The humanity's reign is over, behold, it's time for the zombies to take the reins...

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2004)

Greetings, zombie fans
***warning some spoilers (in all 3 sizes-small, medium & big) through out the text*** First, I am a DOWN-STRAIGHT DRUNK movieholic (lol) in general (being horror one of my beloved genres). I don't tend to become excite when a remake of a movie is in works (mostly from a classic movie), and certainly when it's a Hollywood remake (you have permission to fear the result).but.now and then, some remakes are quite good. In fact, some (like The Thing that's one of my favorite movies of all time!) warp pass the original. I am not saying that Dawn of 2004 is better than Dawn of 1978, because each movie as it's own thing going on. Well, this review and tender love is about Dawn 2004, so I will focus more on it. But I have to admit that in some things, new Dawn surpasses the original (makeup, editing, action scenes, lightning, cameos, and more departments - of course that bigger budget and things that we can use in recent years heighten in it too). Perhaps you don't agree with me but the stories of both are strong for a zombie movie and in both the interactions are top notch (of course it's easy with the 78 version because it's only four characters) And don't having the same satires in new Dawn doesn't make it a bad movie, on the contrary. The story of the original is centered in only four characters and the running time is bigger, in this one the story have more survivors and the running time is smaller.but I thought that the characters in this one were well built (not all characters have deepness but some), and if you pay attention it's the tidbits of dialogue, face expressions, actions and choices of everyone and so on that deliver the profundity of each. I know that everyone has is opinions but another thing that always bothers me (specially in this kinds of movies is that many times people start saying that `characters are flat' or `only meat to be eaten' but that's not that linear: 1) it's a zombie movie and a survival movie at the same time and we don't expect to see people reciting Shakespeare or saying `oh, I need t tell the story of my life for viewers to see that I have so much deepness that I am a walking sized black hole of development'; 2) you have to imagine if you were in the same situation, so many of the dialogues and actions would be the same or similar in many areas and events happening (you would want to search for your brother, if you were in a shop you would want to try a bunch of clothes, have fun playing videogames, etc); 3) there aren't clichÃ©s in this movie because in real life cops, nurses, family man, pregnant lady, or even a circus clown could be among the survivors; 4) don't think that in an `end of the World' situation all the survivors will be heroes or good persons or even remain united, people change for good or worse as in all real life circumstances (many times people say about a movie `why the goody soldier gone berserker and attacked the old lady?', couldn't that happen in real life too? - the movie effectively shows that a future family father can gone crazy and a apparently asshole dude can sacrifice himself to save lives or even a bad person can remain a bad person); 5) remember again, the running time on this one is smaller and if the movie was all character development that would turn out to be zombie drama starring zombie `Burt Reynolds' wanna-be as the father of four tiny zombies (you have to imagine that they talked and interacted more than we saw in the screen - as what happens with every movie, ex: in LOTR you can't actually compute that all the times that Aragorn talked with Legolas were the ones that we saw them on screen); 6) did I forget to mentioned that's a zombie movie for crying out loud? (saying that doesn't mean that the movie itself don't have drama or comedy, and all that - in fact it possesses big doses of those too, and thank God for that). The speedy zombies: well, I already saw many zombie movies and practically in all of them the undead are clumsy and slow, in this one they are not and that's not either a bad thing.I though the zombies in this one were a lot more scarier and menacing than the ones in the original and others zombie movies (Zombie, Brain Dead, RE, Day, Nights, City of the Living Dead, Return, etc).hey, I can live with slow zombs and fast zombs, so what? The already tired comparison between the fasty zombs and fasty infected in 28 Days Later (both have terrifying freaky hombres) that many people insist: first, the infected are not zombs and because the ones in Dawn 2004 are similar to the ones in 28 Days doesn't mean that they ripped it off (it's not like this `for now on all the future movies that have wire-fu fights are rip offs of Matrix'). 