"That's a nice-a donut."

Friday, November 04, 2005


Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead was officially viewed as a remake to George Romero's 1978 classic about the living dead, and it even credits Romero for his original screenplay. But the two movies don't have a whole heckuva lot to do with each other, other than the common mall setting. Certainly plenty of devotees to Romero's version went into this update with great hesitation and trepidation; after all, remade films are generally quite inferior to the originals. Plus, there is rarely a good reason for actually releasing a remake (other than easy money financial reasons of course). "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But much to the surprise of many, however, Snyder's movie far exceeds expectations and is actually right on par with its big brother. In fact, it exceeds it in some aspects. The movie stands on its own, and is a very admirable addition to the growing list of very good zombie movies.

In a frantic opening ten minutes, nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) comes home from a long shift at the hospital, is greeted warmly by her husband, and then is soon scared out of her mind when her husband is mysteriously bitten by a young girl and becomes a flesh-eating zombie. After a terrifying car ride to get to a safe place, Ana finds herself teamed up with a police officer named Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a television salesman (Jake Weber), and a man and his very pregnant wife. They end up at a shopping mall, with some overzealous security guards and a few other lost souls. The zombies don't give up easily though, and as the outside world crumbles around them, the mall refugees fight to survive another day. A few quick cut shots after the end credits begin provides a hint as to the characters fate. I thought that was unnecessary, since often an open-ended conclusion is better as it allows the audience to think and to form their own stories.

The movie is fast moving, filled with wit, humor, and plenty of gore. It doesn't really make any attempt to serve as a sort of social metaphor like Romero's films have done, but it doesn't need to. It's simply a fun, thrilling story with plenty of blood and guts. There is little time to breathe and reflect on the surreal situation that the characters have found themselves in. Polley is commanding in what is more or less the lead role; I'd really like to see her get more noteworthy roles in future movies. Rhames also gives his typical butt-whipping act, and there are no complaints about the other solid cast members.

I do feel that the storyline with the couple expecting a baby is rather weak, but the sight of a zombie baby more than makes up for it. Dawn even accomplishes the feat of creating empathy for a character (Andy, the gun shop owner across the street) that has little screen time, other than a few distance shots from one roof to another.

There may be some Romero devotees who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the quality of this, or maybe they're just living in the past. And they have one good point, there wasn't a good reason to make this. But this isn't just a candy store update (Van Sant's Psycho, anyone?). There are plenty of original ideas here, and quite a lot to like. The ironic thing is that this Dawn of the Dead far surpassed any of Romero's previous films at the box office. In fact, the success of this (coupled with other very good recent zombie films like 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead) helped to revitalize the genre and even finally led to the financial backing and completion of Romero's next Dead film (2005's Land of the Dead). This was a very impressive feature debut for Snyder. I look forward to seeing where he goes next.

The Verdict: B+.

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