I'm surprised by the number of people who call themselves zombie fans who are completely ignorant of everything prior to the 2000s. I can only assume that these are younger fans who've never seen the first wave of modern zombie movies, popular in the late 1960s through the 1970s. They were generally low budget, with slow pacing, and, yes, slow zombies. The zombies in Romero's films were never very dangerous in small numbers, but it was the inevitable sense of doom -- knowing that, at any time, you could be surrounded and killed -- that made these movies horror. Zombies were more about social criticism and symbolism than going for cheap gore effects (though they were also quite gory, for their time). Eventually, zombies began to lose this literary quality (and what some might call pretentiousness), to become a symbol of the most extreme gore, while still atmospheric and retaining the traditionally slow pacing. Starting around the 1990s, zombie movies were streamlined once again, becoming little more than cheap, gory action movies. Then, in the 2000s, the zombies began running, which a lot of purists consider the final insult. While I greatly prefer the pretentious, symbolism-laden zombies of yore, I'm not such a purist that I'll turn my nose up at modern, running zombies. What a lot of purists are resisting isn't the fact that it's unrealistic (we're talking about zombies here, which are inherently unrealistic), but the streamlining of the genre.
This movie, with its slow zombies and slow pacing, is a return to the older style, championed by Romero. The zombie plague is never explained, again a stylistic element from Romero's movies. In fact, it's not terribly important what caused it. The meat of the movie here is in the characters, the symbolism, and the social criticism. Like most of Romero's movies, the social criticism isn't particularly subtle. Early on, a white character remarks to a black character, "I thought you were going to kill me." The black guy replies, "I thought you were going to abandon me." Yeah, not so subtle. But that's the nature of the zombie movie.
I was really primed to enjoy this movie, given that it plays right into everything that I like about zombie movies, but a lot of the potential was ultimately wasted. A lot of the racial tensions, imperialism, and colonialism that could have been explored was given only a rather cursory examination. Scenes that could have been powerful and pushed the movie into really tense situations were resolved with the most anti-climactic results imaginable. Others have elucidated on this, with varying degrees of spoilers. While disappointing, it's still not enough to take away more than a few points, in my opinion.
The ending, too, is flawed, though I'm sure it resonates with many people. Personally, in a zombie movie that's supposed to be an homage to the works of Romero, I'm looking for a nihilistic downer of an ending, not something that reinforces hope. Hope is for uplifting dramas angling for Academy Awards, not for zombie movies. Zombie movies are about the inevitability of death, our inability to accept that, and the false hope that barring yourself in your house gives you: no matter how well you reinforce that door, the zombies are still going to get in and kill you. Hope doesn't belong in a zombie movie, in my opinion.
I didn't think that the acting, while it comes under criticism by others, was bad. Sure, sometimes it's stuck at B movie levels, but it was never distracting. The special effects were quite nice, and I thought they did a good job on the gore effects. Overall, the directing and writing were also good, though they occasionally faltered, as noted.
In the end, the slow pacing, slow zombies, and lack of all-out, gut-wrenching gore might make this movie a bit unpalatable for modern audiences, but, for those purists out there who still remember a time when zombies didn't run, it's a nice treat. It's flawed, but it's still quite enjoyable.
This movie, with its slow zombies and slow pacing, is a return to the older style, championed by Romero. The zombie plague is never explained, again a stylistic element from Romero's movies. In fact, it's not terribly important what caused it. The meat of the movie here is in the characters, the symbolism, and the social criticism. Like most of Romero's movies, the social criticism isn't particularly subtle. Early on, a white character remarks to a black character, "I thought you were going to kill me." The black guy replies, "I thought you were going to abandon me." Yeah, not so subtle. But that's the nature of the zombie movie.
I was really primed to enjoy this movie, given that it plays right into everything that I like about zombie movies, but a lot of the potential was ultimately wasted. A lot of the racial tensions, imperialism, and colonialism that could have been explored was given only a rather cursory examination. Scenes that could have been powerful and pushed the movie into really tense situations were resolved with the most anti-climactic results imaginable. Others have elucidated on this, with varying degrees of spoilers. While disappointing, it's still not enough to take away more than a few points, in my opinion.
The ending, too, is flawed, though I'm sure it resonates with many people. Personally, in a zombie movie that's supposed to be an homage to the works of Romero, I'm looking for a nihilistic downer of an ending, not something that reinforces hope. Hope is for uplifting dramas angling for Academy Awards, not for zombie movies. Zombie movies are about the inevitability of death, our inability to accept that, and the false hope that barring yourself in your house gives you: no matter how well you reinforce that door, the zombies are still going to get in and kill you. Hope doesn't belong in a zombie movie, in my opinion.
I didn't think that the acting, while it comes under criticism by others, was bad. Sure, sometimes it's stuck at B movie levels, but it was never distracting. The special effects were quite nice, and I thought they did a good job on the gore effects. Overall, the directing and writing were also good, though they occasionally faltered, as noted.
In the end, the slow pacing, slow zombies, and lack of all-out, gut-wrenching gore might make this movie a bit unpalatable for modern audiences, but, for those purists out there who still remember a time when zombies didn't run, it's a nice treat. It's flawed, but it's still quite enjoyable.