Army of Thieves Movie Review: Netflix’s Prequel to Zack Snyder’s Zombie Flick is Needless, But Quite Fun (LatestLY Exclusive)

Army of Thieves Movie Review: Netflix revealed its own Zack Snyder cinematic universe this year when they released his Army of the Dead. So, of course a franchise being a franchise, you need to evolve it, and Netflix’s first attempt at that is by making the spinoff: Army of Thieves. Directed by Matthias Schweighofer who also stars in the film, Army of Thieves was a bit unnecessary, but I still walked away having quite a lot of fun with it. Army of the Dead Movie Review: Zack Snyder Delivers a Flawed but Fun Zombie Flick, Starring Dave Bautista and Huma Qureshi (LatestLY Exclusive).

Army of Thieves takes place six years before Army of the Dead, just at the start of the Zombie apocalypse. It focuses on Ludwig Deiter, one of the characters from Army of the Dead, also played by Matthias Schweighofer. He is a pro at safe-cracking and is recruited by a group of thieves to pull off one of the biggest jobs ever.

If you loved the characters in Army of the Dead, then Army of Thieves will keep you satisfied. The characters here aren’t as emotionally resonant as Dave Bautista’s Scott Ward, but they are colourful in their own regard. Nathalie Emmanuel’s Gwendoline was probably my favorite of the new addition as she was strikingly impressive in this film. Her chemistry with Mathias’ Ludwig was great and it kept the film flowing.

Another great thing that I can point out is the score by Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro. I definitely didn’t know going into the film that Zimmer had a hand in the score, and it is one of the best things about the film. By no means is it his best work, but it adds so much personality to it.

Watch the Trailer:

With this being a heist film too, the heists are impressive. The shots of Ludwig crack-opening a safe show us the insides of how the mechanics work. It makes for some really impressive viewing and visually keeps things interesting. Visuals-wise as well, while you can see some of Snyder’s signature work, Mathias easily makes it his own. In some regard, I would even say this is a better looking film than Army of the Dead. There were many moments in Army of the Dead where so much of the screen would be blurred out, but everything over here is so clear with a hint of a fantasy-like feel to it.

With this of course being set in an universe established by Zack Snyder, it is supposed to be a bit over the top, and I think the action plays to the best aspects of those. The scenes were framed well and were captured without a shaky cam and it was really easy to follow. This also goes with the tone, everything is very well balanced. It never took me out of the experience and it felt believable within the film’s world.

However, Army of Thieves does fall into the occasional clichés of heist films. They are abundantly present over here and I think it’s what majorly holds the film back from being great. Characters pointing out that these are exactly how things would play out in a film doesn’t excuse them of this weakness. Army of the Dead 2: Zack Snyder Reveals the Title of the Sequel, Get Ready for ‘Planet of the Dead’.

Also, it is heavily limited by being bound to the Army of the Dead universe. With Ludwig meeting a zombie for the first time during Army of the Dead, you can’t incorporate the undead in any way over here into the plot. This is what makes it so unnecessary. Army of Thieves should not have been connected to Army of the Dead and would have massively benefited from it. It could have led to a more unique plot and I would have liked that a bit more, and this film possibly could have been great.

Yay!

Characters

Score

Heists

Cinematography

Nay!

Cliches

Feels Unnecessary

Final Thoughts

Army of Thieves while does feel unnecessary, it still was a good time. I do feel like that it should have been its own thing rather than being connected to Army of the Dead, but then again it was really fun. If you want to spend a good afternoon with a bucket of popcorn, then Army of Thieves is a harmless watch on Netflix.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 29, 2021 05:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).