It'll Swallow Your Soul

Rating: Null/10 (1 November 2003)

I loathe mindless entertainment junkies because they are more concerned about letting their collective brain cells deteriorate rather than do some critical analysis.
Why is Sam Raimi great? Because he invests everything into the camera and its movement and nothing else. Perhaps effects are the only thing that come after the cinematography. That said, Army of Darkness concludes his "Evil" frame of mind.
Whereas ED2 parodies the horror cliches of the 70s and 80s and insults the pop genre surrounding them, "Army" tries to create its own pop influence. Needless to say, it's all too obvious in our culture now. It is more coherent and slicker than its predecessor, but there's something wrong. ED2 felt experimental and out-of-control, where anything possible could (and often did) happen. Here it feels too formulaic, too mainstream. As with the predecessor, we see more of the same with an even bigger emphasis on comedy.
I consider this Raimi's third best movie. It is better than ED1, Darkman, Spider-Man, and the Gift, but still has some lacking qualities in the bizarre department compared to ED2 and the Quick and the Dead. When it comes down to a challenge between Raimi and Tim Burton, though, I'll stay with Raimi.
Overall, despite being destructive to the social thought world, Army of Darkness is more referencing and appealing to the adolescents. 2.5 out of 5.