In several interviews, original Dawn of the Dead director George A Romero gave his unvarnished thoughts on Army of the Dead director Zack Snyder’s remake. The late, great George A Romero effectively invented the modern zombie movie with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead and is universally considered the Godfather of the zombie genre, with even modern zombie movies held up to his work years later.
Yes, technically Alien scriptwriter Dan O’Bannon was the one who gave the undead the unforgettable line “braaaiiins…", but it was horror legend George A Romero who first depicted the undead rising from their graves en masse to attack the living in an apocalyptic siege horror movie. It was Romero who crammed mismatched characters into a limited location as hordes of the shambling undead congregated outside, hoping to feast on their insides. And it was Romero who, with the sequels Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, solidified the modern image of zombies in pop culture.
However, in the twenty-first century, Romero’s villains were due a makeover and received one with Danny Boyle’s howling, sprinting 28 Days Later monsters. Crucially, though, the "zombies" of 2002’s 28 Days Later were technically just infected humans, whereas a mere two years later screenwriter James Gunn and future Army of the Dead director Zack Snyder remade Romero’s Dawn of the Dead with similarly fast, hyper-aggressive zombies as the new antagonists. In a pair of interviews, the late, great Romero gave his thoughts on the remake, and his take is a balanced and fair summation of the movie’s strengths and flaws.
Interviewed by Simon Pegg (star of the then-recent Romero love letter Shaun of the Dead) for Time Out, Romero said he found Snyder’s movie effective in its opening but thought the remainder of the action lacked purpose. Per Romero, “It was better than I expected. I thought it was a good action film. The first 15, 20 minutes were terrific, but it sort of lost its reason for being. It was more of a video game.” It’s a complaint familiar to fans of the Snyder version, which tones down the satirical verve of Romero’s original in favor of gory action. The recent Army of the Dead got a lot right but the movie was also criticized for some of the same issues Romero pointed out when it comes to giving a metaphorical purpose to its undead villainous hordes. Snyder’s zombie horrors are more concerned with visceral impact and effective thrills than crafting meaningful social commentary, much like the 2010 remake of Romero’s The Crazies stripped back the original’s bold satire in favor of more gore and a far faster pace.
As Romero put it in another interview, this time with The Telegraph in 2013: “I sort of thought it lost its reason for being… Basically, because I was using the idea for satire. My film needed to be done right when it was done, because that sort of shopping mall was completely new. It was the first one in Pennsylvania that we had ever seen. The heart of the story is based in that. And I didn't think the remake had it.” The question of why money matter in Army of the Dead is another case where Snyder could have made a canny comment about one being more important than human lives but opted not to take the pointedly satirical route of Romero’s movies. Both the more recent Netflix hit and Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead are praised for their action, while many critics found the commentary lacking (although some political commentary is certainly present). In fairness to Snyder, some of the helmer's attempts at more serious and thoughtful moments have ben derided as overblown and silly by critics, so perhaps it is no surprise that his critically acclaimed Dawn of the Dead remake and his later Army of the Dead jettison Romero's satire in favor of pure action spectacle.