28 Days Later is one of my favorite movies too and has more character development (again focused in few characters) than Dawn 2004 but Dawn is so much great in all (even the timing of character development's insertion is great) that I almost can put that in the same pedestal. About the actors & characters: first, Ving Rhames is one of my favorite actors (he has a strong presence in any movie, both physically and psychologically - as someone already told, I too can see him peal potatoes for 2 hours and sill be mesmerized by him), and he's perfect in this movie (the character was made for him) and he shows a sure and calm presence throughout the movie (the coolness and badass presence emerges many times too). He's like a big sentimental guy in a cop uniform. The chemistry between him and Andy (a distant interaction because Kenneth is in the mall and Andy is in his own store, so the communication between them is restricted to binoculars and writing signs) is an odd but true friendship both sad and endearing.but even that doesn't stop Kenneth to shoot him when he turns zombie. I saw few movies with Sarah Polley (Dawn and Go) but I building a love for her.she is amazing (the look and the emotions are beautiful in her) as the nurse of the band., Ana. Jake Weber as straight caring guy called Michael was profound and he carried many great dramatic moments. He was like the worried father of them all. Mekhi Phifer as Andre, future family man, is very good too and his obsession to `built a family in a mad World' (doesn't bother him if his family develops a hunger of human flesh) shows that people change to worse sometimes. I wanted more screen time of him. Michael Kelly as CJ stunned me in a good way, I thought he was an all-out bastard but that was not exactly right. His line in the elevator (lol) is one of my favorite moments in movie history. All the others actors (secondary and such) were all also very good in their characters (even the ones that I didn't know much about, such as Monica, Norma, etc). The character that engulfs the others is the Cross Roads Mall (the name says everything because all the survivors came from different places and are different as individuals). It can be cozy and/or threatening. There are many fantastic moments in this movie such as the celebrity target practice, the birth scene (the baby could have been a little better), the truck escape, the visit in Andy's gun store, the chaotic opening and many many more. Almost ZERO negative things about this movie, but I felt that the movie could be much longer, more things to happen, and consequently more interaction and character development, action, suspense, horror, drama, and so forth. Action pieces (different environments and weapons); lightning (light & darkness, the prove that lanterns are very handy); music (all the soundtracks are amazing and fit the movie's tune, specially the Johnny Cash music); cinematography (great); art design & art direction (the dread trucks are a mean-deadly running machine and a fortress even against hordes of zombies); special effects & visual effects (great great); sound (great); costume (great); make-up (some freakishly zombies with bloody cream on top - excellent work people); gore (heads exploding, necks being munched, inclusion of pointy instruments in various body parts, shot wounds, chainsaw mayhem, etc, did I need to say more?) are thumbs UP. The cameos (alive and inorganic ones) are more than welcome: Ken Foree as a priest says his famous line is superb, Tom Savini as a tough cop is very funny, Scott Reiniger as The General is worth big time. The inorganic that I spotted are the cameo of Gayle Ross as a cloth store's name and the helicopter from the original giving a little screen flight. In the movie, I was like one of them.among the survivors.feeling what they fell, sweating as they run, enjoying life when I could, and fighting for my life as they fight, and so on. The final is so bleak an unnerved as the original, even more so because we know the last survivors suffers one more zombie attack and we are left thinking if someone escaped or not (in the end of the original the two survivors fly to an unknown fate with little supplies but doesn't end with them being attacked). But one thing is sure, Chips the dog surely survived the zombies.and me being a big animal lover I was cheering for him too. So, did I like the movie? No, I loved it (I already seen it twice - and will definitely have it in DVD). I recommend for everyone to see it, even non-zombie fans or non-horror fans. Who knows, maybe the movie can bring more zombie adepts to our much-loved genre. As Moriarty (from AICN) says `it's a good time to be a zombie fan right now' and he's right, and this year is one great year for those `appreciators of human meat' (Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil 2, and so on). Last year and future years are promising with Diamond Dead by George Romero being made, an Australian's Undead, remake of Day of the Dead and more. I sure hope that bid-budget and independent movie studios decide to make more zombie movies to delight us all. And as Dr Logan in Day of the Dead and Barbara in Night of the Living Dead 90 say `They're us. We're them and they're us.'. As simple as that. Enjoy movies. CYA. =)