0
I love Romero but the thing that made the "Dead" series so important in the beginning was totally lost on the last one. These films are at their best when they tackle social issues or current events.
The first film was at least in part an examination of Race and the "outsider" archetype. Jones was one of the first strong African American leads in a non Blaxploitation film, this is something I think gets glossed over when discussing Romero in general. That film was a breakthrough film in so many ways and he always manages to have at least one strong AA (or later with Leguizamo, Latino) lead character. It isn't as deliberate (at least it doesn't feel that way) as most instances of this, and that is also part of what makes it cool.
I liked the fact that he parodied and criticized consumer culture, media and race in "Dawn" (something totally lost in the remake) and the military in "Day". I'm still not sure what the target was in "Land," immigration maybe? But he was subject to some severe editing and studio interference with "land" so the original idea was probably lost in the wrangling with execs.
Romero is definately better when he works outside the studio system, hopefully this won't end up some pale "Blair Witch" clone, Keeping my fingers crossed....
__________________
"You have to believe in God before you can say there are things that man was not meant to know. I don't think there's anything man wasn't meant to know. There are just some stupid things that people shouldn't do." -David Cronenberg