Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald
Number One Son watched Zack Snyder‘s ARMY OF THE DEAD with me and afterwords commented, “If these days you have an opportunity to create a piece of popular entertainment and have a choice of making a movie or a video game, I’m beginning to think that it makes more sense to make a video game.“
While I'm not a serious long time gamer like he is, after watching ARMY OF THE DEAD I see his point. As entertaining and exciting as AOTD is, the plot is simplistic, it’s unoriginal, and we spend a lot of time with our protagonists running around inside and outside shooting at zombies.
One thing missing from the movie is the sense of control you get with a video game -- you have constant choices to make and one wrong split-second decision can cost you dearly. With a movie you're just a passive observer along for the ride.
True, sometimes that might be all you might want as an audience member. But I do wonder about what new young creative types must think when choosing a path for storytelling – movies or interactive games?
ARMY Of The DEAD, despite its high entertainment value as a summer popcorn movie, in reality might be more of a death rattle for this genre of movies.
Review copyright © 2021 by Dennis D. McDonald
