Land of the Dead

I have to say that I have not seen the previous entries in this famous series. I am not the hugest fan of zombie movies, though the remake of Dawn of the Dead was decent as was 28 Days later, and in a different vein I loved Shaun of the Dead. So I went into this film without the massive expectation that some George A. Romero fans had, but I did not have the love for the genre that they have either! The film is set in a world where zombies are everywhere. Humans are stranded in small pockets of civilisation. One of which surrounds a large skyscraper. Here the rich live ordinary lives inside where everything is as it was before the disaster. outside the poorer people live in poverty, the outer rim protected by water and legions of troops. One of these trooper Cholo decides to hold the main skyscraper hostage because of the unfairness of their induction policy, and it is left to another trooper Riley to lead a team in to recapture the rogue. Meanwhile a group of more intelligent zombies makes their way towards the compound. Now zombies in general are not very scary to me. They are slow and dull and often quite comical as they lurch along the ground. The zombies in this film I often found funny, maybe because of Shaun of the Deads recent mocking, but whatever the reason I didn't feel scared by them. I mean they get distracted by fireworks and just stand looking at the sky for minutes at a time. Sorry, maybe it's me but I did not find them as threatening or scary as they were supposed to be. However the main story has enough weight to work regardless of this. While not fitted with that well known actors the lead group do a good job, Dennis Hopper is as sneering as every and the dialogue managed to just about stay the right side of cheesy. However there wasn't much depth and at times it felt rather thin. The opening in particular was not very memorable and it took a while for me to warm up to the film. The film is very gory and has some good old fashioned effects rather than an excess of CG stuff like many modern horror films. The soundtrack is alright. I think my main problem with the film is that is was decent enough, but didn't go further. Maybe I was expecting more from the director who created the genre, or maybe other filmmakers have caught up in recent years becuase there wasn't much in the film that seemed very original or creative. It is a fairly standard zombie movie with some good action and characters, but nothing that lives up to it's pedigree. Not a landmark zombie film, but an entertaining one, some good sequences and performances save it from mediocrity but the ideas seem a bit tired and you could hardly say the film has depth. Gore filled and fun, but not a film that does the name of Romero proud.