just weighing in *spoilers*

Rating: Null/10 (4 April 2004)

Some spoilers below
After finally getting a chance to watch the new Dawn, here are some of my thoughts: Overall it was a very enjoyable and entertaining movie. I believe it stands well both on it's own and as a remake. I didn't find the movie particularly scary, although the baby scene had me going, just to see what the zombie baby would look like (insert Dead Alive reference here.) I thought the new Dawn was an excellent action movie along the same line as Aliens. The characterization was cleverly done without sticking to too many cliches. Sarah Polley's character Anna shows that "heroine" no longer has to mean "tough chick." Ving Rames was his usual badass self, his best work since 'The People Under the Stairs' (kidding.) I especially liked Michael, as played by Jake Webber, he was noble and heroic without being overly cheesy or idealistic. The moviemakers did the right thing by not trying to develop characters who only serve as window dressing. The yuppie, the hot girl, the hick, the trucker lady, the dying dad, the crying teen with the dog, and the 'other' security guards are just that, and have little pretensions about being anything more. We even have a couple changes of character, CJ the security guard starts off as a selfish, hostile asshole and eventually becomes a willing sacrifice. And Mekhi Phifer goes from a level headed, practical father-to-be to homicidal and delusional. As stated beofre, I enjoyed the action in this movie, however I would have liked to seen more gore, more 'munching' scenes. I guess they figured that the 'zombie feast' scenes are Romero's domain and are better left to him. Of course you can't have a movie called Dawn of the Dead and not have an exploding head. The zombie head in the ice chest was also a nice touch. Overall, a good movie, not just for us zombie freaks, but for the general populace. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. -Ray