Dawn of the Dead may be one of the finest remakes ever.
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I´m a huge fan of George A. Romero´s quintessential zombie series. My favorite of the series is still the original "Night of the Living Dead," however, the first sequel, "Dawn of the Dead" doesn´t fall too far behind. Therefore, it was with some hesitation that I could come to terms with watching a remake of "Dawn of the Dead." Director Zack Snyder had absolutely nothing on his directorial resume. That was a strike against the film. The trailer showed zombies moving hastily from shot to shot and this was against the typically slow and dead-like movements of Romero´s zombies. The odds against me enjoying "Dawn of the Dead" were quickly stacking up against the film. If it weren´t for Ving Rhames involvement in the film, I´d have had absolutely no reason to sit down and watch what I felt would be a horrific re-imagining of Romero´s classic.
It´s not the original. It lacks the originality of Romero´s film, but it is really hard to fault a remake as not being original. After all, it is a remake. However, I was surprised with the quality and entertainment value of Snyder´s version of Romero´s zombie horror in a mall picture. This new picture utilizes more modern special effects and a large budget to create a polished looking "Dawn of the Dead" that pays homage to the original and stays true to its themes and lineage. Romero´s film was more classic and original, but Snyder´s is a slicker and faster moving film that is perhaps even more captivating and involving than the slow-burning original. The fast moving zombies are horrific. They are individually frightening, whereas a Romero zombie is only truly dangerous in a horde. After getting past my initial hesitation, I quickly realized that "Dawn of the Dead" may be one of the finest remakes ever.
The story finds Ana (Sarah Polley) returning home from her long and demanding job as a nurse at a local hospital. She talks to a neighbor´s daughter and makes love to her husband. Everything seems normal as she falls asleep after a busy day. The next morning, hell has taken over and the friendly little girl she shared a tender moment with the previous day has become a vicious monster and killed her husband Luis (Justin Louis). After escaping from those that were dear to her, Ana finds the entire world is in complete disarray. The incredible Johnny Cash song "When the Man Comes Around" introduces her and the viewer to the complete insanity that is slowly destroying humanity. She gets in her car and flees, only to be yanked from her car by a police officer. She is thrown and left for dead.
When Ana awakens, she is helped by Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a police officer with a shotgun. Kenneth is on his way to a nearby Army base for protection. Along the way, they run into a frightened and aggressive Best Buy clerk, Michael (Jake Weber), and Andre (Mekhi Phifer) and his pregnant wife Luda (Inna Korobkina). Michael first wants Kenneth to disarm, but realizes that his best chance of survival would be to have Kenneth as an ally. The five flee and discover a mall and enter the shopping fortress for protection. There, they find C.J. (Michael Kelly), Bart (Michael Barry) and Terry (Kevin Zegers), three security guards who have armed themselves and taken the necessary steps to keep themselves alive during the zombie invasion. Eventually, others join the survivors, including Frank (Matt Frewer) who has been bitten and causes a rift among the survivors when they debate killing Frank.
They are able to defend themselves and keep fed and safe inside the mall. They know their food will eventually run out and decide to build two armored vehicles from supplies found throughout the mall and make their way to one of the survivor´s boats to make their escape to an island that should be absent of zombies. The plan starts to fall apart when a friendly sniper across the street, Andy (Bruce Bohne) has run out of food and they send a dog over with supplies to keep Andy alive until they can pick him up on their flight to the marina. When Andy is attacked and the dog is unable to return, one of the survivors, Nicole (Lindy Booth) steals a vehicle and rushes to save the dog. This puts her in danger, as Andy has been bitten and the others must quickly move to rescue her.
When not everything goes according to plan, some of the survivors are killed and the others begin their voyage to the boat. More are killed, but Kenneth, Terry, Nicole, Ana and Michael manage to make it to the boat. Ana and Michael have found a romantic bond, but Ana is distraught when she learns that Michael has been bitten and hard decisions must be made as to his fate. As a nurse, Ana believes she can save him, but Michael knows otherwise. Leaving Michael behind, the remaining survivors must combat starvations, disease and maggots on their plight to a safe island hideaway. The film ends with visions that leave their ultimate survival in doubt, but an ending that is fitting and rivals any of the endings provided by George A. Romero.
"Dawn of the Dead" is a terribly entertaining zombie film that mixes the speed and dexterity of the "28 Days Later" Rage ridden zombies with the hordes and masses of the George A. Romero films. It brings Romero´s classic vision of a world turned upside-down by the living dead and introduces it to modern Hollywood filmmaking. Director Zack Snyder shows his attention to detail and appreciation for the original film by making a worthwhile reinvention of this classic. He uses Romero alumnus Tom Savini in a wonderful cameo where Savini provides the infamous "Shoot ´em in the head" line to the masses. This new "Dawn of the Dead" is more energetic and emotionally charged than the original. It lacks the originality and deep storytelling of the original film and Savini was better used as the leader of a murderous motorcycle gang and not as a Sheriff, but having Savini present is always a plus.
My principle reason to initially watch this film was to see Ving Rhames kick some serious ass. I was not disappointed, because Ving is one tough bad-assed cat and he provides more muscle and toughness than anything ever seen in a Romero film. He is a great character actor and the greatest strength of this new "Dawn of the Dead." Watching Ving as a police sergeant and taking down zombies with a shotgun was the stuff dreams are made of. I loved every minute the actor was on screen and would love to see the ending turn up positive and Kenneth fight for freedom on the island. Why not remake "Day of the Dead" and feature Kenneth and Ana as the principle characters? I´d go out and see it in a heartbeat after watching this first effort from Zack Snyder. He did a great job with this one.
Video:
Universal presents Zack Snyder´s "Dawn of the Dead" in a wonderfully solid looking 2.35:1 widescreen transfer. Mastered with the VC-1 codec, "Dawn of the Dead" looks just as strong as the most recent films and although it is still too young to be a true catalog title, would rank among the best catalog titles released by Universal. I had watched this new remake a couple of times on DVD and can safely state that this is a marked improvement over the already solid looking DVD release. Out of the numerous releases recently from the studio, this was one of the titles that I had kept the highest hopes for a high quality transfer and I was definitely not disappointed with this release. It looks very strong in high definition and the added gore of the Unrated Director´s Cut comes across quite vividly.
2004´s "Dawn of the Dead" is not as visually stylistic as the film it is compared most to, "28 Days Later." It does feature a number of scenes and moments where colors are not as strong and stock footage used in the film does not translate well to high definition, but the remainder of the film is a strongly detailed affair with good coloring. Director of Photography Matthew F. Leonetti utilizes a lot of color filtering and in particular those of the cold color scheme. This makes for a perfect contrast with the red blood that is abundant throughout the film, but it results in coloring that is not as strong and vibrant as the colors could have been. Whites are sometimes overblown and skin tones are purposely blandish. Blue skies are almost white during some of the more overblown moments. Colors are still good, but they are stylistically impaired with what HD-DVD is capable of.
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