I would like to subtitle this post “That’s enough, George Romero.”
I don’t even really need to worry about spoilers, do I? Same shit happens in every single Romero movie. Zombies kill almost everybody. The story-line is so insignificant and extraneous. Basically two families are a-fussin’ and a-feudin’ over how to deal with the zombie population inhabiting/invading their island. Okay now you’re up to speed. That’s all you need to know.
I had such low expectations for this movie. Romero peaked with Dawn of the Dead – I don’t think anybody will argue that. Day of the Dead was good, but couldn’t capture what made Dawn so fantastic (I still say Dawn of the Dead is the best zombie movie ever made). Then Land of the Dead. I thought that sucked pretty hard…until Diary of the Dead came out, and I realized that it COULD get worse. Infinitely worse. Surprisingly, Survival of the Dead was not nearly as bad as Diary of the Dead.
One thing I want to say is that Romero should be embarrassed by the shameless Apple plug, as the kid calls a laptop a “stupid PC” then whips out his iPod Touch (it could have been an iPhone, but it looked too thin) and says something ridiculous like “now THIS is cool.” Seriously, George? I’m not even going to call you Mr. Romero anymore because you’ve shattered any respect for you I once had. I’ll get more into that in a moment.
Aside from that, there were things I definitely appreciated about this movie. It didn’t beat you over the head with the social commentary like Diary of the Dead did (“If you don’t film it, it didn’t happen!” Seriously, if you missed that, you need to hit yourself in the face with a brick because you are retarded), and thus I appreciated the message much more. It isn’t even all that clear until the last 30 seconds of the movie, and it’s easy to ignore it and just focus on the superficial violence and splatter.
However, the “superficial violence and splatter” was just gratuitous garbage. The movie is far too serious (not campy like Dawn of the Dead) in its examination of “the bad guy” to then see a zombie’s head ablaze from taking a flare to the chest. The special effects were on par with one of those terrible SyFy movies that I love for being so terrible and low budget, but it didn’t fit at all in Survival of the Dead. It was terrible. It was embarrassing. Don’t even get me started on the horse riding zombie. And what, zombies don’t eat people anymore? Seriously? No, this is best forgotten by everyone.
George, you are no longer the master of the zombie movie, and as far as I’m concerned nobody has taken your crown yet. You just abandoned it. There’s a reason you aren’t getting a decent budget for these movies – you just don’t have it anymore. And that’s a shame, because you obviously didn’t have a huge budget for Dawn of the Dead and you managed to turn that into cinematic gold. With every single new “…of the Dead” movie you put out, you trample and kill whatever respect I had left for you. I suppose I have to give you some kind of credit, seeing as how this was better than Diary of the Dead, but I honestly feel like you’d have to try pretty damn hard to make it worse. Diary of the Dead was MAYBE a 3/10, and I’d give Survival of the Dead 5/10. Just stop now, okay? Just stop while you’re KIND OF ahead. Just stop.
I'll be honest, I cried a little bit watching this movie. No, it wasn't because I fell for the cliched storylines but my skpetical, bitter heart softened watching her cinematic hero prove that he's only a mortal after all.
ReplyDeleteThe horse riding zombie was ridiculous. I kept thinking, "She's been dead for how long and riding on the horse continously? Who feeds the horse? Why hasn't the horse died by now?" I did think it was clever how Romero tied in the army to the first movie's footage but that was the only props I could give him.
Eddie, not sure if you knew the Day of the Dead we watched is not what Romero had originally written. Due to budgeting, he had to do drastic rewrites and it wasn't the story he had envisioned or really wanted. The original also included an island, factions feuding and the military (I think it might still be up on some horror sites). From what I remember reading on the web years ago, this story may have evolved from what he had intended for Day of the Dead---which makes me doubly sad for him for this film.
So I didn't hate this film as much as I loathed Diary of the Dead. But, I liked Land of the Dead better (don't get me started on that piece of shit movie either). Its a small step up. I think he's run out of ideas or things to say. Romero has signed a 3 novel publishing deal for zombie stories. So if you think his zombie movies are over, I doubt it.
My vote: in agreement with 5/10. Romero is still better than the other crap I've seen but the master is losing his touch.
If you're interested in reading Romero's original script for Day of the Dead, here you go. If he had been able to film it his way, I think these sequels would have been stronger or even never made.
ReplyDeleteHis original ending had the end titles "The End (I Promise).
http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/dayofthedead.txt
I agree that this movie was pretty stupid, although the final scene of the two warring Irish zombies firing their empty guns at each other was oddly poignant.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the zombie kids were cool.
Wow, am I the only one who kind of enjoyed "Land of the Dead"?
LOL Lisa. You're not the only one. I knew lots of people when it came out who enjoyed it. I saw it for free during a pre-screening and I was so pissed. I can't even imagine how angry I would have been had I paid to see it.
ReplyDelete