The Joss Whedon version of Justice League infamously fell victim to bad post-production CGI, a fate not suffered by Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead. Snyder seems to be having a career resurgence at the moment, after taking a few years away from directing following the tragic death of his daughter Autumn and his subsequent departure from Justice League‘s production. Snyder’s 2021 kicked off with a bang, as March finally saw the release of Justice League‘s long-demanded Snyder Cut, after years of teases.
More recently, Snyder’s latest movie, Army of the Dead, is enjoying a good run on Netflix, and even spent some time in theaters nationwide, a rare occurrence for a Netflix release. Set in a zombie-infested Las Vegas, Army of the Dead sees a group of mercenaries attempt to pull off the heist of the century, provided they can make it out alive. Its reviews have been very good, something not at all guaranteed when it comes to Snyder’s work, which often delights fans and not critics.
While Army of the Dead is sadly not a sequel to Snyder’s debut film, 2004’s impressive Dawn of the Dead remake, it’s still nice to see the director head back toward his horror roots. Army of the Dead becomes all the more impressive when one considers that Snyder had to replace cast member Chris D’Elia with Tig Notaro very late in the process, after D’Elia was accused of sex offenses. Whedon’s Justice League also made late changes, but to much lesser effect.
Army of the Dead’s Reshoots Embarrass Justice League’s
One thing that Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League reinforced was just how obvious it is that Joss Whedon’s cut was cobbled together from disparate elements shot by both Whedon and Snyder. That’s especially true when it comes to the infamous special effects problems surrounding Henry Cavill’s mustache, which he had grown for Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and was contractually obligated not to shave off for Justice League‘s reshoots. To get around that, Whedon and company opted to digitally remove the offending facial hair. Needless to say, the removal was so unconvincing, especially in close-ups of Superman, that it became a laughing stock online.
Contrast that with Army of the Dead, which as mentioned previously, saw Snyder and team digitally remove an entire performance from the already shot film, and replace that actor with another in the same role. While the final result isn’t 100 percent flawless, the swapping out of one helicopter pilot named Peters for another comes close to being seamless, and stands in stark contrast to Justice League‘s poor handling of a logically much smaller task. Notaro has been open about how she’s never even met her co-stars, yet her performance looks more at home in Army of the Dead than some of the material in Justice League‘s reshoots. Score one more for Zack Snyder’s 2021.
