Road Warrior plus Dawn of the Dead = Bad but Entertaining Film

Rating: 3/10 (21 September 2007)

As I was watching this film, I was initially excited by the Resident Evil 1 sort-of flashback, but as the film progressed, I realized that there was very little to be excited about. When the writers sat down to pen this tale, they must have just finished watching Road Warrior (need for gas as people wander through a wasteland with a heroic helper who leaves them at the end) and Dawn of the Dead (Helicopter ride to safety, character mix, dead congregating, etc.), which are two excellent films. Of course, in those films, you get to know the characters and recognize social satire. This film is but a gore fest with MTV piecemeal action set to a sound track and predictable setups and outcomes. The film earns (and I do mean earns) two stars simply because of the quality of the audio and special effects elements. It gets another star because I'm a guy and the women are beautiful. But that is all it gets. As little as 10 minutes of added screen time could have made this a good film all around by giving us a little character depth. Instead, we have CGI birds that miraculously only attack you if you fall off a small runner between two vehicles and a never-ending supply of living dead out of a semi trailer that must in some way be related to a clown car as the undead seem to come out of it in numbers far exceeding the available space. If you love special effects, violence, and have little to no attention to detail, you will love this film. Otherwise, wait for it on video and then only see it if you have seen the first two films. You need the first film to understand the context and the second film to understand the few characters that are in the film. If you haven't seen the first two films, good luck understanding anything. But then, there isn't much to understand. Put your brain on the seat next to you and enjoy this film on testosterone alone.