« Paint the Town Iceberg Red |
Main
| The Whitest Shade of Blue »
March 29, 2004
Review: Dawn of the Dead
We here at greenideas are huge fans of zombie movies. At least that's what we've been saying for a long time now. We have to add that qualifier since we haven't been a huge fan of any particular zombie movie in a long, long time. Sure there's the original Romero trilogy (better said, the first three parts of the as yet unfinished quadraology), Fulci's "Zombie," Peter Jackson's waaay pre-LOTR splatterfest, "Dead Alive," and, obviously, the "Evil Dead" films, which often get lumped into the zombie genre. These are all great films ("28 Days Later" might count, but the ending was really lame [as were the alternate ones on the DVD], so it's not really in the pantheon). It's because of movies like these that we can say that we're fans of zombie movies. We've had to take it on faith that, at some point, somebody would make another good one. In light of all of that, you can imagine that we were pretty nervous when it came time to go see the remake of "Dawn of the Dead." There was a lot riding on it, after all.
Not to leave the gentle reader in suspense any longer, we can say that the new "Dawn" met, and in most cases exceeded, all of our expectations. It was a great zombie movie, and a really good movie besides. We don't want to say too much about it, lest we give anything away, but here's what you need to know. Something is making the dead come back. The rules are, you get bitten, you die, then you come back and kill. This is happening all over the world, and it's an open question whether there's any place left on the planet to go. A few desperate souls hole themselves up in a mall to regroup and try to figure out a way to fend off the growing undead hordes.
Most of the parts were well-acted. Sarah Polley, Mekhi Phifer, and Ving Rhames are all really good. And the characters are generally pretty believeable, save for the obligatory "don't go in there! what are you, stupid?!" kinds of scenes. As in any horror film, however, some of the characters lack nuance, but this is as it should be. You really have to have the guy who's just an asshole, and can always be relied on to do the worst possible thing in a given situation. That's just a given, and we can't think of any good reason to break with such traditions.
As we mentioned the other day, there is one break from traditional zombie lore that might be a tad more controversial. Namely, the zombies in this movie run really fast. It makes sense, though, since the reanimation happens as soon as the decedent checks out, so there's no time at all for the body to decay, or for rigor mortis to set in. So, does it work? Yes. Oh god, yes. It adds so much to the genre that, even one zombie might be plenty to kill you tout suite, whereas it used to take a whole mess of them to overwhelm their victims. One zombie used to be a joke, as evidenced by the slapstick ways in which so many zombies in the original "Dawn" met their second deaths. This is certainly not the case anymore. The zombies of the new "Dawn" will be no one's comic relief. It just works. It's so much scarier this way. It does bring up an interesting question of whether we could even get scared of such a slow-moving monster these days. The modern zombie might be as much of a reflection of the zeitgeist as cell phones and "American Idol."
My, but we've gone on about this, haven't we? At any rate, the film is great--an instant classic of the genre. It has all of the gore you could want, some more than serviceable performances by both the living and the dead, and some moments of genuine emotional poignancy.
The only caveat we would add would be that this film is a remake of Romero's "Dawn" in name only. There are a few gems that survived from the original, but not many. Just don't expect the original, and you won't be disappointed.
So please, go see it. It's so very worth your time and money. Oh, and buy the Espers record.
Posted by matt at March 29, 2004 02:10 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.greenideasblog.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/112
Comments
Run fast? I just can't picture a zombie running fast. Guess I'll have to see it ...
Posted by: john at March 29, 2004 11:06 PM
A lot of these zombies are in pretty good shape, being so recently deceased. Some of them look pretty similar to the infected in '28 Days Later'--just angry, bloody people. Of course some of them are also missing pieces. They are zombies, after all.
Posted by: greenideas at March 30, 2004 04:17 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)