Diary of the Dead

In an attempt to portray a satirical social commentary about the dissemination of information and the blur that the computer age has created with Youtube, blogs and television coverage, George Romero fails miserably. Not surprising that a man who has written and directed over a dozen films about... flesh-eating zombies, fails in this attempt at a hip new type of media. Taking cues from the suspenseful and well done Cloverfield, Diary of the Dead is filmed entirely (except for the expert cuts and the slow motion collages of flashbacks) on a hand-held camera. However, there are musical interludes and the band of characters spout dialogue as if they were in a John Carpenter movie.

The story is not anything new. Zombie virus outbreak, group of students including two couples, a few outcasts and a mysterious British professor embark on a survival journey, and one by one they are eaten and forced to shoot each other in the head. Fairly formulaic as far as these things go. The thing that made this a little unbearable, besides the lack of originality is the amount of time it took for them to finally die off. It wouldn't have been so bad had there been zombies running around with the Romero trademark gratuitous dismemberment, decapitation and disembowelment. However, there were far fewer scenes, none of which were in the least bit scary.

The character development was like sitting in a dentist's chair, and as one of my friends would surely complain about, the tactical situational unawareness was annoying. These people deserve to die. They separate anytime they get a chance, walk around in the dark, and put their faces near corpses. Are you kidding me? How many zombies do you have to see before you put up your defenses?

The worst character of all is the cameraman, a self-righteous crusader to get the "real information" documented for the survivors to have a record of what really happened. Really? You won't put a camera down to help your friends kill zombies? You won't console your girlfriend after she killed her zombie family because you need to film her emotional response? What a complete and utter farce. Not to spoil the plot, but I smiled a little when he finally got bit.

There were some interesting special and makeup effects. That is the only saving point to this film (if it can even be called a saving point). The final image of the film is by far the most spectacular, but it is far too little too late. I enjoyed 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake quite a bit, but it was helmed by a newcomer named Zack Snyder. You may have heard of a little thing he did last year called 300. He's also working on the much anticipated Watchmen film due out 2009. Basically, George Romero has overstayed his welcome within the genre he created. I know, blasphemy to the believers, but like Carpenter, his films are not as good or original as they were 20-30 years ago. 4/10.