Dawn of the Dead. The remake, that is.

[SirMustapha]

So put the pieces together: I'm a huge fan of George A. Romero's 1978 Dawn of the Dead, and I was one of the unhappy souls that put himself through Jack Snyder's 300 piece of garbage just to have something fun to talk about to his friends, along with the beers. Less than half an hour ago. one of our local TV networks aired Jack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Watching it, however, was a great relief: it was just as awful as I thought it would be (or even worse), so all the pre-judgement I made was nothing short of correct. Honestly, I even thought the film would get some things right: nope. Not a thing.

Now, I'm trying not to say that Snyder should have made a "vow of loyalty" to Romero's "Dead" films - you have the dozens upon dozens of shallow protagonists, but it's alright; you have the zombies that run, jump, hop, climb like they could do a one-on-one duel with Spider Man and win, but, ehh, okay; but if he wanted those things, did he NEED to go and remake Romero's masterpiece? As in, "yeah, I'll take Romero's film, remove everything that's at least mildly interesting and intriguing, and fill up the holes with curse words and special effects = $$$$$$$$$$$!".

You think a horror film has no space for intelligence, originality, social awareness and biting satire? Alright, but if you want to dabble with Romero, shouldn't you learn SOME lessons about subtlety and storywriting? Romero's original had an intelligent pace, an engaging build-up, thoughtful characters, the editing was fantastic, the special effects demanded effort and creativity, the action scenes were spontaneous and fun to watch. Snyder's remake, however, just hops around from event to event, as if he had a checklist of "things to happen on this film", and just worried with checking the little boxes and not with making the parts fit, or leading nicely into each other, or having some overall sense of PURPOSE. Like on Romero's original, no explanation is given to WHY the dead are coming back, but unlike the original, there isn't a single moment for thought about the confusion and chaos it could be leading to. Romero threw us headfirst into a TV station, in which a host and a scientist struggled to handle an interview, and a vicious director wanted an outdated list of rescue sites to stay on the air. Snyder says "no, there's no space for that. We need action," so we follow these lame characters around, making their way to by-the-numbers sequences of dialogue to stablish OH THE TENSION and how people fail to collaborate. Nothing here draws you into the story: it's generic, mechanical, and tries to frighten you by force, with easy "jump" frights and uncreative violence.

It's not the worst film I've ever seen (if I had to choose, I'd rewatch this instead of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest), but a film has to suck in marvellous, groundbreaking ways for me to come here and start ranting about it. I'm just upset that some people have little respect for the marvellous legacies and talent of people like Romero. It's like Snyder is burying any evidence that Dawn of the Dead has more than meets the eye, and that it's really just a slasher flick (such things didn't even exist back then) and Romero is a guy like any other. That's why you, Jack Snyder, is an IDIOT. You might as well go out holding hands with Uwe Boll to produce the remake of Citizen Kane crossed over with the film adaptation of Grand Theft Auto - done entirely in ultra-slow motion, of course. Good luck,

Ah, yes... Ken Foree, one of the main actors of Dawn of the Dead, has a participation on the remake, delivering his line about "when there's no more room in Hell..." and all... except Snyder makes it sound DEAD SERIOUS, as if we were supposed to be terrified of it. Just why?

[c_nordlander]

Thanks to your sacrifice, now I'm *certain* I shouldn't see it. I don't even see why Snyder made a remake, if he has no respect for the original.

It's always fun to read a negative review, though.

[aoifestorm]

Ferrrrrrrrrrrrrnie, have you seen any of the other Romero  ____ of the Dead remakes?

[SirMustapha]

No, that was the first remake I've watched. I don't have plans to watch the others, as I'd rather watch the two other Romero originals, "Day" and "Land".

By the way, the name of the director is Zack Snyder, which doesn't really make any difference...

[Fionn]

My big complaint was how horribly inconsistent the zombification time was.  The movie had its moments, but acting, consistency, and plot were sub-par.  Definitely not the same calibre as the original.