Perfectly good film

I have to at least partially agree. I found this film perfectly watchable, and enjoyed it enough to purchase the DVD. Granted, it was a previously viewed DVD from Blockbuster, but I still bought it! I thought it was a fun, action-packed zombie movie. I'll admit the video game sequences intercut with the film took a bit of getting used to, but all in all, I enjoyed it. In fact, the movie sort of reawakened my interest in zombie flicks.

If you want to see some REALLY bad movies, I recently purchased the Mill Creek Entertainment Horror 250 pack collection. It contains many great old public domain horror flicks, as well as some really painfully bad, almost unwatchable ones. But I love 'em nonetheless!

I've heard all manner of arguments about this film, abotu how its the worst film ever made and nothing goes right, and that Uwe Boll is a hack director. These people clearly are not horror fans, nor are they competent judges of cinema. I can see how some might not like it, and not everyone should, but there is no balance in the arguments.

That is an incredibly pretentious statement. If you want to defend the film, fine- but this movie garners contempt because it is a poorly done film. It's not the worst movie ever, "worst movie ever" threads are overdone, and Terror Toons is actually way worse. It's still a pretty bad film, and sum non-fans up as "not horror fans" is a rather wrong assumption. I'm a pretty big-time horror movie fan, and found this movie painful to watch.

The film is in essence an action film with zombies in it. Just like the game. It isn't intended to haunt you, nor is it intended to truly frighten. It is, however, intended to be enjoyable and full of action, a success on all those counts.

Woah, woah, woah- it's NOT supposed to be a horror film? Then how does your point about non-fans not being horror fans factor in to your argument then? I do buy that it's more of an action film than a horror film- but now I'm wondering if the problem is merely that non-fans of the film aren't "action fans."


Now, the examples you cite as being poor rationale for despising this movie:

cardboard characters- Sure, there's plenty of enjoyable movies out there where the characters simply aren't that deep... however, there was NOTHING to most of these characters. Most decent films will at least try to get you involved in the characters. In Dawn of the Dead, while the zombies might not be considered scary by today's standards, Romero puts in a solid effort to get you invested in the characters that still holds. The main four of that movie are memorable. Here, they're rather unremarkable.

bad FX and makeup - It's not what ruined the movie for me, but the costuming was rather generic and uninspiring. Considering their featurette on fx kept adding in clips from Day of the Dead made it all the more apparent.

poor editing - What was the point of adding in clips from the game? Why keep breaking from the narrative structure to do a revolve around people as they died? These aren't shots you throw in just for the heck of it. These aren't the type of shots that just kinda end up being there (like overlooking a camera reflection in a window). Boll made a decision to insert these things, but it doesn't make much sense within the movie itself. They only seem to exist to remind you "hey, remember when this used to be a cool game?"

music - It's not so much the music itself so much the total lack of variation. For an action movie with a good soundtrack- check out Crank. The sound is handled well and music is picked to fit key moments to create different moods throughout the film.

In the end, I don't think it holds well as a horror film or an action film. It lacks any tension to be either. Aside from tossing out a few gimmicks, it didn't even feel like anyone was trying.

i watched this movie a while ago, too.
if you like zombie movies, watch it. :)