The Vanguard

In 2015, the world is a chaos. The last known oil fields have been lost to global war, over-population has reached critical levels, food and water is scarce. Anarchy prevails. Mankind is in the verge of a new Dark Age.

During the upheaval, one Corporation has emerged to become more powerful than any government. Its base of operations is a fortified city known as the Red Zone. As the outside world burns, the Corporation implements a depopulation program to cull the human race.

The scientists tasked with the heinous act revolt. The drug they are instructed to develop should pacify and then slowly kill; but instead, the scientists turn mankind into something beyond their worst fears. Out of the darkness a new species has arisen. They are dominant and savage and their number far exceeds what remains of mankind. For the few survivors lost to the wilderness, they are known only as Biosyns.

The lonely Max Carter (Ray Bullock Jr.) survives wandering through the devastated world waiting for Hareem Jabbar (Bahi Ghubril), a man supposed to rescue him. He stumbles in the wilderness with the deserter Jamal (Shiv Grewal) that was tracking him and Jamal believes that he is the antidote for the plague. Then they meet with the scientist Rachael (Emma Choy) and her mate Zac (Steve Weston) and after many problems they walk together to the South escaping from the Corporation and the Biosyns in a dangerous journey.

"The Vanguard" is a low-budget film with a reasonable storyline but poorly executed. The acting is good, but the film seems to be a weak pilot of a TV series, excessively talkative and going nowhere. With a better screenplay, direction, locations and budget, "The Vanguard" could be a reasonable movie. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Vanguarda" ("Vanguard")

I'm all for people trying something different with the zombie/infected movie, UNLESS it's at the expense of all that is enjoyable about the genre. The Vanguard attempts a vaguely art-house approach, with a contemplative mood, introspective narrative, a degree of quirkiness, and an attempt at social commentary about racism, but offers none of the stuff that usually makes these kind of films fun: gore, excitement, scares, and more gore.

The Vanguard does have a couple of good basic ideas: they're the same ones used for I Am Legend and 28 Days Later, only here they are completely wasted by film-makers with no idea how to turn them into an entertaining movie. The acting is mediocre, the action is dull, the splatter is restricted to some arterial spray (some of it crap CGI), the characters are irritating, and the 'zombies' are very disappointing, loping along like apes, growling like lions, and sporting naff zebra stripes drawn on with face-paint (I realise they're supposed to be like animals, but this is too silly for words).

Somehow, this film garnered some decent comments from Fangoria and Gorezone (who are proudly quoted on the DVD cover), and was selected for the Dead by Dawn horror festival; I'm not quite sure how that happened, but take it from me (and the majority here on IMDb who have voiced their opinion)—The Vanguard sucks, even rivalling The Zombie Diaries for the title of worst British zombie film.

OK, I was looking through the DVD's in my local supermarket and 'The Vanguard' caught my eye. So I pick it up, turn it over and read the sleeve. Think to myself: hey, this sounds like it might be a good film.... oh my god!!! I could not be more wrong. In my opinion this film is the biggest pile of steaming boring dull dull dull crap I have ever seen, and I've seen some real crap films. It appears to be a very low budget film, and even though there's nothing wrong with that, it just adds to the cheap mind numbing feel of this movie. If I could, I wouldn't of even rated this movie with the score of 1 - it really is that awful. By all means, make your own mind up, but I seriously advise all to avoid this dross at all costs....you have been warned x

A well known genre convention is running through the woods however surely any narrative cannot maintain flight through the woods without actually building tension in any way what so ever and still think it is going to be effective in engaging the viewer. This film as stated by others attempts an art-house take on the subject ,however the effectiveness of this is undermined by low production values and visual repetition.A small and interesting looking cast cannot save this film or my Friday night in front of the little screen they simply created a visual and auditory track to co exist with my shallow snoring and the odd little fart as I rolled over and went to sleep, and found my self having to re watch it in the morning just to make sure it did in fact lack anything much to hold my attention.

Before I add my comments, please read below and see how the first person to review this film felt about it.

Author: malvolio-5 I saw a preview of this and it is without a doubt one of the most spectacularly invigorating and exciting movies I've had the pleasure of seeing in years! It has cult classic written all over it! It's an unashamedly violent, rough, gory, terrifying thrill-ride. With bold, exciting direction and some of the scariest most menacingly dynamic "zombies" ever committed to celluloid, this makes 28 Days Later and I Am Legend look like The Teletubbies. The lead protagonist, Max, sets a new template for proper, masculine heroes that have been sorely lacking from Hollywood movies since the '70s, and I guarantee his "look" is set to become truly iconic. Do yourself a favour and seek this movie out! It simply kicks ass!.

OK, Now my comments.

I have no vested interest in this film, and my comments I think will be endorsed by far more people than will say "they are rubbish" The storyline has been used a hundred times before, and often far better. The cinematography, which completely over-uses filters, is dreadful, The Cameraman either has Parkinsons disease, or was drunk. The main actor, if he is to become Iconic!, will have to find another way, because this isn't it. (People with Parkinsons disease, that was not meant to make fun of your condition.) I don't often comment on movies, but I do try to take the things written about the movie seriously, hoping to make an informed judgement whether to watch or not, but after reading the comments above, well, I just had to write.

I love Science fiction, it is without a doubt my favourite genre, and will often find some good in bad films, but this is dire.

When I read the above review, I wanted to believe it, but come on, either the guy is heavily involved with the film, or he his just having a laugh.

People will still watch it no matter what is said, and thats great we all have a choice, in fact I encourage you to watch it, simply to show that my comments are honest and truthful, unlike some.

I myself am English, this is a British film, and I wanted to so much show the world yet again that we can produce good quality work on a limited budget, and we can, but not with this.

Trust me the film is bad, way too bad to be released, but it will, and you will watch, and? well hopefully you will comment, and your comments will be heard, preventing anything as awful as this ever being shown again, but then again I'm an optimist, well for 90 minutes I wasn't, but am recovering now.