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So, I saw Land of the Dead.
Thank you George, for bringing zombies to the world!!
One can assert that George Romero invented the zombie genre as we know it today. Of course, there were other zombie movies before Night of the Living Dead. Mostly though, these dealt with African tribes and Voudon ritual and while scary, did not really bump up against contemporary society. Putting zombies in America, and especially someplace like rural Pennsylvania makes zombies much more terryfying than they would be otherwise. One could logically assume that such would be the case this time, as Land of the Dead is set "today" in a city with a lot of rich people separated by plenty of poor people.
This movie does some things very well. There is a solid plot, plenty of excellent gore, compelling characters and lots of shit blowing up. George makes great strides in both the development of zombies, and in the progression of society (breaking down and the weak being preyed upon by the powerful). LotD also advances the concept of the "lead zombie" which is another distinctly Romeroesque convention.
My problem? It wasn't scary. We never got to know any of the characters well, and most of the leads were never in any serious jeopardy. In fact, most of them live all the way to the end. Of course, Romero's zombie films don't normally have a lot of character development, and in a way, they joke thier way out of having people give back stories. Therefore, it's a directorial choice and not an oversight. So who am I to second guess George freaking Romero?? The problem though is that there was very little in terms of actual suspense. You pretty much knew when someone was being set up to die, and there were no surprises. No one bad lived, every negative move was consequenced. So in a way, it was the most moral of his films...or rather, it would be if there wasn't pot smoking and boozing in every non-combat scene.
I had a smallish problem with the zombies being so physically strong. Smarter makes sense, although I'd have liked to hear his ideas on why this progression occurs. With Bub (Day) he is being taught to fire the gun, so he learns it. We see the butcher with the meat cleaver so we assume he knows how to swing it. So all of the progression of zombie communication, memory, and development is supported by the other films. But logically, zombies should get physically weaker, not stronger.
High points include cameo's by Tom Savini, Simon Peeg and Ed Wright. Other high points include the clever zombie proofed vehicles, the use of fireworks as a distraction, and the tasty frozen cherry coke I enjoyed during the film.
Low points include the 20 fucking minutes of trailers and commericals, Dennis Hopper not actually getting torn apart by zombies or poor people--either would have been better than quick and painless. The soundtrack did not stick out as memorable, but that's also on par for a Romero zombie fest. And I was the only person tonight who dressed up or did zombie makeup. Asia was beautiful as always but her accent kept busting through.
Still and all though, a new Romero zombie movie is like a holiday!! Celebrate it, Fuckers!
And so it is, I remain...
You are a Romero Zombie.You walk the earth because
there is no more room in hell. You feed on
living flesh - anything you can get your
decaying hands on. You can be killed by damage
to your rotting brain.
What kind of Zombie are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
One can assert that George Romero invented the zombie genre as we know it today. Of course, there were other zombie movies before Night of the Living Dead. Mostly though, these dealt with African tribes and Voudon ritual and while scary, did not really bump up against contemporary society. Putting zombies in America, and especially someplace like rural Pennsylvania makes zombies much more terryfying than they would be otherwise. One could logically assume that such would be the case this time, as Land of the Dead is set "today" in a city with a lot of rich people separated by plenty of poor people.
This movie does some things very well. There is a solid plot, plenty of excellent gore, compelling characters and lots of shit blowing up. George makes great strides in both the development of zombies, and in the progression of society (breaking down and the weak being preyed upon by the powerful). LotD also advances the concept of the "lead zombie" which is another distinctly Romeroesque convention.
My problem? It wasn't scary. We never got to know any of the characters well, and most of the leads were never in any serious jeopardy. In fact, most of them live all the way to the end. Of course, Romero's zombie films don't normally have a lot of character development, and in a way, they joke thier way out of having people give back stories. Therefore, it's a directorial choice and not an oversight. So who am I to second guess George freaking Romero?? The problem though is that there was very little in terms of actual suspense. You pretty much knew when someone was being set up to die, and there were no surprises. No one bad lived, every negative move was consequenced. So in a way, it was the most moral of his films...or rather, it would be if there wasn't pot smoking and boozing in every non-combat scene.
