Dead Rising: Watchtower

It would've been difficult to place a whole movie inside a mall and make it interesting enough ... oh wait: Dawn of the Dead already did that and succeeded! Which might have been one if not the main inspiration for the video game "Dead Rising" (there have been a couple of "sequels" to the original game up to this moment).

Like the games you can assume that there will be more movies. Especially if they are successful. The two main characters here are very good looking, which is "dealt" with very early on. A nice touch even if an obvious one. The action is more than decent and the story moves along nicely. Aspects from the game (building weapons McGuyver style) are also present ...

So many attempts have been made by Hollywood to create a movie from a video game (Doom, Super Mario Brothers, Max Payne) and vice versa (Alien, Indiana Jones, The Evil Dead, Jaws) that have been so so bad, that my expectations were pretty low going into this newest fare.

Dead Rising: Watchtower is the live action adaptation of the hugely popular video game series Dead Rising, by game giant Capcom. And I have to say, right from the get go– I was pleasantly surprised! Not only did it not suck, it was actually very entertaining.

Don't get me wrong. There was plenty in this two hour film that will ensure it will never be hoisted up into the realm of Romero or even The Walking Dead any time soon. But as average zombie fare goes, it was actually above average.

The story follows online reporter Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe) and his camerawoman Jordon (Keegan Connor Tracy) as they cover the stories of the people inside of the walled-in quarantined area in Oregon, as the government (FEZA – Federal Emergency Zombie Authority) attempts to contain a viral outbreak that turns people into ravenous zombies. An anti-viral drug called Zombrex, that keeps the virus at bay, is being administered to those infected. When it becomes clear that the drug is no longer effective, Chase, Jordon, grieving mother Maggie (Virginia Madsen), and survivor, Crystal (Meghan Ory) battle their way to a pawn shop, and temporary safety. But Crystal has a dark secret, and the army has a hidden agenda.

This the perfect set up that turns the movie back into the video game. All manner of weapons can be fashioned from things in the pawn shop of course… and well, they are. A garbage can lid gets protruding blades, anything with a long handle gets a pike, a sledge hammer head, or a tree-limb rotary saw attached to each end, making for plenty of weapon-point-of-view camera shots later on. Case in point: a continuous tracking shot with no cut-aways that follows Chase through a horde, into a bus, out of the bus, onto a car, on top of the bus, all the while battling the undead with his tree-limb rotary saw and baseball bat. Marvelous! While the main characters do a decent job as beleaguered protagonists, some of the best performances are by the supporting cast. These include Aleks Paunovic as a Mad Max-style biker gang leader who wants to rule the world with his minions, and the always entertaining Rob Riggle as hotshot Frank West, who has already survived one outbreak, being interviewed (and being a jack-ass) on the UBN news broadcasts, interspersed throughout the movie.

I would like to have seen more visceral carnage (there's plenty of zombie-killing, but mostly CGI blood, and not nearly enough amputations). Through the use of the many improvised weapons, there are quite a number of inventive kills, but one stands out for me. It's a shot of a wandering zombie-dad chowing down on the remains of his child who is strapped to his chest in a baby front-pack– kind of like a feed bag.

The lack of true gore was obviously a budgetary constraint, but this was definitely not a low-budget affair. A few more practical "Walking Dead-style" effects would have upped the ante for me. That might be my only real complaint.

I read a couple of pretty scathing reviews, but I think they just didn't get it. Dead Rising, Watchtower stays pretty true to the video game, which was its obvious intent. There are plenty of shout-outs to the game itself, like Chase donning a servbot helmet t-shirt, and one zombie getting "traffic-coned." There is probably too much plot for its own good (I can't believe I'm saying that) making it feel like a hodgepodge of ideas that could have played out over the run of a television series (which is in the works, by the way).

Is it worth watching? For fans of the game, absolutely! It's entertaining and free on Crackle right now. Will you find it entertaining? It depends on the mindset you go into it with.

Dead Rising games don't exactly have the most serious adventure or horror story. After all, this is the franchise that has the idea of strapping battery into wheelchair to make an electric battering ram. It operates in this often ludicrous logic, although it also tries to shoehorn a cumbersome amount of narrative and plods the pace in result.

The story follows Chase, an ambitious reporter who is taping in the medical center aid. Zombrex, a medicine to stop zombification, is introduced and administered in this downtown site. Unfortunately, accident occurs and Chase finds himself scrambling to survive and get the word out. It does resemble the set-up of the games as one person is trapped in large setting.

There are multitudes of problem in writing. It may mimic the appearance, but the script is tumbling between comically ridiculous and over-the-top misplaced drama. At one point, it adds military propaganda which contradicts the supposed quirky style. The game itself doesn't venture too much into thriller and this is a movie where it opens with clown zombie, so the drama feels very detached.

