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A zombie plague spreads across the world… Just like in the original, a group of survivors take refuge in a shopping mall, and also like in the original, the mall is eventually overran with zombies. An added problem for our heroes is that (gasp)… the zombies can run… cue ominous music…
When I first heard about this movie I was less than thrilled. Based on all of the internet rumors, this movie sounded like it was going to be worse than holding in a fart during a first date. However, I found that I actually liked this movie. The gore and makeup effects are first rate all the way through, and there’s enough exploding zombie heads to please any zombie fan. I was hesitant about the idea of a running zombie at first, but the more I saw of this movie, the more I grew to be a fan of the running zombie. Running zombies trap the characters in the mall more so than in the original. As well, running zombies would also have sped up the spread of the zombie plague, meaning that the world would have fallen apart as quickly as it did in this movie.
The remake of Dawn of the Dead is what most horror movies should stride for. It’s exciting, suspenseful, and downright creepy in spots. The use of a zombie baby here is excellent in its creepiness, where as it was used for comical purposes in Dead Alive (AKA Braindead). There is also moments when we don’t honestly know who is going to survive certain situations the characters find themselves in. This sort of uncertainty is a necessity in any horror movie.
As exciting, suspenseful, and creepy as this movie is, the characterization and plot are not without their flaws. Some the characters are just not given enough screen time for the viewer to ever care about them. The reason for this failing is that there are too many characters in this movie. I can understand wanting to have more than the four characters in the original, but I think the director, Zack Snyder, should have cut out some of the lesser important characters. My biggest problem with the plot is the decision the characters make to leave the mall. I didn’t mind them planning on saving Andy, a gun shop owner trapped across the street and also a brilliant idea for a character, but the decision to go to the dock and take Steve’s boat just doesn’t make any sense to me. They’re safe in the mall and have enough supplies to last a long time, so why would any rational person want to leave? The mall is eventually overrun with zombies though, so their decision to leave becomes irrelevant. However, the mall is only overrun with zombies because of Steve’s dickery… man, I hate that guy…
Now for my biggest problem with remake of Dawn of Dead, which is also the reason the movie loses a whole Bub off of its rating. This movie is a terrible remake. None of the characters from the original are present in any way. The closest is Ving Rhames as Kenneth, who is a police officer and shares some similarities with the character of Peter from the original. As well, the social commentary from the original is no where to be found. It could be said that the characters do get caught up in the materialism of having everything they could want in the mall, but the director doesn’t ever have the characters deal with this other than having them die grisly deaths. I’m not saying that I expected a scene by scene remake, but I would have liked to have seen more similarities between the two movies than just that there are zombies and the characters hide in a mall.
Had the makers of this movie called it something else other than Dawn of the Dead, this would have been a 5 Bub movie. They could easily have said that this movie was a tribute to Dawn of the Dead and called it something else, and I would have been even happier with this great movie. I do know though that the marketing is easier for a zombie movie when it can claim to be connected to one of the greatest movies of its genre. I also know that the money these movies make is the margin that their success is measured by, so I can understand why they probably would have laughed at anyone who suggested changing the name of the movie because it wasn’t enough like the original. The remake of the Dawn of the Dead is an awesome zombie movie, but a not so great remake. However, I would recommend it to any horror movie fans.
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