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Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Zack Snyder


Zack Snyder has a knack for knowing exactly what an audience expects to see coming into a movie. This reworking of the George Romero classic is an amazing piece of cinematic work: the movie is beautiful, it is one of the cleanest looking movies I have seen in a while; the movie doesn't forget about its roots, there are tons of cameo's from actors of the original; the movie is a perfect zombie film, and does a great job of making its own niche in a genre that has gone off of the deep-end.

The movie has the greatest opening sequence of any horror movie; the beginning of the film could stand on its own as a short film and it would blow most zombie movies right out of the water. The movie starts following a woman having a  tough day at the hospital, and the  reason, unbeknown to her there is a frigging Zombie Apocalypse is going on out side. We don't have to know any back story, we don't have to know why there are zombies popping upeverywhere, it just happens and Zack Snyder knows that this is what people are coming to this movie to see.

The movie is about a small pocket of survivors that take up shelter in a... slightly abandoned mall. Together they all have to figure out what their next move will be, and that is really what I liked about this movie, there is a ton of room for character development via the way each individual deals with the undead situation. You get to see these "survivors" holing up and making the mall into their own private community so the storyline is pretty different from the original but I think that it does it justice.

Accompanying the cool storyline is a spectacular soundtrack. The music is done by Tyler Bates who has also provided music for movies like 300 and Watchmen, along with Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects, Halloween, and Halloween 2. The music provides a perfect sonic backing for a really fun movie montage in the middle of this horrific ordeal, which I find very humorous.

There are a few problems with the film and I found myself loosing interest around the one hour mark. The movie does a great job up until that point and then I start to feel like I am watching an over produced video game. I found myself not caring for the characters as much as I should have at that point. I still really like the movie it just gets kind of... blah. Also I don't like the sprinting zombies idea. I hate that.

The movie is a visual orgasm. The gore is great and the humor is there, it just falls a little in the end.

You can take your ass over to the Quality Inn if it's still there, Shaq!

S!D

  • Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Tom Savini all make cameo appearances in this movie. They were all in the original. 
  • The WGON helicopter from the beginning of the movie is the same chopper used in the original movie.  
  • They never use the word Zombie in the film.


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