Review of Land of the Dead (2005) by Oz S — 28 Oct 2014

George A. Romero returns to his post-apocalyptic zombie world 37 years after his classic Night of the Living Dead. The zombies are evolving and can now communicate on a basic level and work together, making them a more interesting threat.

This may seem like Zombie heresy to some. They still have human brains that hold an abundance of information, so it makes good sense. The carnage and excitement are there, like before, but the characters and most of the acting fall flat.

John Leguizamo adds a spark with his performance. Dennis Hopper is not bad as the greasy aristocrat hiding in the ultra-secure condominium, but the rest of the cast fails to make the viewer invest. Focusing on a small group in the midst of the crisis is normally a good thing.

However, these characters are so dull that a greater focus on the large-scale threat seems like a lost opportunity to compensate for the weak set of main characters. To George A. Romero's credit, his zombie movies are more about the ugliness of humanity and that a crisis makes us even uglier.

This time the politics are just not as interesting. The prevailing theme revolves around a class system in which as a select few reside in luxury while most live in poverty-stricken conditions. Sure, this is a real-world condition, especially with wealthy tyrants in third-world countries, but it pushes the political agenda too hard down our throats.

It is not a brain-dead movie, but stronger characters are necessary to live up to the Romero standard.