some just might like it better than the original . . .

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2004)

I've really been looking forward to giving this a chance since i heard about it some time last year, and I've got to say that this really wasn't the movie I expected. It was WAY better! Zach Snyder has put a fresh spin on an old idea. It's really impossible not to compare this with its 26 year old predacessor, but that not what I was really interested in. This is a rethinking of the story. New characters. New locations. New zombies even. In case you haven't heard the zombies run at full speed now. While I will admit that I wasn't too thrilled to hear that they were messing with a perfect formula, it does work perfectly for THIS movie. Lets face it, zombies of the old days aren't very scary in this day and age and especially not from a director that had previously only worked on music videos with fast cuts and quicker pacing. I'm not knocking the guy, its just that with the pacing of this style of movie, I think the fast zombies work much better. This movie doesn't let up for one moment.
The tension never lets up in this film. Not only was I leaning forward waiting in anticipation for the next scare, but I was also very interested in the survivors. All the characters were drawn out very well, and you really become interested in what will become of them. There are plenty of nice situations that arise that are very subtle homages to Romero's classic as well as some of his other films as well. Without ruining anything, I will say that there are at least 2 character types from each of the original classics. Long time fans won't be disappointed with the story.
The effects were great. From what I have heard, there were some CG enhanced scenes, but I don't really think anyone noticed. It seemed that they were using rubber and fake blood for most of it, but some of the gorier scenes had me wondering how they would have done it. All the effects were very well done. A movie like this MUST have outstanding effects to stand out. It reminds me of the over the top effects that were prevelent throughout the 80's horror movies, with each new one trying to top the last by killing someone in a creative way. There were at least a dozen times where you could here the whole audience simultaneously cheer and gasp over a creative scene of gore.
Overall, this was a great movie for horror fans and action fans alike. It won't win an Oscar or anything, but thats not what this kind of movie sets out to do. You should be going to the theatre to be entertained, and that's exactly what i paid 8 dollars twice to go do. I always seem to be critical on remakes of classics, but this one is different enough to look at it as a seperate movie all together. These kinds of movies don't show up very often, and its nice to see one get released with a nice sized budget and get a wide release. All you purists out there don't worry about this being a crappy remake. Once the studios see that this knocked "The Passion of The Christ" out of the number one spot on its opening week, there will be a whole slew of crappy zombie movies out there to target your rants at. Enjoy it for what it is and don't trust scuzzy mall security guards! :D *****