Less enjoyable than the original

Rating: 6/10 (28 August 2013)

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the original DOTD which I saw for the first time yesterday, giving me a really solid base to review this title on.
The pace is a lot faster in this film, zombies included, as well as having obvious updates in action, gore and realistic effects. They still got the colour of blood wrong at the beginning though.
One of the problems with the first movie is the incompetent nature of the zombies which only really pose a threat because of their sheer number, whereas in this film they're a real individual THREAT, behaving like incensed, rabid animals. This however removes the comedy element of the first film, but does make this a more accurate horror survival film instead of a tongue-in-cheek horror comedy.
The genius of the original film is captured to an extent and then, unfortunately, tossed away. Imagine being stuck in a shopping mall (albeit surrounded by zombies) and discovering you have free access to everything under the sun, day after day, for as long as you want it. After the shock of being surrounded by rabid zombies wears off, the cast start to live it up, enjoying the fruits and fun of all the trappings of life, right? No, they don't! And that's the main problem with this version of DOTD. Although much more realistic and frightening, they eventually decide to make a crazy run for it, away from the shopping mall. Why, instead of using common sense and choosing to stay in a secure environment with everything necessary to survive, including food, drink and welding equipment!, would they suddenly decide to head for the marina in a couple of Mad Max style souped up buses? It made no sense during the film, nor after it ended.
All sorts of other questions popped into my mind such as the part with the girl stealing a van and driving, unopposed by zombie masses to rescue the dog. It's a nice, sentimental touch, but when they make their escape at the end they can't drive out of the parking lot because of the dense mass of zombies blocking the route.
For all it's flaws, I did enjoy this film, but I just wasn't as entertained as in the first film, which I initially thought was going to be a load of sh*t, but turned out to be really, really good fun.
The cameo appearance by one of the lead actors in the original film, as a TV evangelist, was a nice little touch in this decent, pretty entertaining action-horror film, which is a lot better than a LOT of other horror flicks released over the last decade, but which misses out on the humour element which the original film grasped, realized was very important, and thrived on until the end credits.