Originally touted as an American version of Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland follows Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) as they drive across the United States, fighting for their lives and trying to avoid becoming the next statistic in an all-encompassing zombie infection. As they want to not have any real connection to each other, the group uses the names of cities to avoid exchanging their real names with each other. It is an interesting and clever touch, in an otherwise bafflingly disappointing film even on multiple rewatchings.

I wanted to love Zombieland like so many others did. I wanted to love it the same way I do Shaun of the Dead, the brilliant little cult film from across the pond that coined the term ‘zom-rom-com’. But sadly, Zombieland is not able to compare to that film in any respect. It had the intentions of being an amazingly hilarious horror film, but it never delivers on the promises of any of the wildly enjoyable trailers.

Speaking of those trailers, they are the biggest point of contention I have with the film. They reveal almost every single one of the best jokes. Outside of the dementedly hilarious and out-of-this-world cameo appearance (which I will not spoil, even if the film has been out for almost two years), the trailers show and tell practically everything else. And if you have had the misfortunate of learning which actor appears in that cameo, half the joke has been ruined already. It feels a bit mismanaged on Sony’s part, especially for such a ridiculously short film (80-minutes and change), to basically give away all the best parts. It is something that a lot of studios have attempted to avoid in recent years (some better than others), but here it just feels silly. A lot of these lines were laugh-out-loud hysterical the first time, but in every other instance, seem not so clever or unique. A significant portion of the initially hilarious lines suffer even worse fates. They simply lose their luster, and end up not being funny at all.

The film also lacks the key and most paramount element for every proper zombie film: satire. George A. Romero became famous for his zombie films, but only because of the ulterior messages he was using the flesh hungry horrors to put across. Isolation and fear were always apparent in his films, and every film from Shaun to the incredibly overrated 28 Days Later has used some part of his famous works to make their own shine all the brighter. Zombieland does away with this almost entirely. It wisely does not elaborate too in-depth on the cause of the infection, or even how far it reaches (is it just in the United States, or has the whole world been hit by the zombie plague?). But outside of Columbus’ rules to live by, which comically appear every few minutes during his narrative speeches, the film never makes an attempt at satirizing anything. It just makes jokes at the expense of pop culture, a good portion of the cameo actor’s previous films, and Harrelson’s often bizarre redneck attitude. Any attempts at drama fall flat on its face over and over again.

The film also suffers from having an episodic feel. I found out after I watched the film that it was initially meant to be a television series (and probably could become one now that The Walking Dead has become such a big hit), but it does not explain why the filmmakers did not attempt to stretch out the action and/or make the scenes flow more organically. As it stands, it feels like a three-part pilot strung together by string and glue. While this allows the film to have a semi-great low-budget feel, I have come to expect a bit more of low budget filmmaking like this after seeing a group of amateur South Africans make a Best Picture nominee with slightly more money. Even Shaun manages to do a whole lot more, and from my understanding, it was made for a fairly small amount of money as well. The problems Zombieland suffers from here could have only been fixed with stronger editing. But with how straight and to the point the film tends to be, I doubt there was any room for added filler at any point (outside of a very dry section taking place shortly after the extended group meets for the first time).

The inventive camera angles and consistently dystopic feel are probably the most powerful points in the film. While the entire movie is not made up of crazy and unique camera angles, there are plenty that feel original. They give a certain taste and diversity to the film that makes it much better than it actually is. The hard rocking soundtrack is rather well done as well, setting the tone for the film almost immediately with Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” over the entertaining opening credits.

Future Oscar-nominee Eisenberg is saddled with playing nearly the same character as he does in Adventureland, but still manages to do some fairly good work here. His deadpan narration adds a comical element to the film that would have been sadly missed without him, and even with the same-note performance, he manages to be convincing in the role. Branching out and doing more unique things with the character could have only been benefitted him. Harrelson, who has grown accustomed to playing unhinged and wacky characters, is solid throughout the film. He has enough finesse and charisma to work off his much younger supporting cast, and manages to make his role fun from beginning to end. Stone and Breslin do some decent work in their roles, but never get nearly as much time to shine as Eisenberg or Harrelson. Their one-dimensionality is a bit silly in the long run (especially when looking at their actions in the final act), but both actresses do a more than adequate job in their roles.

Having any sort of high expectations going into Zombieland is just calling for disappointment. Having any preconceived notion of it being comparable to Shaun of the Dead is a downright mistake. It is a fairly entertaining film yes, but has a lot of problems associated with it. Multiple rewatchings have not strengthened the film at all; it has just made it all the more disappointing. But for a few mild laughs, you could still do a lot worse.

   -- David Baldwin