Dawn of the Dead - 03/21/04

Written by: George A. Romero (1978 script), James Gunn

Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly

Official Site

I'm not sure why George Romero decided that his zombies were going to be slow moving creatures. Tom Savini made the same choice in his remake of Night of the Living Dead. But, man, zombies nowadays... they are really, really, really pissed off. And fast!

I was very impressed with this remake because they stuck with the plot, and made their own film around it. This wasn't one of those remakes where they stick to the original plot, original characters, create a world that we've already seen, except with new, contemporary actors.

The basic plot: survivors hold themselves up in a mall, surrounded by the living dead. Check.

That's it. That's the only thing you will find that is comparable in both films. Not the characters, not the zombies.

Before I get into the review, I will say that there were some good homages to the original, including Tom Savini, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger all made guest appearances in the film. Also, the truck with the survivors in the film is the same trucking company (B.P.) used in the original. The WGON Traffic Copter makes an appearance. Thought that was cool too.

Ok, that's it for the homages.

I'm not sure why these zombies aren't like the zombies from other zombie films. Boy, that's 3 zombie's in one sentence. These were more like the infected from 28 Days Later.... They were quick and ruthless. This is where one of the largest problems of the film presents itself.

If we take a look at Romero's original film, the zombies are slow moving, feeding machines. They are traveling back to the mall because of their instincts, and also because of the prospects of food. They can't break through the doors, they can't rally themselves to attack the humans. They move too slow and too clumsily to catch them... all of this makes for the two SWAT guys and their companions to use their brains, their speed and their weapons to barracade the living dead out of the mall. It also makes them realize that they need to destroy all of the zombies in the mall and store their corpses in the meat lockers, so that the survivors won't have to deal with the decay.

Ok. Very cleverly written. For 1978. See, but this is 2004 and the pace of the world, let alone the pace of films that have been coming out over the last twenty years, is much quicker. The zombies, for instance, are getting super pissed and super fast. They can break down doors, walls, glass... anything.

Herein lies the first problem with the logic of the film. With, literally, thousands of zombies... and only a few survivors with shotguns... it just didn't add up. They were outnumbered by a mass of crazed lunatics with, one could consider, super human strength, since they feel nothing. Bullets, except in the head, hardly effect them... so we get an updated movie and we lose the logic. Not a terrible consequence, but you can see now why Romero chose to have his zombies slow and stupid, and not fast and ravenous.

I think James Gunn wrote a decent update. He kept some of the fun from the first film, but certainly not the majority of it, which is strange. I find that the commercialism that was satired in the first film would have worked quite well in this day and age... and at a running time of 100 minutes, there was certainly room for it in the film. I don't think it would have slowed the pace down much... I think, just as with the original, the horror audience is built in, especially over the past few years. With more films like House of 1000 Corpses, Session 9, Cabin Fever, Freddy VS. Jason and, unfortunately, House of the Dead, the horror genre is becoming more and more revitalized, thank god.

His first feature was Tromeo and Juliet in 1996. He would go on to write the script for the successful Scooby-Doo in 2002 (along with the sequel). A halfway strange choice for writing this film, though he does have his roots in horror. I'm just trying to figure out how in the hell he got to write Scooby-Doo... weird.

I have no idea where they might have found director Zack Snyder, but it seems he's a fan of film. I'm not sure if he was passionate about the script, the project, or just doing a feature, but he took the script and ran with it. There were some very cool scenes and shots... this could have been a film that directed itself, with no style, just relying on the storyline... but a lot of the film works. He's probably a music video director... yeah, that's it.

I am a HUGE fan of DP Matthew Leonetti. He's shot osme great films in the past, including Poltergeist, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (how many times did he say 'We have to do that scene over, Phoebe!), Weird Science, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Red Heat, Dead Again, Demolition Man, Strange Days, Star Trek: First Contact and Insurrection and this years The Butterfly Effect. He's very capable... and I think that Snyder was in very good hands.

All in all, I was impressed with this film. The effects are top notch, the characters are cliched but fleshed out fairly well. The pace is good. The film looks very good... again, it's different from the original, which I appreciate... but I think that the script was written and not completely thought out. You guys can get on me about being too logical when it comes to a zombie film... but look at the original and see how they dealt with problems... and then look at the new film and tell me that they stood a chance inside that mall like that.

But, again, that's just me.