fun

Rating: 8/10 (25 March 2004)

This film was fun (8/10). Lots of big plot holes, but overall an enjoyable experience if you prefer adventure-horror vs. straight-up horror, like me. Being a HUGE fan of the original, I tried to "leave it outside the theater" and approach this as an entirely new film, but of course that's impossible.
~~Spoilers~~
Two plot points (among several) which I did NOT care for:
1. If the route to the mall was so clear at first, why did only a handful of people make it there for refuge? I'll assume they all headed for other "safe-havens", like the church or fort. 2. What was the deal with the head in the cooler during the ending credits? Who put it in there, and why (and what happened to them)? Made no sense to me.
One main plot point that I didn't like was that there was very little time devoted to securing the mall/barricading. Basically, the characters checked the doors to make sure they were locked and from that point on the mall was secure. I guess I didn't realize mall door glass was indestructible when you've got 1000 zombies pushing/pounding on it...also, what about the glass smashed by our survivors to enter the mall in the first place? Did they immediately patch it up? Preparing a stronghold has always been my favorite part of zombie films (see NOTLD, DawnOTD, ReturnOTLD, and even the film Demon Night, as examples) and there was virtually none of it here. And am I supposed to believe there was only one set of 2 elevators in the entire mall? No stairs?!?! I bring this up because there were a few zombies on the 1st floor in the beginning, but they seemed to make no effort to find the 3 security guards upstairs...
Also, the film devoted very little time to showing the breakdown of society (although, thankfully, more than the disappointing 28 Days Later). The original's periodic television broadcasts gave you the feeling there were other people out there trying to survive, as well as give you some limited info on the status outside the mall and the phenomenon in general. When the broadcasts end about 3/4 into the original film, it was a powerful way to illustrate the hopelessness of the situation. For all we know in THIS film, these are the very last people alive. We hope not, we assume not, but we have no way of knowing.
I enjoyed CJ's character a lot. At first, I thought, "Oh, great. A cliche character who thinks he's tough but is the most cowardly of the bunch - he's going to pull a Miguel (see Day of the Dead) and screw everything up." But I was thankfully wrong. It was nice to see this sort of character "grow" as the film progressed. Plus, by the end he was just funny and "cool".
All these complaints aside, I look forward to getting the DVD and adding this one to my Zombie Film Collection.