Michael Irizarry

Huge fan of the series, especially the original. Went in high expectations, left a bit disappointed. The opening starts with a flashback to when the infection first broke out, and cuts to 28 years later where a group of survivors are living in an isolated village. The trailer shows this & the first Act which is mostly about a 12 year old boy, going with his father to the mainland as a coming of age event, & to prepare the boy for the dangers of the world. I was into the story up into this part but then tbe story takes an odd turn in the second Act, where the characters make some absurd decisions. They should be killed at multiple points and are saved, purely by plot. I get thats it story, but I'd rather the characters solve their problems instead of relying on luck. The the third Act is very bizarre & abstract, but I understood the symbolism. The ending was, just weird, and felt so out of place for any movie, let alone for this series. I hope the next movie contextulizes the story though right now, Im leaning to a 7/10 rating for me. SPOILER WARNING: Act 2 & 3 consists of the boy trying to escort his mentally ill mother to look for potential doctor that everyone claims is dangerous & insane. The plan makes no sense, and everytime they are about to be killed, they are saved by some random Samaritan in the middle of an almost empty apocalypse. The final scene is the boy deciding to stay in the wilds (horrible idea) almost dies immediately but is saved by a gang of weirdos in blonde whigs & jumpsuits to start hacking at the zombies with punk rock in the background. Whole third act felt like fever dream.

The costumes, and make-up are very well done. There is a lot if attention to gore, with emphasis on the agony you would expect from a zombie movie. If you want to people scream while being eaten alive, then it's worth putting on. I appreciate how the reoccurring theme in the Dead series of underlying intelligence, and strong memories being able to trigger intelligence in the infected is demonstrated. Through the zombified-character Max. While not as interesting as his origin, Bud, Max's obsession with the protagonist is creepy enough to be its own element of horror. The dynamic between this monster and the lead, is the main focus of the movie. The acting is horrible with many of the performances being dramatically over the top. In conjunction with the horrible decision making of almost every character, I am not sure the fault lies with the writing, acting, or directing probably both which really limits the actors ability to perform. For example none of the soldiers killing even attempt suicide before being gruesome killed. The decisions of the lead is insane, she constantly makes decisions without consulting which leads to so much unnecessary death. She almost kills everyone. It bothered me how acceptable her actions were. Also the intelligence of Max has no progression like Bud. He goes from being mindless to literally talking, plotting, assassinating, kidnapping it's too much too fast.