Ludwig Dieter
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Oct 29, 2021 · “Army of Thieves” takes place six years before the action of “Army of the Dead” as the world is just starting to come to terms with the reality of a zombie outbreak—it’s mostly seen on news reports in the background and in a few of Dieter’s prophetic dreams.
- Army of The Dead
On the heels of HBO Max releasing Zack Snyder's director's...
- Army of The Dead
Army of Thieves doesn't reinvent the heist thriller, but director-star Matthias Schweighöfer proves an appealing presence on both sides of the camera. Read Critics Reviews. There are snappier heist...
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- Matthias Schweighöfer
- Matthias Schweighöfer
- Pantaleon Films
Oct 26, 2021 · Movie Reviews. Netflix’s ‘Army of Thieves’: Film Review. Matthias Schweighöfer returns as the star and director of this prequel to Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead,’ a European heist...
- An unnecessary prequel.
- What We Said About Army of the Dead
- Score: 6
- What zombie movie could actually have a good prequel?
- Worst Reviewed Movies of 2021
- Verdict
By Zaki Hasan
Updated: Apr 9, 2022 12:08 am
Posted: Oct 26, 2021 2:00 pm
When Netflix debuted Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead last spring, the big-budget, big-runtime zombie flick marked a turn away from comic book epics and a return to the horror-on-steroids fare the director had previously made a meal of with his 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. More importantly, by bringing Snyder into their fold, it signalled Netflix’s desire to tap into the Man of Steel director’s vocal, passionate Internet fanbase to hopefully propel new franchises and shared universes aplenty for the streaming service. Unfortunately, Army of Thieves arrives as a bit of an inauspicious test case for that hypothesis thanks to an over-reliance on Army of the Dead’s thin story.
Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead may look cool on the surface, and it lures you in with potentially game-changing twists to zombie lore, but it quickly devolves into just another undead shoot 'em up with disposable, forgettable characters. While it does some fascinating things with the zombie genre that we haven't seen since George A. Romero, Army of...
Read the full Army of the Dead Review
In that same vein, other than the aforementioned die hard Snyder fans, it’s hard to discern who exactly a movie like Army of Thieves is aimed at. It’s not enough of a zombie movie to satisfy that audience, and not enough of a heist movie for that audience. Instead, it’s a strange hybrid of a thing that seems to feel the mythology Army of the Dead established only five months ago is so substantial and/or iconic as to require significant excavation. And it’s just...not.
It’s a strange hybrid of a thing.
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Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
28 Days Later (2002)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Other - tell us in the comments
And so, in lieu, of a deeper examination of the zombie plague and its roots (which, to be fair, may still be forthcoming in some other Army project down the line), we get Shaun of the Dead-style snippets of flesh-eating hordes engulfing America interspersed with our main characters – including getaway driver Rolph (Guz Khan), hacker Karina (Ruby O. Fee), and bad boy wild card Brad (Stuart Martin) – heisting overseas while trying to evade INTERPOL. It’s just nothing all that noteworthy – by this point we’ve seen so many heist movies (including plenty of Netflix originals on the subject) the only thing left for screenwriter Shay Hatten to do is run through a litany of heist movie tropes while commenting on how predictable heist movie tropes are.
Most of the zombie gore is reserved for several dream sequences detailing Dieter’s nightmares about being consumed by zombies. There’s also an ending scene that will prove meaningful to Army of the Dead fans by lining this movie up with that one. On that note, while Snyder is only producing this go-round, his signature stylistic template is very mu...
While not without charm, the biggest factors working against Army of Thieves are a confused hybrid of horror and heist genre stories and an approach making it unclear which audience – other than the most ardent of Zack Snyder fans – it’s aimed at. While the idea of building out the before-during-after of a zombie apocalypse is hardly unheard of (he...
- Zaki Hasan
Oct 26, 2021 · Reviews. Oct 26, 2021 7:01am PT. ‘Army of Thieves’ Review: A Prequel to ‘Army of the Dead,’ With No Zombies and One Genius Safecracker. Matthias Schweighöfer directs the origin story of...
Army of Thieves is an undeniably watchable film that while maybe overall unremarkable when put into the context of what Netflix has to offer overall, is a clear step up from the rather...
Nov 5, 2021 · Army of Thieves is light on zombies but brings the same sly humor and thrilling action to its story, making it a beautifully crafted entertaining romp in its own right.
