Plan Z

I'd checked out quite a few reviews of this from fellow Letterboxd-ers and, while managing to avoid any serious spoilers, it was already very clear what the consensus of opinion was on this film.

Now I'm not the sort of awkward pedant who'd pretend to hate it because it was popular and easy, to make me look all dangerous and interesting ... but I would argue my reasons for liking unpopular films (such as R.I.P.D, Daredevil (with Ben Affleck!) even Batman and Robin which my brother loathes and I always stick up for, just to piss him off - if explained clearly enough and with reasonable examples for the basis of your opinion, then who am I to tell you, you're wrong?!

In spite of all the above, I actually found this hilarious.

Found myself take an immediate dislike to the way He carries himself in front of the camera, speaks in a Michael Madson-esque lazy drawl and just instantly rubbed me up the wrong way.

That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, I appreciate a good villain. However in this, he's the 'hero'? Nah... really?

What would he do if the zombocalypse occurred when he was off on one of his international photography jaunts? Hadn't planned for that had you smartypants?

He comes across like some kind of Badly Drawn Boy/Chuck Norris hybrid, even when he's just heard the grisly sounds of people being torn to bits and eaten right outside his front door. I contemplated how it would have affected the film if the main man was Ewan Bremner, playing it like Spud. Instead of barely raising a designer-scruffy eyebrow when coming to terms with Zombocalypse, he'd be running around, crying, swearing and shooting up smack.

This would have made it a brilliant film.

Ps - If nothing else, I am grateful to this film for introducing to me to John Fairhurst whose bruising groove 'No Shelter' (wow! It's like they gave it some thought) blew me away. I'm off to Emusic now to see if they've got his stuff included in my subscription.

I wanted to like this film, but I got bored after about 20 minutes. The acting is decent enough; in all honesty it's well above independent standards, but the writing is cliched. You can see it coming a mile off. This is what lets this production down. Having said that; I believe that future endeavors will be much better.

Anything even remotely zombie and it has my attention. However, I can't say that I had any particular hopes to "Plan Z" prior to watching it. I just sat down to watching it and would let it either impress or fail to impress as it would.

So what was the verdict? Well, mildly impressed. "Plan Z" certainly did have potential, especially because this takes places during the first stages of a zombie outbreak. And it was done nicely enough in a way that put the audience in the shoes right alongside with Craig (played by Stuart Brennan).

However, it was the shoddy and questionable camera work that failed to impress me. And it actually turned into a thing of frustration. I really loathe it when a camera is swinging to and forth all over the place, which often was the case in "Plan Z".

But also the sense of a rather shallow storyline helped to steer the movie away from being impressive. The story pretty much just easily strafe over the events of an outbreak and takes you from point A to point B way too fast, letting everything in between just slip through the cracks.

And it was as if the characters all lacked background, and they could essentially all have been one and the same character, just equipped with a different face. Very little effort was put into the characters to flesh them out and give them character. Sure it was nice to see how Craig prepared for what was inevitable in the beginning of the movie, but after that, he just became another faceless character like the rest of the characters in the movie.

Director Stuart Brennan had some vision, but just seemed to eager to make a movie that showed progression. A lot of details and time to set up a believable story and setting just fell to the floor.

I was, however, fairly entertained by the movie as a whole, because it does have some good aspects to it as well. However, as an addition to the zombie genre "Plan Z" just didn't bring anything new or memorable. It just didn't have what it took to play the big league.

If you enjoy the zombie genre, as I do, then by all means do take the time to sit down and watch "Plan Z". Just don't expect to be blown away. "Plan Z" lands a five out of ten stars rating from me.

I have to say that I watched this film with reserved expectations, for me independent films carry with them a certain stigmata. Unlike a blockbuster that can cover poor elements with budget or cast, independent films feel a lot more exposed to criticism.

The good news is, because I had managed my own expectations what I got was a very enjoyable story-led, zombie thriller. I was engaged with the characters and story because throughout the film I felt genuine tension. The score and cinematography were superb. I often caught myself admiring the quality of the shots, the consideration of the angle and the accompanying score. There was one particular shot of the Isle of Skye that was stunning.

One previous film likened this to a 'Poor man's 28 days later', well I actually consider this to be praise. I love the atmosphere and style of that film and for Plan Z to compared I think is a great feat considering the difference in cast and budget.

If I had to be overly critical, there was one plot point that left me confused to what actually had happened (I don't want to give away spoilers but it's a major point of the film) and there was one piece of music towards the end of the filmed that didn't like it mixed very well and was out of place.

When watching, please don't expect a Hollywood blockbuster or compare it to the big Zombie films as it won't compare. Have a bit of perspective to how it was achieved and I think you will be very pleasantly surprised.

As other reviewers have noted this film was done on a low budget but they made the most of it. It's a decent character study. It certainly deserves more than a 4.8.