After getting the opportunity to watch this movie I decided to write my very first review on IMDb. Not because I found the movie to be exceptional in itself but because the previous reviews puts the movie in an unfair light.
Mostly it's about expectations, if you watch it expecting some multi billion $ academy award winning production you will be disappointed but if you watch it expecting the kind of movie you often get when you watch a movie that has a 3 star average on IMDb you will have a much better experience. I was expecting a 3.
Humans Versus Zombies is not the best zombie movie ever but it's also not the worst movie ever made, it's actually pretty average, or at least not much worse (I watch anything with zombies in it, at least once, so I've seen a lot of really bad zombie movies..this is not one of them). The script is decent which in zombie land means that someone actually made an effort here, it's coherent enough to not be intrusive but it wont win any awards. Pretty much everything used in the movie is in the range of below average to average, the script, the acting, the effects, etc.
Don't let "average" discourage you from giving HVZ a chance though, this is one of the movies where the cast and crew makes good enough use of what they have to make you wonder what they could have done if given a larger budget to work with. There are people involved here that know what they are doing, making a movie with average tools often yields a terrible result but here they've done a much better job than you might expect.
Most of the acting is in the range of average to slightly above average, very little of it is actually bad (there's a few of the supporting actors and a few scenes where the acting is... less than stellar, but most of it is OK). Dora Madison Burge's (Tommi, the gamer girl) performance in some scenes was definitely above average and Brad (Chip Joslin) was hands down my favorite character who if this had been a big budget Hollywood version definitely would have been played by Jack Black (not that Chip did a bad job, on the contrary, Brad wouldn't have sucked if Chip hadn't played the character the way he did).
The effects were so so but they too were used effectively (ie with moderation, no long scenes zooming in on fake looking zombies or gore), there was some obvious CGI used in a scene (I wasn't looking for CGI so there may have been more that I didn't pay attention to but if so, good job then.) but it made sense where it was used and the scenes were shot in a way that made it not matter whether you'd notice the CGI or not (ie, this movie obviously is not a made for TV SyFy movie...SyFy shouldn't be allowed to use CGI at all, ever.).
If you watch the movie with reasonable expectations you'll most likely enjoy it. It's not Shaun of the Dead so don't expect it to be, it's not Resident Evil so don't expect that either. Expect an entertaining zombie movie that is far from perfect but also could be much much worse.
Speaking of SyFy, the previous zombie movie I watched was Zombie Apocalypse, a SyFy original! Humans Versus Zombies is a much better movie.
Mostly it's about expectations, if you watch it expecting some multi billion $ academy award winning production you will be disappointed but if you watch it expecting the kind of movie you often get when you watch a movie that has a 3 star average on IMDb you will have a much better experience. I was expecting a 3.
Humans Versus Zombies is not the best zombie movie ever but it's also not the worst movie ever made, it's actually pretty average, or at least not much worse (I watch anything with zombies in it, at least once, so I've seen a lot of really bad zombie movies..this is not one of them). The script is decent which in zombie land means that someone actually made an effort here, it's coherent enough to not be intrusive but it wont win any awards. Pretty much everything used in the movie is in the range of below average to average, the script, the acting, the effects, etc.
Don't let "average" discourage you from giving HVZ a chance though, this is one of the movies where the cast and crew makes good enough use of what they have to make you wonder what they could have done if given a larger budget to work with. There are people involved here that know what they are doing, making a movie with average tools often yields a terrible result but here they've done a much better job than you might expect.
Most of the acting is in the range of average to slightly above average, very little of it is actually bad (there's a few of the supporting actors and a few scenes where the acting is... less than stellar, but most of it is OK). Dora Madison Burge's (Tommi, the gamer girl) performance in some scenes was definitely above average and Brad (Chip Joslin) was hands down my favorite character who if this had been a big budget Hollywood version definitely would have been played by Jack Black (not that Chip did a bad job, on the contrary, Brad wouldn't have sucked if Chip hadn't played the character the way he did).
The effects were so so but they too were used effectively (ie with moderation, no long scenes zooming in on fake looking zombies or gore), there was some obvious CGI used in a scene (I wasn't looking for CGI so there may have been more that I didn't pay attention to but if so, good job then.) but it made sense where it was used and the scenes were shot in a way that made it not matter whether you'd notice the CGI or not (ie, this movie obviously is not a made for TV SyFy movie...SyFy shouldn't be allowed to use CGI at all, ever.).
If you watch the movie with reasonable expectations you'll most likely enjoy it. It's not Shaun of the Dead so don't expect it to be, it's not Resident Evil so don't expect that either. Expect an entertaining zombie movie that is far from perfect but also could be much much worse.
Speaking of SyFy, the previous zombie movie I watched was Zombie Apocalypse, a SyFy original! Humans Versus Zombies is a much better movie.