THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

In the near future, a virus sweeps across the planet, decimating mankind. In the world left behind by this diabolical plague, there are more infected than uninfected and humanity is, slowly, painfully, being wiped out. Desperate for a cure but with no hope in sight, mankind does whatever it takes to survive, containing the hostile infected where possible and killing them where not. Lauren, a CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) doctor having fled the doomed city of New York, arrives in Los Angeles, ready to lead a team into hate-filled downtown LA, searching for and rescuing any survivors left inside the quarantine zone.

MY VERDICT:

This movie owes a lot of its notoriety to being filmed as a first-person shooter - seeing through the eyes of central characters to bring the action terribly close as every kick, shot and bash is witnessed directly. However, there is just not that much action throughout the entire movie which is extremely disappointing for a viewing experience that was so clearly made for a guns-blazing, Kung Fu gorefest. For much of the film only one of our "heroes" carries a gun, aptly named "Gunner", and he only uses it about six times, clearing out Zombies (which, by the way, aren't actually proper scary, flesh-eating Zombies until later on due to a weird 'stages of infection' concept that the film introduces at the start but then quickly forgets about). When the combat goes hand-to-hand, things do not improve. Up-close action feels very slow and overly choreographed - an odd sense that may be due to the first-person camera or the director's extreme, heavy-handed (and ultimately failed) focus on getting each character's moves just right. Unfortunately, the movie does not really have anything else up its sleeve to try and save it - the uniqueness of the filming angle being the main selling point with everything else, including the lacklustre and slightly confused story, built around it.