Land of the Dead was the appropriate title

So with the movie fresh in my mind, let me start by restating the title to this blog: Land of the Dead is very much the appropriate title for this film.

Let's begin with a brief history lesson: In 1968, working under a shoe-string budget, George Romero for all intents and purposes created a new genre in horror. Although movies about the dead returning from the grave to kill people have existed for ages and likely had their beginnings with the ancient mummy yarn, it is Romero's treatment of the subject matter that really solidifies his new take on the subject as one that may demand respect and positive reviews. What is to follow, Dawn of the Dead, will become the zombie flick to end all zombie flicks. Easily a brilliant analysis of modern consumerism and our inability to think for ourselves. Romero crafts, along with gallons of gore, a movie that through horror allows us to better see what it is humans have become. Romero takes civilization as a whole and basically calls the lot of us living zombies. Truly there are fewer and fewer "living" beings left, while the majority of us are nothing but mindless robots, believing in nothing but what the media tells us and what corporate sponsors foll us into thinking we should want. I could go on and on about Dawn. It's easily one of my favorite movies of all time. -But then Romero takes a turn for the worse and releases Day of the Dead. It is a movie even he admits wasn't his best work and though it forwards the progression of what zombies are capable of, it does little else of what we expect from the man.

Now, we find ourselves staring down the barrel of Romero's latest living dead flick, and as I said before, it's title is incredibly appropriate. As the previous movies in his series would have us believe, the fourth movie should follow the trend of phases of a given day. From Night to Dawn to Day, many fans expected the fourth film to be called Dusk or Twilight of the Dead. That obviously isn't the case here.

In his latest movie, Romero, well... Romero makes a zombie flick that looks like it's trying to be a Romero movie. It's a glitzy, hollywood translation of what a zombie flick should be, complete with a massive budget and tons of gory special effects. Unfortunately, the majority of us have come to expect less, and essentially love less. Romero fans, for the majority, love Savini's garage splatter effects. There is a sort of realness to seeing people ripped apart when it's done with models and rubber manequins. It is really an essential key to Romero movies. Sure, we got some of it, but for me, there was far too much of the digitized gore. I wanted to see a lot of what I came to expect: a funny, gory tale about people trying to cope in a post-apocalyptic world while subtly commenting on real world situations and showing us the error of our ways. Instead we get, "I don't negotiate with terrorists" and "I'll put a jyhad on them". Ugh. If I wanted that sort of lame crap, I would have asked Paul Anderson or Joel Schumacher to direct the flick. The war on terrorism aside, what Land did do was present an intriguing view of a world on the brink of destruction which still retained an active class system. People, though in constant fear for their lives, were still able to buy into the whole idea that some people have and some people have-not. They still listend and obeyed the law! It was so sad, yet so true. So in the sense, Romero was dead on, and really that aspect remains one of my favorite parts of this movie. It wasn't bad, just disappointing. I wanted so much more and got a short, cut-way-too-much, made for a general audience, wanna-be Romero flick. Maybe it'll be so much better on dvd. Lord knows I've said that before and still been disappointed by dvd releases. I'm just hoping we see more depth, more, blood, and way more funny in about six month's time.

It was a decent flick, but I'm glad the title was different, because I'd hate to think that this was the way that Romero intended on ending his Dead saga. It's a good effort, but falls short of the mark.

7.5/10