Fresh off the dark and four-hour-long Snyder Cut, Zack Snyder decided to go in a completely different direction. He went with a colorful explosive horror action movie. There is only one word to describe it. Fun. The film is very much an in-your-face action-comedy with colorful explosions and dark red gore splashing everywhere. Hey, it’s ok though, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

The plot of Army of the Dead revolves around a zombie outbreak on the Las Vegas strip. The Las Vegas area becomes closed off, and a nuke is headed its way to destroy the threat once and for all. Then a bunch of robbers lead by Scott Ward(Dave Bautista) attempt to steal 200 million dollars hidden in a vault underneath the casinos.

The cinematography was very fantastic. The film was full of slow-motion guns blazing shots that made every single character look bad-ass. For a horror film, the Army of the Dead is very colorful. It gives it an amusing touch and makes the movie much more enjoyable to watch.

The biggest flaw of the film is it has a massive pacing problem. It is a 2-hour, 30-minute movie that goes through stretches of feeling like the slowest movie ever as well as the fastest. It really could have used some better editing that would have allowed it to be just a fun murder joyride all the way through. The movie also struggled with creating meaningful relationships. I was not really invested in the characters emotions more by how they reacted to certain scenarios.

The best part of this film is still easily the characters. Dave Bautista is increasingly becoming a fan favorite inside Hollywood action movie scenes, and he carries another fantastic movie. On top of Dave Bautista’s performance, the supporting cast did not disappoint. The duo of Dieter(Matthias Schweighöfer) and Vanderohe(Omari Hardwick) was absolutely hilarious in every single scene they were in together. Every character served its purpose amazingly and created a hilarious comedic team.

For horror fans, this Army of the Dead isn’t scary. It has a few jump scares, but it really isn’t scary. Yet, I think all the horror fans will enjoy the massive amount of gore in this film. It isn’t just everywhere; it is also disgusting. It makes the viewer cringe at a head flying off a body, and because of this, I think horror fans will still enjoy this movie.

Overall, Army of the Dead is a movie best enjoyed with your friends. As the COVID pandemic is coming to a close, once you are vaccinated, it’s time to grab your friends and laugh over a good movie, ironically, about a zombie pandemic.