Dawn of the Dead

The early years of the 2000s were the scene of an exhausting proliferation of remakes, reboots, and sequels involving the most disparate genre film titles. The official excuse was to “update” expressive standards and portrayal styles. The bitter truth, however, would point instead to a chronic lack of ideas and a burning desire to exploit lucrative markets with a minimum of effort. As a result, they churned out a good number of cookie-cutter movies, none particularly outstanding.

“Dawn of the Dead” is nothing more than an inferior rehash of George A. Romero’s film of the same name, an enduring gem of socially conscious horror. Under Zack Snyder’s direction, however, the story is systematically stripped of any and all sociopolitical allusions until nothing is left but bland eye candy jam-packed with loud noise and unintentional humor (the grotesque childbirth scene, for example).

Inexplicably, the living dead of the new millennium are somehow speedy little sprinters, which not only betrays Romero’s symbolism which holds that the true menace always lies in human stupidity and hubris, but it also appears totally illogical, considering the state of decomposition seen in the overwhelming majority of the zombified bodies. The screenplay seems to have as its sole “raison d’être” the task of adding the greatest number of narratively superfluous characters possible, resulting in a meaningless and interminable string of violent deaths.

Super-glossy packaging with no content. Despite that, many applauded it.