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Dawn of the Dead



This "remake" is the resurrection of the first Dawn...'s tagline, but apart from that and people holing up in a mall against flesh-eaing zombies, it's a whole new show. It's also such a well-done example of the genre, that there too: whole new show. I've seen a splattering of zombie flicks in my day, and went into this one expecting Cheese.. I was very pleasantly suprised. Universal did a fine job, raising Romero's baby. The opening sequence alone established it as far superior to any movie of it's ilk, and that's probaby the true test for this genre: if you can get past the gratuitous opening sequence of nice, happy people in a f'ed up world getting killed by Whatever and not think to yourself "well, at least it's just a matinee priced ticket", you're sitting pretty. And I was. All the usual elements are there, but most of the cheese has been held.

Gone is the awkward dialogue, all the worse for it's delivery by non-actors.

Gone is the embarassing gimp-gait of the zombies - these are track star zombies, and suddenly they're scary. They also seem to have a clearer focus than zombies of byegone eras, and for that director Zack Snyder deserves a nod.

Gone is the painfully overdramatic and clunky soundtrack: this one is excellent and if you're listening carefully, it provides some comic backup to the unfolding events.

Gone too, are several highly predictable stock scenarios in the zombie genre, praise be. Others, among them the much-touted "social commentary" of the original, are relegated to their proper place within a streamlined story. Huzzah!

So what's left?
Well, we have a fairly classical array of characters, many more than the original, which apparently featured just four people. And they're played by actual gosh-darnit actors! I'm still reeling from the shock of it.

We also have a story line that is a little thin, but for the most part, the tension builds and the story moves along nicely. There's one rather roughly shoehorned-in scene with a girl and a dog, that accomplishes a few things, but it had the feel of a 3am rewrite. For the most part though, the characters are well-sketched and we get to care a little about several of the central ones.

And we have some positively AWESOME special effects. The pyrotechnics are just spectacular. I twice felt like cheering for things that blew up. The stunts are amazing. The head-splats against the van when the old lady showed up with her crew were just excellent. There's also a face that gets half blown off that was some great sculpting. And the blood dried like blood. All-around awesome job by the Fx team.

I especially liked the ending. The story continues through the closing credits, in a manner evoking Blair Witch and the fast-take scenes from The Ring, lending creepiness to the fate of the characters. Like 28 Days Later, we have the use of digital video, to world-disintegrating effect.

Oh, and it's all sandwiched between some of the best opening and closing titles in memory. I don't know why, but I love when those things are done well. The bar has been raised in this genre. It was high time, really, but all the ketchup-blood and clumsiness in the past made it all the more fun to see this done up right.