A dumbed-down remake

Rating: 5/10 (14 August 2006)

On its own, this is a very capable and professional movie. But I have to rate it badly because it is a remake of a brilliant film...and most of the things that made the original excellent were omitted from the remake. This is yet another film that banks on recognition of its elder, and does not really respect the source.
The omissions are substantial. Romero's film starts out with media confusion and a look at what the authorities are doing to combat the living dead. Even as hell is breaking out, media talking heads argue with each other. This is left out in the remake, missing the opportunity for satire, and narrowing the scope of the film. The group's presence in the mall is a brilliant testimony to the emptiness of material things, but this was omitted in the remake. This is the whole point of them being in the mall in the first place! The bikers overwhelm the mall at point in the original, showing man to be as savage as the enemy (and perhaps even deserving the plague of the living dead?) this was omitted as well.
Everything that makes Romero's movies more than a bit of splatter was left out. (Oh, and zombie babies are not horrifying, they are comic. Ask Peter Jackson.)So why remake a film classic, if you aren't going to introduce the elements that make it great? This is another attempt to cash in on a name by a studio.