S.O.Z: Soldiers or Zombies

This was the working man's version of what had been done with Zack Snyder's, Army of the Dead 2021, whose debut predated S. O. Z. But whose production had actually wrapped up long after theirs did. One can only speculate as to why the Mexicans hadn't launched sooner. Within, there were some very familiar features echoed in Snyder's more polished rendition - enough to suggest that this movie with it's meager budget by comparison might have actually served as a template.

The only noteworthy difference is that 35% to 40% of this film is shot in Spanish (with subtitles of course). This was indeed a pleasing deviation from the norm. And because it was done so gracefully, non-Spanish speakers will hardly notice. Other than that, one might be inclined to think that it was a carbon-copy of the more familiar Army of the Dead until one recalls that it was put together well before. Zack and his crew spoofed a good deal of the look and feel off it too: 1-Zombies in military fatigues; 2-the arid desserts of Las Vegas (as opposed to the parched lands along the Mexican border); 3 The love affair between the alpha male and female of the undead legions.

It will seem a little stale and some of the acting is cheesy -if not a bit overblown-but hey! It's a zombie flick!

This series is just fun, brainless (no pun intended) fun. This movie revolves around a scientist that wants to create the perfect soldier, but that does not go according to plan. The acting is not bad, but the effects are really great and let's not forget the amount of humor.

Want a daily 30 minutes of mindless entertainment? Then this series is the right one for you.

With minor tweaks this show could of been a lot better. Firstly they should of fixed the sounds - when they are speaking english you can't hear clearly but the spanish you can hear easily. It wouldn't be a problem if there'd been actual CC but there was just translations for the spanish parts. And while I'm at it, the english speaking actors sounded hilarious. Why were they doing overexaggerated USA accents like the ones in some British shows? That was just stupid.

And I'll stay at sounds a bit more. The zombies made this very annoying pig sound that was continuous pain towards the end of the series - who tought it was a good sound?

Then there were the characters. All annoying and I just wanted to punch them all and see them getting eaten by zombie pigs.

I was rather thrilled when I stumbled upon this Amazon TV series. And with it being a Mexican zombie series, I must admit that my interest in it was definitely and instantly caught.

And "S. O. Z: Soldados o Zombies" was off to a great start. And yeah, that whole thing with the zombie pig was definitely interesting and added something interesting to this particular series and its take on the zombie genre.

But then things started to crumble really fast.

The zombies were just a swing and a miss. Sure, the make-up, special effects and prosthetics were good. But the sounds that the zombies made was just ridiculous and sounded like pigs. Sure, I get that patient zero was a pig, but come on. And then there was the whole running, agile and super athletic part to the zombies, that is simply a no-go in my book. And the fact that they could communicate and had more than rudimentary intelligence, just didn't sit well with me either.

I really liked the concept idea here, with an outbreak taking place near the US/Mexico border and having a criminal cartel as the focal point of the story. Now that was definitely something that had potential.

They had some nice talents on the cast list, so the ensemble of actors and actresses that were in this series definitely put on good performances and carried the show quite nice.

While I managed to sit through the entire first season of "S. O. Z: Soldados o Zombies", then it was overall a less than mediocre experience. And it was all because of the concept of those zombies in the series. That was just not my cup of tea. And I doubt that I will rush out to get to watch subsequent seasons of this show.

My rating of "S. O. Z: Soldados o Zombies" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. I just couldn't move past that ludicrous zombie concept that the creators went with here.

Nobody reinvented the wheel here but they did add a nice spin crossing the genres.

The cast is pretty much unknown (at least to me), which actually helped with realism.

Surprisingly solid action, I'm on episode 4 and getting more invested by the minute.