Land of the Dead: gunplay and review

[DontBurnMyFlag]

Well, I saw LoTD, on opening night like the nerd I am. Well let me say that, there were some problems. I would like to rant about the innaccuracies of zombies evolving and showing emotion, but thats not gun related. However, what is gun related, is the frantic use of full automatic fire.
So there is a city that is completly zombie free, surrounded by an electric fence and river on 2 sides. There are military garrisons all over the electric fence. When a zombie touches the fence, it becomes crispity crunchity goodness. However, when the zombies decide to attack, the "battle hardened" soldiers use full auto fire and shoot at center mass of a zombie. After how many months of being attacked by zombies does it take to realize a head shot kills them? The guards all had m16a1's and full auto m16a2 type weapons. One man had an m1 carbine which he prefered over the G36c which was handed out like it was going out of style. needless to say that anyone, and I mean ANYONE on this forum stood a better chance alone fighting zombies than the entire city did. Go see the movie, its entertaining and a little farfetched, even for a zombie movie.

{Spoilers removed. You're supposed to warn people before you do that.}

 

[Cesiumsponge]

The evolution and emotional context displayed in Land was touched upon in Romero's Day of the Dead. Specifically, it probably stems from the experiments Dr Logan carries out which manages to domesticate Bub into a non-brain eating zombie and to recall his former life or regain some higher brain functions. Bub ends up being able to do human things, like play with a telephone or eventually, shoot a gun.

The soldiers in the movie weren't former US military or anything (at leat not most of them). They were haphazardly trained and given uniforms. Dennis Hopper mentions that he paid good money for their training, but that doesn't mean they're battle hardened soldiers who've practiced enough that they won't panic under stress.

 

[torpid]

**SPOILER**

And most importantly, I sorry if I spoil the movie here, but John Leguizamo dies, and Im glad. If you have ever seen any of his movies, you would be too.

Oh no- you, I, and everybody you do enjoy in movies will also die in real life!

I kinda liked the portrayal of that character, myself.

Yeah, the zombies did follow the foreshadowing in Day of the Dead.
However, all the people in this movie seemed very tactically stupid, and not at all interested in self-preservation.

Oddly enough, I'd put my enjoyment of this movie on par with the 2004 Dawn remake which I enjoyed despite my "old school" zombie loyalties.

(loves zombie flicks- especially Romero's)

 

[Logan5]

As an unashamed zombie movie geek, I've already done plenty of griefing about this one, even though I can clearly see that it was all done for the sake of the story. Still, I'm skeptical about the ability of the good old Romero zombie to inspire capital "P" panic in people who have supposedly spent years training for and actually dealing with them.
There was an undercurrent of contempt for the zombies, which I guess is supposed to explain how a shambling corpse sneaks up on people; they're overconfident and just don't pay attention... but hey, who really buys that, outside the "allegory of our modern society" context?
Tactics were total poop. "Hey, I'll put down my Uzi with the tactical light, and stick my bare hand into a dark area of this zombie infested building. The light's not on the gun so I can use them together to scan for and eliminate threats or anything. Ooops." And then there was the "I'll just draw my handgun, wave it around, then set it down on the other side of the room while I do something, maybe my holster is broken, maybe I'm just not fond of hanging on to my lifesaving equipment."
In a way, I did find it a funny riff on the whole Peter/Flyboy dynamic from Dawn '78 that people were perpetually shooting at zombies behind their friends, and winging their friends. Tactics had clearly degenerated. There was none of the "It wasn't one of those things that nearly blew me away" thing from way back when...

 

[50 Freak]

Yeah, I was pretty dissappointed in LOTD. I had such high hopes for it. I thought it would be as good as the the latest Dawn of the Dead. That's a pretty good movie.