Saturday, September 24, 2005

Land of the Dead

cast: Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper
Image hosted by Photobucket.com
The good: enjoy
The bad: the ending
I have always enjoyed zombie-based movies, and The Land of the Dead is no exception. Its better than the first Resident Evil, but I found Dawn of the Dead to be better. Without comparing it to other zombie-fests, the film becomes just another one of them.

Directed by legendary horror filmmaker George Romero, The Land of the Dead features a world where, unexplainably, the dead have risen back to life, forcing the still living to adopt a secluded way of life in various outposts scattered around tactical locations in the world. The film begins a few years after the initial wave of this zombie outbreak. Riley (Baker), the leader of the expedition group of an outpost -- they are the ones tasked to collect food and supplies from the markets and stores of zombie-infested towns -- and Cholo (Leguizamo), his second-in-command, returns from a seemingly routine expedition. Riley, however, notices that something seems rather strange about the "stenches" -- they have become more intelligent. It's not long before the zombies decide to attack the outpost, showing the ability to communicate, use tools, and work as a team.

The film is enjoyable because the zombies are scaringly convincing. Their representation, however, in the film is inconsistent. During the first parts of the film, they move like the traditional portrayal of zombies in films -- slow, stiff, somewhat robotic. But later on, George Romero seems to have borrowed the running and amoking zombies from Dawn of the Dead and casted them in this film. Nevertheless, the zombies doesn't do much in terms of scare factor, and to be honest the film itself isn't really scary. The film is more actiony than scary.

The movie does tackle some seemingly important issues that the world may someday need to address. The denizens of the world in the film find comfort and safety behind their electrified fences and have decided to live in a illusory life (they even use the zombies as amusement tools). They see no point, or have not considered, braving the world out there looking for a solution. Should problems be faced, or ignored?

Land of the Dead is a triumph of modern filmmaking with its great zombie visuals and abundance of gunfire and action. It is a failure, however, of George Romero's very own creation -- the horror genre. (3/5)

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