Review of Army of Darkness (1992) by Movie G — 07 Mar 2011

Let me get right out of the way, I f**king love The Evil Dead! If you've been read my two recent reviews of the first two films you'll know that I gave the second film a 90%, and the first a masterful 100% so why only a 60% for this one? Well it's not that Army Of Darkness is that bad, it's an effective action comedy, but it takes out just about everything that made the first two movies great and eliminates all ties from the first two.

Army Of Darkness starts off right where Evil Dead II left off with Ash being sent back to Medieval Times, except wait? Didn't they all think he was a hero at the end of number two? They did but for some reason in this movie he starts off a slave. It actually works better, but it's just kind of weird. It's soon realised that he was the man that the Book of the Dead prophosized about, he who would fall from the sky and help destroy the evil forever, so they get him to help them fight off the dead, but not without some typical shenanigans along the way.

As I mentioned this movie is nothing like the other two. Most notably gone is the cabin. We've spent the entire two hours in this tiny little section of the woods, so to all the sudden just be in these wide open landscapes and castles doesn't really suit it at all.

Second of all is Ash is completely different. He's become a total asshole for one, which is never really explained, except I guess that if I had just fought off monsters and survied only to be sent back to medieval times to fight more monsters I'd be pissed aswell. He also is much more talkative. Continuing along with Ash's classic "Swallow This" line, he's given all kinds of memorable one liners in this movie, which do help give him a bit more character, but again you just don't really like him in this movie because he's such a dick.

Another thing gone is the horror. This whole movie may be about an army of dead people rising out of their graves, but on a whole it doesn't even attempt to be scary. Gone are the quick jump ins, the insane violence, and the creepy atmosphere that made the first 2 movies so incredible.

Also completely gone is the humour. Not that this movie isn't funny, in fact it flat out tries the hardest to be funny of the entire series, but it's much more old school slap stick kind of humour that isn't that great. Sure the entire hand thing from Evil Dead 2 was kind of slapstick, but this movie takes to a whole new level with eye gouging, slapping, real Three Stooges kind of stuff. It doesn't exactly do it for me, but some people call it one of the funniest movies ever, and there are a few parts that made me laugh. There is one scene in particular where Ash has to say a magic phrase in order to get The Book Of The Dead, but he fogets one of the words and tries to mumble his way through it. Interestingly though, the phrase was klaatu moratta nikto, or something like that, which actually originated in the 1950s scifi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still.

The final thing I miss may not seem like much to people but I miss the POV chase cam! It is actually used once, but it seems really haphazardly thrown in and done so just to please fans, which in my opinion is actually worse than not using it. It's not to say the camerawork isn't still cool, Sam Raimi's style still kicks ass, but it just doesn't feel the same without it.

I may have just spent have the review slamming this movie, but it's not great to just spend your entire time comparing, so I do have some positive things to say.

For one the effects are awesome. It brings back the cool stop motion animations effects, but this time using fighting skeletons, clearlt a reference to Jason And The Argonauts. The makeup on the dead king also looks pretty cool, but it could be cooler. The fights at the end are also fairly impressive, considering you sometimes see 30 real people batteling 30 stop motion skeletons at once, all at different points of a fight. I have no clue how they pulled that off, but it's cool.

The musical score is also pretty good. It's more medieval themed, for obvious reasons, and suits the scenes, but it's not quite as eerie as the music from the other two.

Again technically the movie is pretty good. It's well shot, edited and directed, and Sam Raimi did a good job all around with this movie. He clearly tried to make his screenplay a little bit more fleshed out, and to be fair it is. We get some character development and a lot more dialogue than the other two, but I still odn't appreciate the constant jokes. Bruce Campbell, the other side of the classic duo, also does well. As I mentioned he's completely different but he gets a chance to shine in this movie more than in the previous two, and his now signature cockiness and one liners are in full force here. He was better in Evil Dead II in my opinion, just watch the scene where everythings laughing and you'll see what I mean, but at least he gets a chance to be kind of goofy. It also actually gives him a little backstory aswell. It turns out that he works as a clerk at a department store, which I actually find one of the funniest things about this movie.

All in all Army Of Darkness on it's own probably would have been a great movie, but since you end up constantly comparing it to the others it really brings it down. It tries way too hard to be funny and rarely succeeds, but some people consider it the best of the series. I myself find it a mildly entertaining action comedy, but it's nowhere near essential viewing and if you absolutely loved the first two movies, I warn you that this movie may ruin the great reputation they have for you. With Evil Dead IV apparently on the way it may be necessary for people to watch this movie, but I just hope it will take the series back to it's incredible roots that this movie seems to ignore.