It’s no secret that I love zombies. Before you roll your eyes and let out a sigh expecting that the rest of this review will be nothing more than a geek squee from a partial fan, I want to let you know that I don’t love zombies, that way.
Zombies are a fun subject to create stories around and to place into existing stories to change their style. In this regard, zombies are no different than ninjas, pirates, the wild west or anything else of the like. They’re exciting because they are fantastic, something we will most likely never see like we do in movies, graphic novels and books, but their origins are tied to half-truths, extreme situations and our general ignorance of things scientific. All of which, makes the possibility of zombies seem more real, and, therefore, more intriguing.
The two best things that zombies do for people, I think, is scare them and allow them something that the world considers okay to beat with a bat until nothing put goo remains. In fact, that want to be scared and that want to release pure, uninhibited violence to lust-point is so strong that since we don’t know enough to say that zombies couldn’t exist, they can, and since we don’t know how zombies could be made, we thought of ways to make them.
Even so, zombie movies, in my mind, aren’t classified into a “zombie movie” category. Instead, they’re filed around inside of other genres, like action, horror, suspense, comedy, tragedy, and the like. If I had to put Zombieland into a category, it would probably be comedy, but it has so much more.
The two main characters of Zombieland make the movie, and the grand total of four human characters makes it cozy. Explanation is coming. In the post-apocalyptic anarchy that is a world completely covered with death, the remaining humans are obsessed with two things: staying alive and staying sane. Rarely, at this point in the chronology of a zombified Earth, will a human see another uninfected human, and if two do meet, they don’t want to stick together because at least one of them is certain to die, and neither wants any more emotional strain. This is how Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg) feel when they stumble upon one another, and why their names are simply destinations. This theme is reiterated and expanded upon when Tallahassee and Columbus meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The sisters are focused on survival, which is clearly shown when they con Tallahassee & Columbus out of their vehicle and weapons, but they are also focused on sanity. The two sisters have always been together and will never split apart; they are each other’s hope and salvation. Eventually, however, the four learn to work together and each finds what they were missing or had lost from their lives, previously.
I won’t give away too much, but… the kind of writing that gives so much character definition is definitely OSCAR worthy, not only for it’s complexity, but for it’s ability and willingness to create a comic moment out of a dire & heartfelt situation. That’s the beauty of true comedy: it’s on another level; it’s so good that it can give all the insight to the human soul a Rembrandt can, but it also teaches you to laugh.
The story may have been lacking for some, but the narration of the lead character, Columbus, filled gaps where it would have been otherwise emotionally inappropriate for a character to speak. Without the narration, the movie would probably have been dragged out another twenty to thirty minutes with long pauses where the audience would stare at a Eisenberg’s face, wondering what he was thinking. The story didn’t lack character backgrounds, in fact, the audience knew enough of all four to feel connected with each, but, in all honesty, I feel that if it had any more, the movie would feel too rushed and forced, as so many other recent movies, do. The great part about the writing, however, isn’t about what’s in the movie: [*TIDBIT*] Reese and Wernick actually intended Zombieland to be a television show and this movie is actually just the first two episodes. So, there’s plenty more where this came from.
The graphic quality of this movie is high ranking, for sure, but not without its flaws. The feel of the colors and environments of every scene are very akin to anything you may remember from I Am Legend and the like. Almost always dark, and when there’s light, it’s just as frightening. So, I have to give major props to the editing and direction for maintaining the proper feel of a horror/suspense film throughout, and while I’m not going to cost the film points for things they don’t have much control over (like outfitting Wild Adventures, a working theme park, as a refined movie set), I am going to wag my finger at a few other things.
Make-up and costuming were pretty dammed great. I’d say 8 out of every 10 times I saw a zombie, I was at least partially disgusted by the gratuitous use of blood capsules and ooze dripping from undead mouths. The splatter effects they made were awesome, by the way. Not every zombie, however, looked as awesome and epic. Some simply looked like people in make-up, and whether those people are the center of the frame or not, that just won’t do.
CGI was another thing I could wave my finger at, in general. While the quality was definitely refined enough to put Zombieland into an imported car lot of motion pictures, it was not the most tricked out ride. I think the most obvious example of this is when three zombies chasing Columbus through Wild Adventures get smacked by a strangly pendulous carnival ride, as if it were a giant mace. They do seem to flail quite a bit like redeading undead creatures, but rag dolls and different camera angles probably would have looked better. I doubt it would have cost less, if that’s what you were thinking, as CGI is a bit cheaper, nowadays, than paying people to make dolls, operate machinery, and film inanimate objects.
There’s not really a whole lot more about Zombieland that I can write about without doing a thorough, completely spoil-laden synopsis. I laughed out loud, a lot (though Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is still my number one comedy this year), I cried true tears of sorrow (if you’re a father, you’ll understand), and I was honestly scared to the point of a startled jump at least three times (fantastic feat; bravo). I recommend seeing this movie, but only if you understand and accept that it is, indeed, gory, full of lots of violence, suspense, heartbreak, romance, hope, love and zombies.
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