Patient Zero

I've seen far worse Zombie movies than this one. It's not as bad as some of the reviewers on here make out. The genre I guess has been done to death, but this movie has a couple of original story points that make it watchable.

I really can not understand the hate for this movie. So many 1 star "Reviews." Having been a IMDB user since the early days, I am used to seeing all sorts of strange reviews, but never have I seen such misplaced hatred for a reasonably good movie. Understand me, this is not a "Great" movie, however, it is competent in every way, and there are many many worse movies! This is more a psychological movie than an action movie. It could almost be a live theatre piece. For what it is worth, I enjoyed it, possibly the worst thing was Mat Smith's "American" accent, but it's not worth the hate.

This movie was fairly well acted and unfortunately did not utilize Stanley Tucci enough. The story was promising as the infected could actually communicate, which makes for an interesting Zombie film. Despite a great premise and strong actors it could not save this movie from poor writing. The movie was painfully dull at times and felt flat. The ending seemed as if they just cut the tape at a random point. If they are thinking making a part II they should pass.

This production has its biggest deficiency in missing directing. It seems that the director here could not contribute much, except a vision of the underground environment. Leading the actors or improving the script wasn't on his agenda, I assume. The plot isnn't really elaborated, the script not very mature, the main actors don't show that much involvement, and production values are not the best. The whole movie is bit of a mess, but surprisingly, it wasn't that bad, Though most things here are cliché, beginning with the charcters, to the relations and most of the dialogs, which sometimes seem to be taken from a Lego construction kit for post-apocalyptic movies, there are some little enhancements, which save the movie from total failing. One enhancement is of course Stanley Tucci's part, who has the easiest work, as the script serves him and him only, where it works against Smith and Dormer for most of their lines - and they both aren't charismatic enough to compensate. But many reviews here criticize the accents, and that is the one point I wouldn't ever do, since it hastn't any real impact on a movie's quality. The premise itself is flawed, as the virus doesn't kill or zombify people, but makes them violent - but not against already infected ones, as it seems (it is said that they roam the surface in packs). So it is a mild Apocalypse, after which we all may live together again but with much roaring and grumbling. Doesn't sound that gruesome for me.

This is a relatively unmemorable film. The strong points are the performances of Stanley Tucci and Natalie Dormer along with some others, and several novelties that make this different from a typical mindless-zombie film. On the negative side, the overall plot thrust was formulaic, and the zombies themselves seemed a little superhuman at times. That may have been part of the story, but if so it was never explained. Overall, the film was flawed in terms of its approach, but most of us don't have high standards for these types of film. I'm rating it a 6 meaning that it was engaging enough to finish, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you really love this genre.

With a few changes, it would have been a very good TV pilot. The zombies are much better than those in The Walking Dead, which sort of fumble around. Think 28 Days Later.

I am mostly writing a review because of the plethora of 1 star reviews, which seemed unfair. The only thing I can guess is that people who like some of the name actors, but generally don't care for zombie films, took a chance on this and were disappointed.