I had a smallish problem with the zombies being so physically strong. Smarter makes sense, although I'd have liked to hear his ideas on why this progression occurs. With Bub (Day) he is being taught to fire the gun, so he learns it. We see the butcher with the meat cleaver so we assume he knows how to swing it. So all of the progression of zombie communication, memory, and development is supported by the other films. But logically, zombies should get physically weaker, not stronger.
High points include cameo's by Tom Savini, Simon Peeg and Ed Wright. Other high points include the clever zombie proofed vehicles, the use of fireworks as a distraction, and the tasty frozen cherry coke I enjoyed during the film.
Low points include the 20 fucking minutes of trailers and commericals, Dennis Hopper not actually getting torn apart by zombies or poor people--either would have been better than quick and painless. The soundtrack did not stick out as memorable, but that's also on par for a Romero zombie fest. And I was the only person tonight who dressed up or did zombie makeup. Asia was beautiful as always but her accent kept busting through.
Still and all though, a new Romero zombie movie is like a holiday!! Celebrate it, Fuckers!
And so it is, I remain...
You are a Romero Zombie.You walk the earth because
there is no more room in hell. You feed on
living flesh - anything you can get your
decaying hands on. You can be killed by damage
to your rotting brain.
What kind of Zombie are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
no subject
But yeah, it wasn't very scary... Here I am lying in bed and I'm NOT scared shitless that there's going to be an undead face pressed against my window if I should look at it. And that's even with the mice scratching in the ceiling.
Ah well. I didn't pay for my ticket, and I'm not really complaining. It was a fun night out.
no subject
Even if the ending was much more hopeful than you'd think. What's all this nonsense about co-existing with zombies. Live and let live never applies to cannibals, sorry.
no subject
And as for the zombies being stronger...they did pretty much the same shit in Dawn Of The Dead and Day Of The Dead...All three have shown them getting stronger since the first, and more intelligent.
no subject
As for the strength, I still can't wrap my head around them getting physically stronger. The intelligence makes sense...use of tools and reasoning and all that is fine. But they are just so damn strong in this one!
Although I guess in Dawn there were a lot of zombies lunging and wrestling with people.
no subject
no subject
However, that is not George Romero's doing. ;-)
no subject
*SPOILERS and yeah-
For one they used a ton of CG for the gore, which isn't really bad, but I figured Romero would have stuck with make-up effects and stuff like that. CG just sucked me out of the feel of a Romero zombie film, granted this one is 25 years later than the last, but still.
Also the fact it was 25 years later, I kind of expected a better movie than was delivered. I thought maybe with all that time that he would have crafted the mother of all zombie movies.
*spoiler(maybe)* Big Daddy annoyed the hell out of me. I understood and tolerated evolving zombies because that was set up in the other films, but BD evolved so rapidly and trained all the others so fast that it got annoying. Everytime he screamed I wanted him to get shot in the face, and how was he able to wade through waves of bullets while every zombie around him dropped to the ground and he emerged unharmed. I know there is suspension of disbelief and everything but small details like that would have made it so much cooler.
While I enjoyed the movie, when I stop to think back about it, as unique as it was, it still reeks of B action/horror that you'd probably pull off a straight to video rack. The story while it moved the movie along, is actualy kind of minimal and retarded when thinking about. Compared to DotD origional which is so epic it is awesome, NotLD and Day even though their stories may be waffer thin, they were presented with importance and seriousness that really gave them a unique feel. Land was just sort of there. While I still enjoyed it, I have to say I was let down in the long run.
Re: *SPOILERS and yeah-
The fact that Riley showed them mercy at the end is just stupid. We can't treat the undead with humanity until they no longer want to eat us alive.
Truthfully, I didn't really notice the CGI stuff, maybe because it was so dark. I liked the stuff that happened in shadow. And overall the zombie makeup looked better than it ever has. But yeah, that's not that important to the film overall. I can excuse crappy looking zombies but I can't excuse showing them mercy.
I'm still undecided about zombies vocalizing on purpose. Max Brooks says they can't do that. But he's a far cry from GR. But yeah, I had the feeling people weren't going to buy that, on the whole.
Re: *SPOILERS and yeah-
Re: *SPOILERS and yeah-
I saw Night of the Living Dead when I was about 12 and it fucked me up for life.
no subject
Excellent!
CJ
no subject