Survival of the Dead Review
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Rating #: 4/10
Director: George A. Romero
Writer: George A. Romero
Cast: Julian Richings, Alan Van Sprang, Richard Fitzpatrick, Julian Richings, Athena Karkanis
Plot:George A. Romero is a man who has been changing the face of horror since the 60's. His Night of the Living Dead is an absolute masterpiece among horror fans and is highly known to have had two immaculate sequels. Well, with those sequels coming out in 78 and 85, you would think that anything George touches turns to gold. Unfortunately that has not been the case as of late. George has had some downtime with his movies. Land of the Dead was a disaster and Diary of the Dead showed some promise, but in the end wasn't as good as his previous work. Some people would just like George to stop and forget he even made those recent movies. It has been said that George Romero is like George Lucas in a way, considering his first trilogy cannot be touched and his second trilogy is an absolute disaster. Well, it's George's 6th "...of the dead" movie, how does it add up?On an island off the coast of North America, local residents simultaneously fight a zombie epidemic while hoping for a cure to return their un-dead relatives back to their human state.
SOTD is not any better then any of his recent movies. It is filled with horrible CGI, extremely terrible dialogue, and the characters are just atrocious. On another note, some of the acting isn't as bad as I thought it would be. This movie really didn't need to be made. There is a minor connection to Diary of the Dead here, but it doesn't fill any gaps or solve anything. What do us zombie horror fanatics get? Two, I'm guessing, Irish families on an island battling it out. There are two men that have hated each other since they were in grade school. When that is all fine dandy, there is little zombie action here. The first few minutes we see the most pathetic attempt at CGI I have ever seen. It's quite laughable and really made me see this movie in a different light. In fact there are a few scenes here that really try to be funny, but aren't at all. It's really painful to watch at parts. The plot holes are just annoying. There can be a scene where the people just walk and not even look at the zombies and get a head shot, but when they are trying to shoot at KEY times, they have no fucking aim whatsoever.
When I think of a Romero movie, I think of gore. In this Romero movie, there isn't much of it. How doesn't the "king" of zombie movies barely put any gore into a ZOMBIE MOVIE? There are a few eating scenes towards the end of the film, but mainly the first hour or so is talking and two dick heads that we do not care about battle it out for their island. I don't see how Romero could have looked at the CGI in the film and could have said, 'Yeah, that'll do'. I don't see it! It is so comical the way people get bit or shot that I can't even take it seriously. Maybe Romero wanted to make a zombedy, but make the whole film funny, not just parts.
Even though the CGI pissed me off, the acting didn't really bother me. Alan Van Sprang did the best job out of the whole movie as the Colonel of the group. Although, he does have some anger issues that I think were kind of over-exaggerated. All the acting wasn't that bad, the dialogue is what killed it. The movie is filled with cliche characters and an even worse script. I mean hell, the two families that were on the island are the Muldoon's and the O'Flynn's. I just don't see the reason for all these different kinds of people in the movie. I don't mind it, but it gave me an unbalanced feel. We have; a skinny nerdy kid, Irish people, Mexicans, Rednecks, Farmers, ect. I wouldn't have had a problem with them all, but each actor made them like over the top Mexican or Irish. It's hard to explain, but it felt that Romero told the actors to REALLY act Mexican or Irish. It's a mess. What's even more of a problem is that we hear from these people during the whole movie. All of the extras used in the movie, or the people who don't talk, literally don't talk. They just stand in the background and have a zombie like look on their face. It seems that no one was trying at all in this movie, not even the extras.
Like I said, there is barely any zombie action. The movie is based around finding a cure, but it has a lot to do with the human characters. There is a lot of going around shooting zombies, but there is no claustrophobic feeling as zombies are closing in. All the characters are extremely prepared for the zombies, and that makes for a boring movie. In Night of the Living Dead we had a bunch of people in a house with fucking boards and nails. In Dawn of the Dead we have a group of people in a shopping mall with hordes of zombies on the outside, in Day of the Dead we once again have hordes of zombies on the outside of a fence while a scientist is desperately trying to find a cure to the zombie plague, in this movie, we have army people who go around shooting zombies that don't even try to attack the humans. We once again see that the zombies are getting smarter, but they BARELY try to go after the humans. These zombies are sitting ducks! AND IT'S FUCKING BORING!
Overall, this movie is pretty bad. At times I felt like I was watching an Irish Western movie rather then a zombie movie created by George A. Romero. This is highly disappointing and I have given Romero all the chances I could give, but I'm done. The only thing he can possibly do now is rely on others to remake his movies so he has any ounce of creditability left in the horror genre. What Romero has done in the 60's-80's cannot be touched and a lot of his works are certified masterpieces, but this is just horse shit. He's just a crazy old man who makes movies to entertain a dumb audience. God speed Romero
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Originally Posted by koolmike
