Review: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Sarah Polley wakes up one night to a neighbourhood girl suddenly appearing in her bedroom, and subsequently biting her husband and trying to bite her. Polley was completely unaware that a zombie outbreak had been spreading, and the people are all in a panic. Eventually Polley falls in with a group of survivors who head to the mall for refuge. With the zombie horde outside chomping at the bit to get inside and chomp at their bits, our ragtag group of survivors must hold strong. That’s not so easy once people start getting infected. Michael Kelly plays an a-hole mall security guard, Ving Rhames is a cop, Mekhi Pfifer is a guy whose wife is heavily pregnant, Jake Weber is an Average Joe, Ty Burrell is a sarcastic dick, and Matt Frewer and Lindy Booth later show up as a father and daughter.

Popular in some crowds, this 2004 remake of the 1978 George Romero undisputed classic from director Zack Snyder (“300”, “Watchmen”, “Man of Steel”) and screenwriter James Gunn (director of “Tromeo and Juliet”, “Slither”, and “Guardians of the Galaxy”) isn’t anywhere near what it’s cracked up to be. To be honest, I think zombie movies peaked with the original “Dawn of the Dead” and subsequent good zombie movies have been scant (“Day of the Dead”, “Zombieland”, the underrated “World War Z” and “Maggie”, and…nope, that’s about it for me). This one has a memorable opening ten minutes that unfortunately represents its high point. It’s really something, but it’s all downhill after that strong opener. The rest is mostly perfunctory and par for the undead course for the most part.

The film doesn’t have as much fun with the mall setting as the original, which is a shame. It’s a cute idea to play the one-hit wonder ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ as shopping mall muzak, but the zombie/consumer subtext is all gone. It also doesn’t help that the film is overpopulated. The original worked perfectly with far fewer characters, and some of the cast and characters here are more interesting than others. Basically substituting for Ken Foree, Ving Rhames brings talent, charisma, and mammoth presence to a role that isn’t especially interesting. Michael Kelly is always good value playing the token arsehole of the film, and he’s the best one of the bunch. Ty Burrell has a decent line in snarky sarcasm, but feels like a lesser version of what Kelly is already bringing. Sarah Polley I find a chilly presence on screen and sadly she’s our lead. I also think her character comes across as too battle-ready from the get-go, whereas at least Rhames’ character is actually a cop. I didn’t quite buy it with Polley. Meanwhile, I don’t see any need for the majority of the other characters at all. I mean, 40 minutes in and we’re being introduced to Lindy Booth and Matt Frewer, on top of already having the aforementioned characters, and those played by Mekhi Pfifer, Jake Weber (dull as dishwater), etc. It’s too many to adequately deal with, and Snyder deals with them less than adequately. I’m sorry, but there’s too many non-dead people here, and I’m not talking about the zombies. Thankfully things pick up quite a bit in the last 15-20 minutes which are kinda fun, but it’s the other 70 odd minutes that offer much ado about nothing. The cameos from stars of the original are a bit of fun, with Gaylen Ross at least getting name-dropped at a department store, and Ken Foree (the best actor from the original by far) delivering the immortal line you came to hear. For me the best one is makeup/FX guy Tom Savini (who played the leader of the scavengers in the original) advising people to shoot the zombies in the head. That was cute.

It’s an extremely good-looking film, as shot by Matthew F. Leonetti (“Commando”, “Red Heat”, “Hard to Kill”), with quite vibrant colour, if a little sun-drenched at times for my tastes. We also get some interesting overhead shots at times, which I liked. The music score by Tyler Bates (“300”, “The Darkest Hour”) is good too, at times reminding me a little of the original. I liked the bit of business where they start taking pot-shots at zombies who look like famous people to pass the time and thin out the herd. That was pretty amusing. Overpopulated or not, I also have to commend the filmmakers here for daring to give us two major arsehole characters, even if one is far more interesting than the other (through no fault of Burrell, who is always amusing).

There’s some interesting stuff here, just not in terms of character and nowhere near a patch on the original which still holds up, even with its sometimes raw technical aspects. This one’s just a standard issue zombie movie with a high-falutin label attached to it. Watch the original again instead, this one’s generic and pretty flat for long stretches.

Rating: C+