Dawn of the Dead: 7.0

Rating: Null/10 (20 March 2004)

Many have argued that this is not the original. Well of course not, Romero did not make this. I think all the DAWN freaks should be saving their energy to debate for when Romero get his 4th Dead film out there(if he ever does). Until then I see no problem going to see this "re-visioning" of the classic, because its done pretty damn well.
Please get me right here when I saw that the original is in my top ten of films and I dreaded this remake as much as the next guy at horror convention. But I had a lot of fun at this. It paid up enough gore, with CGI not being prominent(or seeming to be). It brought about some scares and was just a good movie going experience.
Yes, there are things you could compare to the original that aren't there. The Geography of the mall was not set up as well as the 1st film. You do get rushed into the situation and with more than 4 characters you don't get to know them as well as the others from Romeros film.

And lastly one will say that the original had much to say about our society being slaves(or zombies) to Consumerism and that in a America after Vietnam and Watergate, all we can think of is "What can we buy to forget our problems? Let's go to the mall and find out!" What one could read into in this version, can probably come from when the group of people are on the roof and their is another group of humans on the ground looking to get in the mall too. And one character says, "We can't let them in. They will ruin it for all of us."(it is something to that degree, but don't quote me). This is a perfect statement about the big fear Americans have Post-911. We are really afraid of people we don't trust, and letting them in to our safe haven/utopia could ruin it for us all? It is that xenophobia that runs across America today unfairly and you can logically ponder that here.
And near the end of the film when Ving Rhames's character has an American Flag waiving over his shoulder, that sign post has to be read and you can rewatch this film to find some substance among all the scares and gore.