The Crazies: The 'Z' stands for Zombie

We went to The Crazies on opening night this Friday. I didn't realize it was even coming out until my wife reminded me. We had originally written it off as an almost zombie movie that was not zombie enough. That was before Natasha discovered it was a re-make of a Romero move by the same name, and Romero seemed to approve of the movie as well.

The Crazies was a good survival horror movie, with plenty of cheap jump out moments. I enjoyed the main characters a lot, but I am left wondering if the characters had some very human flaws, or the writers left out some major plot points. Radha Mitchell plays the lead female, a small town doctor, who is married to Timothy Olyphant, the town sheriff and leading actor. Both characters were very likable and fought for their lives believably through every conceivable hardship the government and zombies could throw at them. The questionable moments involved the spread of the infection, and the fact that Radha played a nurse. I haven't decided whether she was too stressed/exhausted out to properly care for the potential spread of the infection, or if the writers didn't realize that a little peroxide goes a long way.

My favorite theme of this movie was the individuality of the military soldiers. They were portrayed as soulless monsters when in groups wearing masks, but when confronted individually, they were just teenage kids following orders. Kids who don't want to die anymore than they want to kill.

The actual zombies were not your standard Romero zombies. They still fit according the the new rules of zombiehood, though. This is how they acted.

They were infected by an external source, and may or may not have been infectious. They mostly had no rationality, though one pair were out for revenge. It's unclear if they had been fully under the influence of the virus though. The zombies swarmed several times, and had nothing but murder on their minds. They did seem to posses slightly heightened speed and vitality (through lack of caring about pain), and did retain the full ability to use tools and weapons. These zombies are on the very boarder of even the new definition, but I'll allow it.