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Zombieland (now the highest grossing zombie movie ever according to Wikipedia) is good, messy, messy fun. Given the number of zombie movies, books, comics and websites out are, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a sweet dissection of the genre--but the fact that such a dissection occurs in a film that is not only clever, but genuinely engaging is due to the efforts of director Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
Don’t expect anything too serious by way of plot or conflict (other than the established fact that the world has been overrun by the undead), but the film is sharply written, unexpected, and funny. Most importantly, it pumps fresh blood into a genre that has been used, misused and overused since George Romero first made the dead walk in the late ‘60s.
the film doesn't accomplish this by introducing any major breakthroughs in the zombie genre, or deviating from its traditions--on the contrary, it makes use of every single zombie convention ever exploited… The difference is that the film, with a good deal of love, mocks these clichés and turns them on their heads: the roadtrip through zombie hell, the plow-headed car, the mysterious bad-ass gunslinger and the callous use of shotguns are all familiar elements. The scenarios are familiar as well--the moral dilemma of whether or not to shoot someone who has been bitten, the good-natured raiding of empty shopping centers, and the always fun-to-watch lone-gunner-versus-an-onslaught-of-zombies.
(Warning: Spoiler Alert)
Rules of Zombieland
At the center of this chaos is Jesse Eisenberg as the geeky Columbus (Columbus, his hometown, serves as his name since telling your companions your real name only serves to breed unnecessary attachments. This is a zombie apocalypse, after all). Columbus is awkward, phobic and suffers strange bowel syndromes--the type of character who is usually killed off a few minutes into your average zombie movie. As this is Zombieland however, he becomes the film’s unlikely sort-of hero… even though that run contrary to one of his beloved Rules.
Columbus has a list of ‘Rules’ that he adheres to in order to survive the post-apocalyptic world. The text of these Rules repeatedly appears on-screen, just to make sure the audience never forgets these common-sense guidelines that anyone who has ever watched a zombie movie (as opposed to any character in a typical zombie movie) would know: don’t go through that door because there is definitely something inside, or that zombie you are pointing your gun at is no longer your beloved, or shoot the undead twice to make sure they don’t get back up to bite you in the foot.
The Rules are a deliberate acknowledgement of all the stupid mistakes zombie movie characters commit that usually result in immediate and violent death. In having characters with actual common sense also ensures that Zombieland avoids that single most overused trope in zombie movies--the unabashed killing of major characters just to generate cheap thrills.
The name of the game is survival--and it’s something Columbus, as he will tell you, has gotten good at.
Roadtrip through the apocalypse
On his jorney home, Columbus meets with the rest of the Zombieland ensemble, who make a solid group to follow through the wastelands of what was once America.
Despite being a satire of the zombie genre, the movie succeeds in bringing some dimensionality to these characters--not much, but just enough so that Columbus, Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and Wichita (Emma Stone) are more than just knock-offs of the zombie movie archtypes they represent (respectively, the Geek, the Mysterious Gunslinger, the Token Child, and the Damsel in Distress).
There’s a foot or two of depth in these characters, and enough cleverly-written banter among all of them, so that by the time the big climax rolls in, you actually hope none of them dies.
This sets a precedent--zombie movies usually begin with fairly sizeable groups, most characters either being sufficiently irritating or whiny for the audience to actually want them to die. But this isn’t one of those zombie movies where you’re just waiting for insignificant side-characters to trip and get eaten. You actually want all four to survive their roadtrip through the apocalypse.
There are obvious difficulties to achieving this kind of "happy" end. Aside from their own constant bickering and backstabbing, the characters have all the zombies of Zombieland to contend with. These are not the slow, slack-jawed undead of the zombie movies of yore. These zombies run and grab and bite, and occasionally open doors, climb ladders and peek under bathroom stalls.
Gore aplenty, sometimes in painstaking slow-motion, sometimes in abrupt splatters, is to be expected. Some of it might be a bit too much for those who aren’t comfortable with uncensored head-bashing, but, dissection of the genre or not, this is still a zombie movie after all.
For those who can stomach (or, indeed, crave) the gore, Zombieland is also a gallery presentation of all the creative ways one might kill a zombie, with all manner of implements. Notable never-before-seen means of killing zombies includes the use of theme park rides and a grand piano. The only thing missing was the chainsaw Wichita is seen holding in the poster. With the plethora of zombie goodness though, it’s a small, forgivable omission in an otherwise gloriously gory celebration of zombies and their nemesis: common sense .
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