I've read of that talk about it being a very wicked satire on consumerism and racism and complain that the new version isn't a patch on the old one. So. Not good with gory. But could be talked into it IF I have decompression time...

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

If you're not good with gory I'm not sure I'd recommend this. Though it's not an all out gross fest like some zombie movies are... Dead Alive comes to mind where the main protagonist is wading ankle deep through blood, guts and bodyparts, though for all intents and purposes Dead Alive is also a comedy too, or at least is much more laughable than Dawn of the Dead is, which has funny moments, but more due to dialogue than gross-out situational humour.

As for the satire part, I suggest you read this post http://www.livejournal.com/users/wicked_wish/249590.html in which she addresses the anti-consumerism stuff as well as giving her thoughts on the movie. It's a good read at least.

But if you like horror/zombie movies, this one is good. I found it very effective as a horror movie... they didn't start doing the lame jokes or over the top camp that many movies do.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I take entirely the opposite approach to consumerism that she does - I do see it as something that people do habitually, self-destructively, and unthinkingly because it is an accepted part of the culture and "it's what people do" rather than as a response to a conscious urge to identify with a particular group.

Whether or not the film is as good as the original I do not know (though The Onion's AV Club slated it), but having got my courage up to see it and now being told it's prolly not good for Not-Good-With-Gore-Grrl, I'm all a-dither. Kill Bill was difficult in parts for me - the first scene I found so excrutiating that I thought I was going to faint/throw up - but once I thought of it as a comic book, and it became clear that there was An Actual Story, Actual Characters, and Dialogue involved, I was OK. Not one I'd see again and again, but it did make me want to see the second part.

It's hard being a quivering wreck, you know.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Upside it's zombies, so it's hard to see it as utterly believable, or at least that should be your mantra :)

Downside, the living humans are casualties too, and even though I'm not prone to quivering wreck-itis, some parts made me flinch too.

But I think most people get that, and it's part of the appeal of the horror movie... we love to be scared.