Acting is a miss most of the time. There's barely any character worth rooting for as they are either firmly one dimensional or simply annoying. The original hero Frank West is relegated to a crude talk show, but then the movie introduces Dennis Haysbert, a veteran actor to build conspiracy subplot. It's as though the movie takes the combining gimmick from the game too literal and throws tons of ideas to what sticks.

Thankfully, the action is pleasantly done. Cinematography is good, definitely better than most game inspired movie. It often creates fine spectacle, especially in one particular continuous shot. Practical effect and CGI work better than expected as well, delivering dismemberment and bloody scenes with fine commitment. There's more effort invested on the violence than anything, which is fan pleasing, at the very least.

With a stuttering pace and two hours runtime, the movie does feel bloated. However, for fans of horror or the game, there is plenty of gleeful and numbing carnage here.

Movies like this are pouring oil on the "oh-my-god-another-zombie- whatever" fire and also give games based movies a bad rap.

For probably no other reason than pure brand marketing, Dead Rising: Watchtower exists.

It doesn't add anything of significance to overall Dead Rising franchise in terms of story or, well - anything. The thing is, Dead Rising games are dumb, dumb but fun and mostly self-aware of that dumbness and all that didn't translate here very well.

On one hand, casting is kinda OK, acting is mediocre at best, uninteresting at worst. But on the other hand, right from the start we don't quite understand should this be serious or campy fun? It should be campy fun but movie just flirts with that on the surface with easter eggs and few obligatory fan service moments. Mostly it's serious and the story and script are far cry from anything interesting and/or original.

Characters are mostly bland and boring, although Rob Riggle is a good choice for Frank West. Beside him, others are just generic reluctant hero, tough girl and off the shelf villain with a dash of zombies and some government conspiracy stuff. Also, it's funny how most of the characters act totally incompetent for the first half of the movie. Like they came from some la-la-land and not the Dead Rising universe that already had few big zombie outbreaks and people are living with medicated zombies around them.

Now, mediocreness of the story and characterization aside, there is one thing that drove me almost bonkers while watching - photography. Camera shooting style is half way generic-TV-show and half way Michael Bayhem. For some reason there are first person shots from weird angles, like from a weapon's angle or zombie's POV. Which is kind of dumb because Dead Rising is a third person game, not FPS and... it's just looks dumb, okay. That and few other unnecessary camera "tricks" made this movie look like a generic post-numetal video from 2001.

I guess I should also mention zombies, right? Well, there aren't much of those during the movie and when there are, they are mostly generic. There are no zombie herds or such, just a few groups here and there. Sometimes they are fast, sometimes they are slow and clunky, it depends on the script requirements at that particular moment in the story. No rules really. Also, combo weapons and zombie kills are not impressive. But they should be, so there's that also.

As you may noticed, the main word here is "generic" and most of the time Dead Rising: Watchower is just that. Story, characters, acting, script, effects, locations, etc.. they are all in that "passable" realm filed under "W" for "whatever". Camera-work is not though, that could definitely be better.

Overall, I'm giving it a 5 out 10 which roughly translates to "you could watch it but you're not missing anything actually". I would like to say it's a cashgrab but I'm not really sure they'll earn much money with this passable generic TV-like movie anyway. Maybe it'll lead into a new Dead Rising game? At least that would be fun for a change.

At an event where people who have been bitten by zombies are waiting for their anti-zombie injections (which they must periodically take) a reporter, out to make a name for himself in the news business, has an argument with his camera woman over his exploitive and sensationalistic idea of news reporting, and they go their separate ways. She to leave the scene, and he to sneak into a tent to take secret pictures where medical personnel are administering the anti-zombie injection for those who have been bitten. He's present when --for some reason-- the drug does not work and all hell breaks loose. On the run for dear life, he teams up with a hot brunette of the model variety with whom he had an embarrassing encounter earlier to the amusement of his camera woman.

Though this movie is not an "outright" comedy (one with a lot of blunt silliness and slapstick, for example), it is no doubt a horror comedy; played a bit more seriously and deadpan. It has some amateurish flaws of execution, but is more forgivable since it is a comedy and you can't take it seriously anyway. As well, you want to root for people who aren't part of the Hollywood establishment who make a decent effort to entertain you. The main flaw, I thought, was those narrow escapes or close calls where the zombies or bad guys clearly had ample opportunity to bite or do bad things but the would-be victim got away. Some of them doing so after the camera cuts away to another scene during the attack or threat and returns to see them still unharmed.

Nonetheless, this movie is still entertaining and therefore worth your time. Watch out for the live news broadcast with the anchorwoman and her celebrity guest zombie expert. It is reminiscent to me of something you would see on Saturday Night Live, if you ever watched that show. It is well done and funny without seeming to try to be. At the end, this movie seems to promise a sequel. I look forward to it. Love, Boloxxxi.