Just perfect...

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

If you need to know the plot for this film it's really very simple. Put a group of non-infected humans together and have them shoot as many zombies in the head as possible in a hundred and ten minute time span. It's no more complicated than that. My viewing was of the director's cut, with Zack Snyder's introduction stating how there were additional dead bodies and character development the theatrical version didn't have. Character development? That must have been when Ana (Sarah Polley) shared a romantic moment with Michael (Jake Weber) before she knew that he'd been bitten during one of the undead skirmishes. Didn't Ana's husband turn into a zombie only like about, what - six hours earlier? That must have been a solid marriage. Look, I know there's a fan base for this stuff, and because I'm not a member, I just don't get the fascination. For the rest, have fun, if that's what you get out of it.

The characters really take away from this movie. Their level of idiocy really detracts from what is an enjoyable, albeit frustrating movie.

DAWN OF THE DEAD is a remake of George A. Romero's same titled apocalyptic, epic, zombie-horror-action-thriller-drama 1978 masterpiece; this 2004 version sometimes seems good, especially the first 20 or 30 minutes leading up to/getting to the shopping mall (putting aside the cliche of the pretty female nurse working in a major hospital). And when they get inside the mall there's this promising bit where they're running and music from the 1978 film composed by the Italian band Goblin kicks in...but it's over in a few seconds and things go downhill when they meet the security guards hiding in the mall (which was meant to add complexity/depth to the situation but doesn't - it's just security guards hiding in a mall/protecting their turf - wow). Nancy Allen said in an interview on the Robocop remake (2014); words to the effect of: 'You only remake films that had a good idea but were executed badly'. I reckon it'd be cool to remake films for younger audiences who weren't around when the original came out; SPFX have improved so now it's possible to make a better looking/more polished versions but they should leave 'em to the original director/creative team (if they're still around which George A. Romero certainly was) e.g. 'Hey George this is so and so calling from Universal Studios and we want you to remake Dawn of the Dead; you can have as much $ as you like/we'll give you whatever you need/you'll have full creative control' and if they agree or at least have a role in overseeing the production then remake it otherwise leave it alone. Part of the reason why the original Dawn of the Dead was so much better was because George A. Romero worked largely outside of the studio system; he was independent, didn't use a lot of big stars and yet his movies kicked arse; the original Dawn of the Dead had a insight into human nature and materialism and captured a sense of dread and uneasiness as we watch a breakdown of the fabric of society - this remake just isn't as good, isn't as insightful; it seems trite in comparison. This remake is uneven in tone, never really gets going/the gore doesn't take off/there's crappy slow-motion like when the zombies are being blasted off the caged wire fences in the underground car-park and the action doesn't let rip like in the original; after the first act, it's pretty boring /there were missed opportunities; the original film let rip; this one doesn't. Giving it 5 out of 10 for trying and hey; it's easy to criticise; try making a film.

Dawn Of The Dead its a remake of the original horror classic by George Romero, the remake was directed by Zack Snyder, who I love, and its written by James Gunn, another good filmmaker.I believe that this film its actually better that the original by George Romero, but the original was so great for its time, so fresh and groundbreaking, that it doesn't seem fair to compare them.The remake its filled with action, tension and great directing, acting and writing, the original was also really good, but it seemed a little cheesy at times, even for a zombie film.As a film, Dawn Of The Dead its pretty good, it took a really good film and made it better and gave more depth to it.