L'armée des voleurs

I wasn't expecting much from Army of Thieves, but I ended up liking this prequel spin-off more than I liked Army of the Dead. The characters are what really make this movie enjoyable. Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, and the rest of the gang have good chemistry & entertaining dialogue. And while it does seem strange to have a zombie apocalypse NOT be the center of your story, this film was still a fun ride.

I'll be honest I was not a fan of Army of the Dead at all. So I had absolutely no expectations watching this and I have to say it is much better than I thought it would be. They also picked one of the better characters to do a prequel on also.

It has some problems don't get me wrong. I thought it was quite predictable at times and the plot never really went out of its way to surprise you. I was also a little surprised by the amount of action involved, what I mean by this is that there wasn't much. However the film did really keep my interest and the suspense was built well.

The characters i thought on the whole were very good. I think they missed a trick on a couple of them. The driver in particular. He had a good sense of humour and was likeable, but he just wasn't really in the film enough to make any sort of impact. But overall they did a good job of making these heist people really likeable and making you root for them.

The ending was much better also. I thought the ending of Army of the Dead was absolutely awful, but this rounded up significantly better. In terms of prequels the ending was spot on.

But yeah, overall I'll give it a 7/10. I ultimately enjoyed watching it, the characters were fun and I was intrigued the entire time. Sure it's absolutely not going to blow your socks off, but it's entertaining and much MUCH better than Army of the Dead. Feel like they learnt from the mistakes a bit.

Many people out there will not like the type of film that Army of Thieves is. Yet many people like myself love it. So, much like the previous film, scores will will either be very low or quite high.... A super serious drama Army of Thieves is not. What it is however is 2 hours, of light drama laced with comedy that is very enjoyable. It tells a prequel story of how the master safe cracker Sebastian, comes to be involved in the world of crime. Joining with a crew that include Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel) as the master thief, Brad Cage (Stuart Martin) as the muscle, Beatrix (Noémie Nakai) as the hacker and finally Rolph (Guz Khan) as the Driver. All the actors and actresses were very good. Its not the type of script/film that one of them could show a 10/10 performance, however they brought to life the good script at hand

One of the criticisms I imagine is that this movie will be called cliched due to its "cliche" moments. However, this movie isn't trying to be super serious and accidently putting in cliches while trying to make a 10/10 film. This film does it in a self aware funny manner. Another nice little feature of this movie was learning about classic music and german mythology via "cliche" exposition. But I enjoyed the movie all the more for it. I loved this movie being all breaking into safes and Interpol being in pursuit. Rather than Zombies. But only by a little. So 8 out of 10. If you liked the original movie watch this one and if you haven't watched either. Watch the original movie first, then this one if possible.

Dieter was one of my favourite parts of Army of the Dead. There are moments where he falls into the "weird European" trope but Matthias played it well and he got more than a few laughs from me. Giving his character his own movie was a bold choice and while Matthias retains his charm as Dieter, making him the main player stretches that likeability to its limits. He starts to grate in certain scenes but the movie pulls back enough that it didn't become annoying or ruin the experience. His naivety and underdog spirit are still relatable considering the circumstances. I can't say much either way about the other members of the team, only Gwendoline avoids being a stock character, even if her interest in Dieter is a little puzzling. There's nothing wrong with the characterization in Army but other than Dieter, it's not driven by strong character development.

Schweighofer is pulling double duty as both the star and the director and the star. Thieves is competently shot and put together, the car chases and action scenes are all decent and they flow as they should. The bits with the zombies are sprinkled in effectively but what's interesting to me is how little connecting tissue there is between the movies despite them existing in the same universe. It's another interesting choice and in a way Thieves benefits from it. Thieves stands on its own and doesn't rely on Dead to justify itself. It shows confidence and I respect that for sure.

Matthias Schweighofer is more established as an actor in foreign films but Thieves shows that his performance in Dead wasn't a fluke. He's consistent with the performance and while I didn't always love Dieter as a character, it wasn't due to his acting. He's actually pretty good at displaying a child-like wonderment when he's brought into this world. Nathalie Emmanuel has a lot of screen presence and this movie knows how to use it, she's sultry and mysterious as Gwendoline. You can see why Dieter would be captivated by her and she's good at showing that there's still humanity and vulnerability underneath the front that her character is putting up. I wish Ruby O. Fee was given more to do and ditto for Guz Khan and Jonathan Cohen, they're all forced to go over-the-top to make up for the fact they're given so little on the page. Brad Stuart is appropriately cast but he's also relegated to just being the pretty-boy jerk and his performance is just that.

Army of Thieves has a decidedly different feel than Army of the Dead. It's contained and doesn't feel like the world hangs in the balance. I appreciated that, it's a choice I wish more movies would make and it limits some of the cartoonish feel that Army of the Dead couldn't escape. But this will turn some people off and it wasn't as "epic" in scale so that could limit interest. The downside is that Thieves has more than its share of heist movie cliches, from the character types to the surprise twist. The focus on safe-cracking is a new angle but from the dialogue to the characters, you've seen a lot of this before.

Army of Thieves is more familiar and less high-concept that its predecessor but I think it has far fewer problems and is a better movie overall. Is it stellar or must-see material? Absolutely not. But I want to applaud Schweighofer and his team for taking this universe in a different direction and although adhering to the basics isn't always exciting, it can make for a better overall film. If you liked Army of the Dead or enjoy heist movies, give this a watch. But if you haven't seen Army of the Dead, I can't insist on a viewing but I also wouldn't describe it as a waste of time.

I enjoyed this one more than its predecessor.

While the first one was a disappointment cos there were expectations, this one surpassed the expectations in terms of being a very different prequel.

Hope there are more chapters of Ludwig Dieter/Sebastian.

Also they shud get the zomtiger back somehow.